A Monsanto Co joint venture in India that licenses genetically modified cotton-seed technology said it would have to “reevaluate every aspect” of its position in the country, the biggest grower of the fiber, if the government makes a substantial cut to its royalties.
The Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is set to recommend a 70 percent reduction in the so-called “trait fees” that Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd receives from other seed companies for the use of its Bt cotton technology, Reuters reported on Friday, citing people it did not identify.
Bt cotton has been developed to secrete an insecticide and has transformed Indian cotton production since its introduction in 2002.
Mahyco said such an intervention by the government would override its contracts with seed companies and undermine its operations in India.
While seed prices are capped in some parts of the country, licensing fees are not. The Indian government is seeking to regulate royalties amid a dispute between Monsanto and some of its licensees over payments.
Last month, India’s antitrust regulator recommended an investigation into Mahyco, whose other partner is Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co.
International cotton prices have fallen amid a global glut.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained