How does National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) help in protecting the Indian agriculture? (1). NBA checks the biopiracy and protects the indigenous and traditional genetic resources. (2). NBA directly monitors and supervises the scientific research on genetic modification of crop plants. (3). Application for Intellectual Property Rights related to genetic/biological resources cannot be made without the approval of NBA. Which of the statements given is/are correct?

The correct answer is C (1 and 3 only). The NBA was set up under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, to regulate access to biological resources and to share benefits arising from their use.

• Statement 1 is correct. The NBA regulates foreign access to Indian biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, which checks biopiracy and protects indigenous and traditional genetic resources.
• Statement 2 is wrong. The NBA does not supervise GM crop research. Regulation of genetically modified organisms falls under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, through the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• Statement 3 is correct. Section 6 of the Biological Diversity Act requires prior approval of the NBA before any IPR application is filed on an invention based on Indian biological material or knowledge.

This sits within the access and benefit-sharing framework that India has built, which the Nagoya Protocol later internationalised. For Mains, it links to biopiracy, farmers' rights and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act.

Trap: Aspirants often assign GM crop regulation to the NBA because it sounds like a biodiversity function. The regulator for GM crops is GEAC, not NBA.