Recent Developments for Access to Plant Genetic Resources in India and their Implications

Being party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Parliament of India enacted the Biological Diversity Act (BDA), 2002 and the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in 2003. The implementation of the BDA, 2002 was initiated after the Biological Diversity Rules (BDR), 2004 were notified and the application forms for access to biological resources and for seeking intellectual property rights were put in place through these notifications/regulations. Access to biological resources in India is now regulated as per the provisions laid out in BDA, 2002 and BDR, 2004. However, there were many issues which were not addressed in the first set of rules notified through BDR 2004. Such issues have been highlighted here. The implications of these notifications especially for access to biological resources for researchers within and from outside India are discussed here. Relevant and important clauses from the notification/regulations are reproduced for ready reference.