Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, Thursday, December 20, 2012 — (Business Wire India) — Biotechnology is one of the major drivers for improving crop productivity. The rapid advancements in biotechnology have facilitated the development of crop varieties with traits like biotic and abiotic stress resistance, yield enhancement, longer shelf life, biofortification and more. Biotechnology has turned out to be a major tool for creating diversity. It has been increasingly felt that biotechnology could be an effective tool to mitigate the harmful effects of environmental pollution and maintain biodiversity.
In an increasingly flat world, when emerging diseases have the capacity to spread rapidly across borders, humanity is turning to biotechnology solutions to mitigate these threats and offer quick and durable resistance. In this backdrop, biotechnology and transgenic researches stimulate several realms for discussion and thought, more so, since the possibilities that arise from continual engagement with these scientific advancements often impact public health and agriculture. There are several advantages associated with transgenic research that are crucial for economic growth, food security and human and animal health. One should cautiously monitor the products for safety, efficacy and economic impact. The perception that numerous benefits are linked to the progress in life sciences and biomedical research also gives way to the fact that there could be potential risk of misuse of both knowledge and techniques.
In this backdrop, Sathguru Management Consultants and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca is all set to facilitate the “Global Biosafety Management Program”, an intensive three-day training on 21-23 January 2013 at Hyderabad. The program comprises a series of interactive lectures, panel discussions, case studies and project presentations with participation from industry, government bodies and research institutions from India, USA, Europe, ASEAN and Africa. The program will witness the convergence of an eminent faculty comprising industry leaders and subject experts from around the globe who will share their knowledge and experiences through relevant case studies, lectures, group assignments and discussion sessions.
“The Program is designed to address the various aspects of safety assessment of transgenic product development; contemporary technologies and their impact on regulations; issues on transgenic trait management; cross-border research partnerships; bio-property access and technology transfer and other socio-economic and policy frameworks. I strongly feel that agricultural biotechnology and transgenic research should lead to economic empowerment of farmers through better productivity and consumer satisfaction. At the same time continued effort for better products should lead to rural employment of the agricultural community,” said K. Vijayaraghavan, a renowned technology manager, faculty in the program and CEO, Sathguru Management Consultants.
The question at hand is: How to leverage the many existing global biosafety associations, international programs, and other resources, with biosafety expertise, towards building a consensus and encouraging the culture of collective responsibility and cooperation to promote biosafety and biosecurity around the globe. A balanced and effective approach to global biosafety can be achieved only by recognizing the many viewpoints and approaches to biosafety. The program will highlight the importance of an effective regulatory system that will ensure the safety of the procedures and products of transgenic and biotech research, and discuss modern approaches to biosafety, and try to address pathways that will result in a balanced solution that may have wider applicability on a global scale.
About CALS, Cornell University
Cornell University, an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is one of the world’s leading universities providing education to about 20,000 students from the world over. These students are guided by about 3,000 able faculty comprising mostly of internationally recognized authorities in their respective fields. The research interests and activities of this faculty have placed Cornell amongst the world’s best research institutions. Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is recognized as the leading centres for agricultural education in the world. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, instrumental in establishing the International Agricultural Research System, has been involved in education and research partnerships in several countries in Asia since the Green Revolution. In the food science and food process arena, Cornell excels with myriads of patents and extension and outreach efforts that span several countries across the world.
