A team of Indian Scientists has developed a genetically modified (GM) mustard variety of cotton. This is the country’s first GM food crop. The new variety will be launched commercially in the near future and can rival Monsanto’s Seeds.

• Deepak Pental and his colleagues at the Delhi University worked on GM mustard for around a decade, and a government committee said that it found the seeds to be safe for “food/feed and environment”.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government, keen to cut the country’s heavy annual food import bill, will soon decide on the commercial launch of the high-yielding mustard and plans to indigenously develop other GM food to reduce reliance on multinationals such as Monsanto.

• The move has been opposed by activists and politicians amid fears GM food could compromise food safety and biodiversity. Some experts have also questioned claims that GM crops are more productive than normal varieties.

• St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto dominates India’s GM cotton market, but is embroiled in a high-stakes battle with the government which wants the company to cut the royalty it charges for its technology, apart from a proposal that will make the seed giant share its technology with local firms.

• New Delhi-based Pental said he was willing to help the government with that goal and would approach the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to pass on a laboratory-tested GM cotton variety his team has developed over the past decade.

• The variety is similar to Monsanto’s Bt cotton but can be more resistant to pests, Pental said, adding he handed another GM cotton variety to ICAR last year for further research. No field trial has yet been done on either cotton strands. Experts warn that even if India did develop a home-grown GM cotton variety in the next few years, it would struggle to sustain a programme that needs to refresh seeds every decade or so.