India exempts genome-editing from restrictions

The Indian Central government announced a significant change in the regulation of genome-edited crops on March 30th, exempting some cultivars from the strict regulations that apply to genetically modified or GM crops.

India announced yesterday that certain types of genome-edited plants are now excluded from the Environmental Protection Act (EPA). This indicates that the restrictions on the production, use, import, export, and storage imposed by Regulations 7–11 of the EPA on Genetically Modified Organisms will no longer apply to these specific kinds of edited plants.

From now on, the Institutional Biosafety Committee will examine and ensure that the edited plants do not contain any foreign DNA to obtain the right authorizations and not be labeled as GMOs.

Approved on the 30th of March by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, these changes follow the recommendations from the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Agriculture, Research, and Education, and eminent scientists who had warned of India's delay on the topic.

Thus, new opportunities are emerging for scientists to modify specific traits of plants by accurately examining their genetic sequences using genome editing technologies like CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats).

The news came under a favorable context for regulatory changes around the world. China, for instance, has reconsidered its position on genome-edited crops recently in tackling climate change.

Click on the links below to learn more:

Other References:

Change in rules and categories of genome-editing explained:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/rules-relaxed-for-some-gene-edited-plants-organisms-101648665945313.html 

Indian government exempts genome-edited crops from GM regulations:
https://www.agknowledge.be/blog/indian-government-exempts-genome-edited-crops-from-gm-regulations