Question

What is GEAC and what are its objectives?

Answer 1

GEAC is a statutory body which functions under the Ministry of Environment and Forests and it has a role in activities which are related to use of large scale hazardous microbes.

Complete answer:
GEAC stands for genetic engineering appraisal committee. It functions in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. The association of living and nonliving organisms constitutes the environment. The weather of a place over a long interval. Example: The climate of desert is dry with minimum rainfall and high temperature.

The objectives of GEAC are
(1) GEAC function in testing the genetically modified crops.
Genetically modified crops are prepared by recombinant DNA technology. In the process of genetic engineering, DNA molecules from two different species get combined and are inserted into a host organism to produce new genetic combinations that will prove of great value to different fields of science.
(2) The other objective of GEAC is to control the use of genetically modified crops without harm to the environment.

Additional information: In India, only one genetically modified crop is allowed to be grown, and that is Bt cotton. Bt cotton has two foreign genes which are derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis which helps the crop to protect itself from bollworm by developing a toxic protein.

Note: The other roles of GEAC are as follows,
i) It has the power to approve or reject use of genetically modified organisms at large scale for research.
ii) It also regulates the use, storage, import and export of hazardous microbes or genetically modified cells and organisms in India.