Agri-biotech body: IB-Greenpeace report reveals how NGOs work against India's devpt

New Delhi: Agri biotechnology industry body ABLE-AG has said that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) report on Greenpeace exposes how few NGOs are active against the economic, social, developmental interests of India.

In a report, 'Impact of NGOs on Development', IB has said that the opposition to several development projects in the country by a significant number of NGOs, including Greenpeace, will negatively impact economic growth by 2-3 percent.

In another report, IB has recommended the cancellation of permission given to Greenpeace for collecting funds abroad besides reassessment of its tax compliance.

The Association lauded the subsequent action by Ministry of Home Affairs to put on hold foreign funding of some NGOs as it is reportedly being used for surreptitious motives.

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"...the report, appropriately and comprehensively exposes how few NGOs are active against the economic, social, developmental interests of India," ABLE-AG said in a statement.

Association of Biotech Led Enterprises - Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG), which bats for use of biotechnology in agriculture, including food crops, blamed NGOs for holding up field trails of genetically modified (GM) crops.

"It is a pity that just when the country was about to take further steps in deploying biotechnology in more crops the unfortunate moratorium on Bt Brinjal was imposed in 2010, under pressure from the same NGOs," ABLE-AG Chairman Ram Kaundinya said in a statement.

As a result, R&D activities in GM crops by both public and private sectors were put on hold since 2010, causing enormous delay in making these technologies available to farmers, the industry body added.

Greenpeace has termed as "malicious" the IB's two reports against it and said the NGO has been "specifically targeted" as it emerged as one of the primary voices opposing coal mining and nuclear power projects in India.

PTI