India will create a single autonomous body for biosafety clearance of genetically modified (GM) products, a move that has been welcomed by the biotech industry. Come September, the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) will replace the existing committees currently under different ministries. “This is what we have been asking for all these years,” Arvind Kapur, managing director of Nunhems Seeds Private Limited, a subsidiary of Bayer Crop Science located in Gurgaon near Delhi. “We will not have to run to different ministries anymore to get approval.” The NBRA will have separate divisions to handle issues in agricultural, pharmaceutical and industrial products and GM food under a common chairman. Advising the NBRA will be a panel of delegates from relevant ministries and another 20-member council representing the scientific community, private sector, nongovernmental and farmer organizations. The NBRA will also set up a mechanism for dispute settlement and Kapur says companies may not have to spend huge amounts of money fighting litigations filed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Maharaj Kishan Bhan, secretary to the department of biotechnology, points out that although his department helped create this new regulatory body, it will not control it.