Biopiracy and Intellectual Property Rights — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2018Rice is an important food grain, the presence of which goes back thousands of years in Asia's agricultural history. There are an estimated 200,000 varieties of rice in India alone. The diversity of rice in India is one of the richest in the world. Basmati rice is distinct for its unique aroma and flavour and 27 documented varieties of Basmati are grown in India. There is reference to Basmati in ancient texts, folklore and poetry, as it has been grown for centuries. In 1997, an American company got patent rights on Basmati rice through the US Patent and Trademark Office. This allowed the company to sell a 'new' variety of Basmati, in the US and abroad. This 'new' variety of Basmati had actually been derived from Indian farmer's varieties. Indian Basmati was crossed with semi-dwarf varieties and claimed as an invention or a novelty. The patent extends to functional equivalents, implying that other people selling Basmati rice could be restricted by the patent. Several attempts have also been made to patent uses, products and processes based on Indian traditional herbal medicines, e.g., turmeric neem. If we are not vigilant and we do not immediately counter these patent applications, other countries/individuals may encash on our rich legacy and we may not be able to do anything about it.
NTA tests whether students understand biopiracy: unauthorized exploitation of biological resources and traditional knowledge by foreign companies/individuals for profit. The Basmati case shows how an American company patented a rice variety derived from Indian farmer's varieties, restricting others from selling similar rice. Students often mistake biopiracy as just theft; it's actually a legal/patent violation. The trap is confusing it with biodiversity conservation. Remember: biopiracy involves (1) taking traditional knowledge/germplasm from one country, (2) slightly modifying it, and (3) obtaining patents to monopolize it globally. India lost rights to its own Basmati legacy due to this. This tests concepts of intellectual property rights in biotechnology.
A ‘new’ variety of rice was patented by a foreign company, though such varieties have been present in India for a long time. This is related to (NEET 2018)
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.