The regulations classify activities involving GMOs into four risk categories, provide lists of bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral agents that fall into each category, and specify the roles of the institution and the company, the IBSC and the RCGM vis à vis the risk categories:

Category I comprises routine recombinant DNA experiments conducted inside a laboratory;

Category II consists of both laboratory and greenhouse experiments involving transgenes that combat biotic stresses through resistance to herbicides and pesticides;

Categories III and IV comprise experiments and field trials where the escape of transgenic traits into the open environment could cause significant alterations in the ecosystem.

Through the biosafety regulations, Government of India established a three-tier regulatory structure at the central level in New Delhi comprising three committees:

The Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST);

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF);

The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) under DBT/MoST;

DBT provides the secretariat for RCGM and MEC, and the MoEF for GEAC. The GoI also issued directives on the setting up a de-centralised structure consisting of Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBSCs) and State and District Level Committees (SBCCs and DLCs). The biosafety regulations indicate in broad terms the composition and responsibilities of all these six bodies. DBT is represented on all of them except the SBCCs and DLCs. IBSCs have been established in all institutions (public and private) that deal with GMOs. But, even as late as of 2004, only three states (out of a total of twenty-five states and several ‘union territories’ that make up the Indian Union) had created SBCCs, while DLCs have not been set up anywhere. RCGM’s mandate is to assess and decide on the applications submitted by institutions and companies for conducting R&D work, greenhouse tests and contained field tests on plots of less than one acre in size (0.4 hectare).