How should these concerns be addressed?

I think they should be addressed through rigorous science. And, we need to investigate every technical concern that is raised by scientific community or by the public. We need to investigate and make sure that there is nothing to be worried about. So, a highly disciplined process of scientific investigation is required. This area needs to be very closely guarded, just like we are careful about atomic energy and there are heavy investments in the safety for atomic energy. We need a similar level of safety at the initial stage with the transgenic organisms/crops. But at the same time, we need to move the transgenic products quickly when it is confirmed that there is no cause of concern.

Is your organization working on transgenic vegetables or crops?

Yes, we are working on transgenics in public-private partnership. For example, we are working on transgenic tomato, which is resistant to some  viruses. We try to limit ourselves to making transgenic products for which we cannot find natural resistance. If  we can find natural resistance, then we do not use the transgenic approach. Currently we are looking at the crucifers -the cabbage, cauliflower family for resistance to the diamond black moth. This is a very amazing moth. It has an incredible ability to mutate .So if a new pesticide is developed targeting this moth, within a few years it develops resistance against it. Farmers spray very heavy pesticide dosages very frequently and cause a lot of environmental damage to unintended insects in the process of trying to kill this diamond black moth. So we are looking at a transgenic approach, which we hope that the moth cannot overcome.

Courtesy: Biospectrum, Sept. 2006 )

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