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Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated the 'Green Forge' complex at the BRIC-National Agri-Food Biomanufacturing Institute (BRIC-NABI), Mohali, describing it as a milestone for genetically modified crop research.
Green Forge provides controlled simulation chambers in which the quantity and quality of light, humidity and temperature can be varied, letting researchers grow and test GM crops under recreated environmental conditions and judge which locations a new variety suits before it goes to the field.
The inauguration took place alongside the National Conclave on BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment) held at BRIC-NABI.
The Minister said 22 biomanufacturing hubs are being developed for start-ups, SMEs and researchers, along with a National Bio-Foundry Network of eight specialised facilities, with more than 50 process innovations being scaled up.
He also said the Department of Biotechnology is supporting around 38 Carbon Capture and Utilisation projects, and stated that India's bioeconomy has grown from US$10 billion to US$200 billion.
Approved by the Union Cabinet on 24 August 2024, it aims to foster high-performance biomanufacturing by bringing together biotechnology, engineering and digitalisation, and to steer India towards a circular bioeconomy and green growth aligned with Net Zero and Mission LiFE.
Key: Six strategic thematic sectors: (1) high-value bio-based chemicals, biopolymers and enzymes; (2) smart proteins and functional foods; (3) precision biotherapeutics; (4) climate-resilient agriculture; (5) carbon capture and utilisation; (6) marine and space research. Delivery is through Biomanufacturing and Bio-AI hubs and biofoundries, with innovation-driven support to R&D and entrepreneurship.
Announced as eight specialised facilities pooling infrastructure for start-ups and entrepreneurs so that laboratory processes can be scaled to industry-ready manufacturing.
Key: Biofoundries are the physical delivery arm of BioE3 - the point at which a research process becomes something a company can make at volume.
22 manufacturing hubs under development to serve start-ups, small and medium enterprises and researchers, with over 50 process innovations being scaled up.
Key: Reflects the shift of BioE3 emphasis, in the Minister's words, towards industry-ready manufacturing rather than research alone.
About 38 projects supported, aimed at integrated biomanufacturing routes that capture carbon while addressing emissions from hard-to-abate industries such as cement and steel.
Key: CCU is one of the six BioE3 thematic sectors, which is why it sits inside this announcement rather than beside it.
The nearest recent illustration of what controlled-environment testing feeds into: two genome-edited rice varieties were released in 2025 - DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala), developed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, and Pusa Rice DST1, developed by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
Key: These were developed using site-directed nuclease techniques that leave no foreign DNA, which is why they did not require the full transgenic GM approval route.
Umbrella research council created with Cabinet approval on 10 November 2023, subsuming 14 autonomous institutions of the Department of Biotechnology into a single structure to reduce duplication and pool research capacity. Its first Foundation Day was marked on 9-10 November 2024. All constituent institutes now carry the BRIC- prefix.
Host of the Green Forge complex. NABI was established on 18 February 2010 as India's FIRST agri-food biotechnology institute; it has since been merged with the Centre of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), also at Mohali, to form BRIC-NABI, combining agri-biotechnology with bioprocess engineering.
Set up in 1986 under the Ministry of Science and Technology; the nodal department for biotechnology R&D, for the BioE3 Policy, for BRIC and its institutes, and for the safety assessment guidelines governing genome-edited plants.
Not-for-profit Section 8 public sector enterprise set up by DBT in 2012 as an interface agency to fund and support biotech start-ups and enterprises through product development; publishes the India BioEconomy Report.
The apex statutory committee whose clearance is mandatory for the environmental release of any genetically modified crop in India. It is NOT a DBT body - it functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Any variety tested in a facility like Green Forge would still need GEAC clearance before commercial release.
The parent statute under which all regulation of genetically engineered organisms in India is framed - not the agriculture laws, which is why the environment ministry rather than the agriculture ministry holds the approval power.
Framed under the EP Act, 1986; these rules constitute the GEAC as a statutory committee and set up the tiered regulatory machinery, including State and UT Biotechnology Coordination Committees and District Level Committees that monitor illegal cultivation of GM crops.
Exempted genome-edited plants of the SDN-1 and SDN-2 categories that are free of exogenous introduced DNA from Rules 7 to 11 of the Rules, 1989 - the single most consequential easing of India's biotech regulation in recent years, because it separates gene editing from transgenic GM in law.
