After years of debate, India is close to adopting a biodiversity protection law that regulates foreign access to, and use of, the nation's biological wealth and indigenous knowledge. This week, the lower house of parliament approved a bill requiring overseas collaborators to get permits before conducting research or commercializing discoveries. Some researchers worry that the rules, intended to clarify complex issues, might also add to bureaucratic red tape.
CREDIT: PALLAVA BAGLA
The new rules would require any foreign entity to get permits from India's environment ministry before working with biological resources. The ministry would also assign ownership rights to any related intellectual property. Indian citizens must obtain permission to transfer materials or knowledge to foreign partners.
The new law should bolster collaborations, says Kamaljit Bawa, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a trustee of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore, but it could also delay studies. Researchers in India, he says, already "face far too many hurdles even without regulation." Observers predict that the bill will soon sail through Parliament's upper house.
