With genetically modified crops becoming the fastest adapted technology in the history of agriculture in most parts of the world, India cannot afford to miss the biotechnology revolution if it wants to emerge as an agricultural superpower, an expert in the field has said.

Despite heralding the four-fold increase in food production, the green revolution in India was showing signs of fatigue and adoption of new tools of biotechnology was the only solution to reinvigorate agriculture, said Prof. C S Prakash, head of the Centre for Plant Biotechnology Research in Tuskegee University, the US.

Genetic improvement of crops was the single most powerful tool for an agrarian economy like India to meet its food and fibre requirements, said Prakash, whose research team had pioneered development of transgenic sweet potato plants and improvement of protein content of plants through genetic modification.

Prakash was participating in a national seminar on `Applicationof Biotechnology in Indian Agriculture: Socio-Economic and Technology Perspectives', organised jointly by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Farmers' Associations and the Peddireddy Thimmareddy Farm Foundation.

Free access to online medical library

To celebrate Doctor's Day on July 1, the Health Education Library for People (HELP) offered doctors free access to the full text of more than 37 renowned medical reference books and 48 of the world's best medical journals via the world's largest virtual medical library.

At present, the doctors can access the world's largest online virtual medical library for a single-user password for less than the cost of some medical textbooks. However, the new facility, http://www.mdconsult.com, allows doctors unlimited searching of the full text of all these books and journals for a full year.

This information is constantly updated and doctors only need an Internet connection to access it, at any time from anywhere,a statement released by HELP stated.

Doctors also have access to a complete patient education library, with over 2,500 patient education handouts, prescription information for more than 30,000 medications and more than 600 peer-reviewed clinical practice guidelines.

All prepared to move to Kargil

The six-month WelcomJawan training programme, conducted by Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton, for members of the Armed Forces came to a close this week. The group of 15 had a representation of Junior Commissioned Officers, from all three wings of the Armed Forces, due to retire from service in 4-6 months. While the group represents people from all over India, some of them are due to rejoin their units in the Kargil area.

Vice president and general manager, Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton Hotel & Towers, J S Parmar, handed out the certificates to the group. Speaking to them, he said, ``I am delighted that Maurya Sheraton has been involved in this training programme, under the banner of WelcomJawan, our group'sspecial programme for defence personnel. In equipping defence personnel with skills in the hospitality industry, we hope that we are able to repay in a small measure, our debt to those who protect our nation. For those who are going to Kargil, I would like to say that we all want peace, and hope that by the time you rejoin your units, there will be better news on the front.''

Col. R S Sangwan, chief security officer of the hotel, said, ``I hope that the training will useful to all of you in the future. All of you have worked very hard in the past six months, training in a field that is far removed from your normal professional duties.''

This was the third WelcomJawan training programme, conducted in collaboration with the Armed Forces Re-settlement Section, with the aim of providing skills to equip defence personnel for jobs within the hospitality industry, after retirement. Launched in 1997, the first batch of trainees, consisted of 22 persons, while the second and third batches both had 15 traineeseach. They went through courses in Housekeeping, Kitchen Stewarding, General and Engineering Stores, and Security.