Biotechnology

Story hook

In May 2020, in a tiny lab on the eastern fringe of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Pusa, Delhi, a 36-year-old molecular biologist named Bhabesh Borphukan was peering at petri dishes of rice seedlings that had been edited with a pair of molecular scissors called CRISPR-Cas9. The seedlings looked ordinary — but inside each one, a single nucleotide in the gene called OsRR22 had been precisely deleted. The result, after three months of greenhouse trials: rice plants that yielded normally in soils so salty they would have killed their parents. No foreign DNA was added. No bacterial genes were introduced. The plant was Indian, the trait was created by an Indian team, and — crucially — it was not a GMO under Indian regulations, because the SDN-1/SDN-2 genome edits that created it had been exempted by the DBT in March 2022.

Three years later, in March 2025, ICAR scientists at IIRR Hyderabad announced DRR Dhan-100 and Pusa DST Rice-1 — the world's first commercial-ready gene-edited rice varieties. They yield 19-30 % more, mature 15-20 days earlier, and use less water. They will not be regulated as GMOs. They are India's bet that the second wave of biotechnology — the gene-editing wave — can do for Indian agriculture what the Green Revolution did 60 years ago, but without the foreign seed dependence, without the GM controversy, and at a fraction of the cost.

Why this matters for UPSC

Biotech, CRISPR, and GM crops are among the top-three S&T question areas alongside space and AI. UPSC consistently tests: the GEAC and approval bodies; the difference between GM and gene editing; the Bt cotton / Bt brinjal / GM mustard saga; CRISPR discovery and Nobel; biotech-related ministries (DBT, DSIR, ICAR); and ethical/regulatory tradeoffs. The topic spans Prelims (factual), Mains GS-III (agriculture, S&T, environment) and Ethics paper (stewardship of nature).