Biodiversity Bill Provides For Reviewing Bio-Resource Transfer

All existing agreements on transfer of biological resources from India will be reviewed after the enactment of the proposed biodiversity bill. This condition is provided in the draft bill being circulated for inter-ministerial comments before it is placed before the cabinet and then in Parliament.

The draft bill permits transfer of biological resources to institutions abroad under collaborative research projects. It also permits exchange of information with foreign governments. Collaborative research projects and agreements between government-sponsored organisations and institutions is also allowed. But all this is subject to overall policy guidelines of the Union government.

Otherwise, the draft bill says, all agreements entered into prior to the commencement of the Act will be reviewed to bring them in conformity with the policy guidelines of the government.

 

Apart from circulating the copies of the draft bill to different ministries and departments for comments, comments of concerned organisations and public bodies are also being sought.

Meanwhile, the ministry of environment and forests which is piloting the bill has already advised the universities and technical institutions and all concerned public and private bodies to provide the suggested safeguards in future agreements so that they do not come in conflict with the provisions of the proposed legislation.

The safeguards include provisions against the commercialisation of the benefits of transferred resources without signing fresh agreements. The applicant shall not claim any intellectual property rights directly or indirectly on the resource or information or products based on the research and the related bio-prospecting. Also, the technologies related to the resource shall be transferred to India.

The draft bill, prepared by a 16-member committee headed by agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, has provided an umbrella act to safeguard Indias sovereign rights over its biodiversity.

It seeks to lift curbs on related research and development work inside and outside the country. It also provides for benefit sharing with the provider of the resource material and information.

There are provisions in the act for the constitution of a national biodiversity authority, state-level biodiversity boards and biodiversity management committees in local bodies.

The 11-member national biodiversity authority will be the apex body empowered to prohibit non-Indians and corporates having foreign equity from obtaining a biological resource for research or for commercial utilisation without permission.

The authority can prohibit non-Indians or Indian companies and organisations having foreign equity from transferring results of any research based on the Indian resource to any non-Indian citizens/ organisations/ companies having foreign equity.

But publication of results of such researches or their presentation at a seminar would not be deemed as transfer and would not require previous permission.

The authority has powers to reject any proposal for undertaking any activity pertaining to the Indian biological resource, or can accept it on specific terms and conditions including imposition of royalty charges.

The state biodiversity boards will advise the state governments on matters relating to biodiversity conservation and implementation of the guidelines framed by the national authority.

The draft bill provides for imprisonment up to five years or fine up to Rs 10 lakh or both on contravention of any of the provisions of the proposed act.