Notified on 17 May 2022 by the Department of Biotechnology after approval by the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM); these govern the research and development pathway for genome-edited plants.
Bt cotton, approved in 2002, remains the ONLY genetically modified crop cleared for commercial cultivation in India - a fact that has not changed and is tested repeatedly.
A BIOFOUNDRY is a shared, highly automated facility where biological systems - engineered microbes, enzymes, cell lines - are designed, built and tested in rapid cycles, so that a process proven in a laboratory flask can be scaled to industrial volume. It is to biology what a semiconductor foundry is to chip design: the researcher supplies the design, the foundry supplies the capacity to make it. BIOMANUFACTURING is the resulting production of chemicals, materials, proteins or fuels using biological systems instead of petrochemical routes, and it is the economic core of the BioE3 Policy. On the regulatory side, the crucial distinction is between TRANSGENIC GM, where DNA from another organism is inserted (Bt cotton carries genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis), and GENOME EDITING, where site-directed nucleases make targeted changes to the plant's own DNA. Where the edit leaves no foreign DNA behind - the SDN-1 and SDN-2 categories - India exempted such plants from Rules 7 to 11 of the Rules, 1989 in March 2022, on the reasoning that the end product is indistinguishable from one conventional breeding could have produced. SDN-3, which inserts a foreign gene at a targeted site, remains regulated as GM. Green Forge fits into this landscape at the testing stage: it recreates environments so a new variety can be characterised before anyone takes it to the field or to the regulator.
Simple Analogy: Transgenic GM is inserting a paragraph written by another author into a book. Genome editing of the SDN-1 or SDN-2 kind is correcting or deleting words the book already contained - which is why the law treats it as a different act.
One of the six BioE3 thematic sectors, and the direct rationale for chambers that vary temperature, humidity and light - a variety must be shown to hold up under the conditions climate change is expected to bring, not just under today's.
Environmental release of GM food crops in India has repeatedly stalled at the approval and litigation stage rather than the research stage, which is what makes location-specific evidence of the kind Green Forge generates valuable to a developer facing GEAC scrutiny.
The Minister explicitly linked biomanufacturing, carbon capture and utilisation, and the conversion of agricultural residue into high-value products to India's net-zero-by-2070 commitment and to Atmanirbhar Bharat.
BRIC-NABI's stated work on converting agricultural waste into nutraceuticals and biomaterials speaks directly to the stubble-burning problem, giving residue an economic value instead of a disposal cost.
The Minister referred to life-science experiments with ISRO on myogenesis, cognitive effects and cyanobacteria growth - marine and space research being the sixth BioE3 thematic sector, and a growing source of questions as India's human spaceflight programme advances.
The call for a Chandigarh-region biotech cluster linking institutions in biotechnology, medicine, agriculture and pharmaceuticals follows the same logic that produced BRIC itself - consolidation of scattered autonomous institutes.
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology > Biotechnology, its applications and regulation; Agriculture > technology missions
General Awareness > Government schemes and policies; General Science > Biology
General Awareness > Science and Technology in India
Consider the following statements: 1. Genetic changes can be introduced in the cells that produce eggs or sperms of a prospective parent. 2. A person's genome can be edited before birth at the early embryonic stage. 3. Human induced pluripotent stem cells can be injected into the embryo of a pig. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 1, 2 and 3
Bollgard I and Bollgard II technologies are mentioned in the context of
Answer: developing genetically modified crop plants
Biotechnology regulation and GM crops are a recurring UPSC Prelims theme; BioE3 and BRIC have appeared steadily in current-affairs sections since 2024.
Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment - the biomanufacturing policy approved by the Union Cabinet on 24 August 2024.
A shared automated facility for the design-build-test cycle of engineered biological systems, enabling laboratory processes to be scaled for industry.
Site-directed nuclease genome-editing categories that introduce no foreign DNA; exempted from Rules 7 to 11 of the Rules, 1989 by the MoEFCC in March 2022.
Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee - the statutory apex body under MoEFCC whose clearance is mandatory for environmental release of GM crops.
Economic activity derived from biological resources and biotechnology - spanning biomedical, bioagriculture, bioindustrial and bioservices segments.
Capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into usable products rather than only storing it; one of the six BioE3 thematic sectors.