GMO Field Trials Banned = Wheat Import + India-Sri Lanka + CME & Futures Mart + ICRISAT

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In This NEWS Bulletin ***************************** 1. Supreme Court bans GM Crop field trials in India 2. Private importers asked to declare wheat stocks 3. India, Sri Lanka sign pact on recognition of standards 4. CME keen to have tie-ups with Indian futures market 5. ICRISAT - Risining petrol prices helps ethanol demand in India ---- Stop giving approvals to field trials of GM crops: SC http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141238 ASHOK B SHARMAECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, SEPT

22: In a landmark interim verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre not to go ahead with its proposed plan for approving field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country. A bench, consisting of Chief Justice YK Sabharwal, Justice CK Thakkar and Justice RV Ravindran, directed the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) not to give any further approval to the field trials of GM crop until the final judgement was passed on the writ petition by Aruna Rodrigues and other seeking a moratorium on GM crops. The counsel for the petitioner, Prashant Bhushan, told FE, “A rejoinder was filed on behalf of Aruna Rodrigues on August 1. This came up for hearing today and the apex court directed the government to reply to the rejoinder within two weeks.” The Supreme Court also directed the GEAC to co-opt independent experts for deciding on GM crops.

The judgement has given a relief to NGOs and consumer organisations who were opposing the proposed field trials of the country’s first transgenic food crop, Bt brinjal. GEAC had formed an in-house panel of experts, headed by Delhi University vice-chancellor Deepak Pental, to review the objections to the proposed Bt Brinjal field trials raised by independent scientists, NGOs and consumer groups. The panel is scheduled to meet on September 25. The apex court’s judgement has also given some relief to a group of independent scientists who were opposed to the proposed field trials of Bt brinjal. GEAC has already approved a number of field trials for new Bt cotton hybrid. It has also approved some Bt cotton hybrid for commercial cultivation in the current kharif season. As the court’s interim verdict is for restraining further approval of GM crops, the approved Bt cotton hybrid have

escaped the purview of this order.------------- Pvt importers asked to declare wheat stocks http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141031 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, SEPT 20: The Central government, with a view to monitor imports of wheat by private traders and MNCs, has made it mandatory for importers to disclose particulars of imports within seven days. The Import of Wheat (Stock Declaration) Order, 2006 was notified by the government and has come into effect from September 19, this year. In June this year, the government facilitated wheat

imports by corporates and multi-national companies (MNCs) by reducing the applied duty from 50% to 5%. This month, the government heeding to the industry’s demand waived the 5% duty to allow imports by private traders till December 31, 2006. The Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India (RFMFI) has demanded that this facility for imports against zero duty be extended till February, 2007. According to industry sources about 6 lakh (600,000) tonne of wheat imports have been contracted, and contracts for another 5 lakh (500,000) tonne wheat are likely to be finalised by December this year. The government had hoped that the private traders would be able to import about 3 million tonne wheat in the current year. According to the new order notified on September 19, every importer of wheat would be required to submit a return by the 10th of every month to the Central and state

government concerned about the stock of wheat imported, released and retained by him. Grain Matters • As per the Import of Wheat (Stock Declaration) Order, 2006 the Centre made it mandatory for trders to disclose particulars of imports within 7 days• The order has come into effect from September 19• This month the Centre had waived the 5% duty to allow imports by private traders till December 31, 2006 The order also asks for submission of returns to the Central government by deputy commissioners of customs at every port on receipt of any cargo containing wheat imported to India. This order does not apply to any wheat imported on the government account. So far contracts for import of 5.5 million tonne wheat on the government account have been finalised. After receiving complaints of hoarding by private traders, the government on August 29, this year brought back the provisions under

the Essential Commodities Act to empower state governments to impose norms for stockholding limits and check hoarding. These provisions to check hoarding will, however, be valid till six months. Speaking at the annual general meeting of RFMFI in New Delhi on Wednesday, the outgoing president, Prem Gupta demanded that millers be allowed to buy wheat directly from farmers and stock for 2-3 months, milled fortified flour should be sold in the market and distributed to the poor under public distribution system (PDS) in lieu of grains, exemption of and wheat products from taxes and local levies.------- India, Lanka sign pact for recognition of standards http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=140904 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, SEPT 19: India and Sri Lanka have moved a step forward in ensuring hassle-free trade between the two countries by ensuring mutual recognition of each other’s quality norms for goods and services. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has entered into a bilateral co-operation agreement with its counterpart in the neighbouring island country Sri Lanka Standards Institution. The agreement was signed by BIS director-general SP Sharma and SLSI director-general SG Weragoda in Colombo. According to a press release issued by BIS on Tuesday, this agreement envisages co-operation with regard to services in the field of standardisation and conformity assessment with a view to facilitating market access in each other’s

