The notification, titled Licensing and Formats for GM Technology Agreement Guidelines, further mandated the technology developer to award the license for its trait “within 30 days of receipt of a request from [the] licensee”. “We have decided to withdraw the notification and put it as a draft on our ministry’s website for inviting public feedback before finalisation”, the Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh told The Indian Express. Syngenta’s chief operating officer Davor Pisk told NDTV in an interview that the new licensing guidelines would hinder new farming technology coming into India (http://bit.ly/1sxysEq). It’s just that the earlier notification is now being put in public domain to receive wider suggestions,” he added. The Indian Express has learnt that the decision to put on hold the latest notification came after intervention at the “highest level”.

Source: Indian Express May 23, 2016 07:24 UTC