territory. With the implementation of this agreement, the official standard-setting bodies of the two countries will carry out inspections and testing on each other’s behalf for operation of the respective certification marks. Wherever the standards are harmonised, both the organisations will accept each other’s test reports. The agreement also covers investigation of consumer complaints, exchange of information and personnel in areas of standardisation. This pact will provide ample opportunity for exporters to get their products inspected and tested in the country of origin, which will be accepted in the destination country.---- CME keen to have tie-ups with Indian futures mart http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141240 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, SEPT 22: The US-based Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is seeking areas of co-operation with commodity exchanges in India, particularly in joint product development and use. The managing director and chief corporate development officer of the CME, John P Davidson said that in the era of globalisation transboundary co-operation between commodity futures exchanges was necessary for the growth of the economy. “India should work out a strategy for processing services. Market markers increases liquidity and India must put in place an appropriate law for facilitating market markers. We would also like to have co-operations in education and training in futures market,” he added. Davidson also announced that the CME was scheduled to launch forex transaction in collaboration with wire agency, Reuters, set up clearing houses in collaboration with the Chicago Board of Trade and expand its programme for interest rate swaps beyond the European base. The CME’s chief (Asia-Pacific), Nicholas Botton said that he saw great possibilities for collaboration in the region. Taking the cue from the offer made by the CME, deputy managing director of Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), Joseph Msassey said, “The concept of strategic co-operation is essential, as India has not yet opened up direct participation of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the commodity exchanges. We has not yet gone for the free float of the Indian rupee. Therefore, strategic co-operation with leading commodity exchanges in the world is necessary.” He disclosed

the Multi-Commodity Exchange’s plan for developing markets for perishables with multiple delivery system in collaboration with New Delhi TV (NDTV).----------- Rising petrol prices helps ethanol demand in India http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141034 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, SEPT 20: Ethanol in India has become price competitive for blending with petrol as the price of crude oil have skyrocketted recently. This dispels the myth that massive subsidies are needed to augment usage of the bio-fuel in the country. This is the case even after

adjusting for energy-equivalence (1 liter of petrol has the same energy content as 1.5 liter of ethanol). India is targetting a 10% blend of ethanol in its national petrol supply, William D Dar, director general of International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), said. According to Dar, the constraint is not the cost of ethanol production; but the supply of raw materials. This is where ICRISAT and partners have stepped in. Sweet sorghum is used for generating bio-fuel. He said, “At ICRISAT headquarters in Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh, we’ve also formed a public-private partnership with Rusni Distilleries (P) Ltd. Rusni ensures that seeds of the highest-sugar sorghum varieties identified by ICRISAT and National Research Centre for Sorghum reach farmers so that they can increase their productivity. Rusni also helps farmers by transporting the stalks from farms within a 30-km radius of the

plant, and providing more distant farmers with technologies to crush the stalks and reduce the juice into syrup that can be moved cost-efficiently to the ethanol production plant. Lessons we are learning from this partnership will enable the technology to scale up faster and more widely in the coming years.” Most bio-ethanol in India is produced from the molasses left over from the refining of sugar from sugarcane, but the supply of molasses is insufficient and not reliable enough for costly ethanol production facilities. The facilities need to keep working round-the-clock to pay off. But sweet varieties of sorghum store large quantities of energy as sugar in their stalks, while also producing reasonable grain yields. Sorghum, like sugarcane and maize, exhibits C4 metabolism, making it more efficient at converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into sugar than most plants. As a dryland crop, sorghum requires far

less water than costly irrigated sugarcane, making it more accessible to the poor. The juice squeezed out of sweet sorghum stalks contains about 15%-20% sugar that can be fermented into ethanol more cheaply than from sugarcane molasses, and with even greater energy savings compared to maize grain. Prior to that, maize grain has to be hydrated and converted from starch to sugar.--

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