According to sources cited by CNBC-TV18 on April 4th, UPL Ltd, a provider of sustainable agriculture products and solutions, is considering launching an initial public offering (IPO) for its seeds business, Advanta Enterprises, in early FY25. The report states that BofA Securities, Morgan Stanley, and JM Financial will act as bankers for the Advanta IPO. UPL aims to divest approximately 10-12 percent of its stake in the subsidiary.
The IPO proceeds from Advanta Enterprises are expected to be used by UPL for deleveraging, with a target valuation of $4 billion. In addition to the IPO plans, UPL had previously announced a rights issue worth over Rs 4,000 crore. In a filing to the exchange on March 26th, UPL mentioned that it is in the process of completing the necessary formalities and compliances for the rights issue.
At present, UPL holds an 86.7 percent stake in Advanta Ent, while private equity firm KKR owns a 13.3 percent stake. KKR had acquired its stake for $300 million in September 2023.
On April 4th, UPL shares were trading 2.61 percent higher at Rs 489.40 apiece on the BSE during late trading hours. However, UPL reported a consolidated loss of Rs 1,217 crore during the December 2023 quarter (Q3FY24). In the same quarter of the previous financial year, the company had a net profit of Rs 1,087 crores. The company’s revenue from operations also declined by 27.72 percent to Rs 9,887 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 13,679 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Source: krishakjagat

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CDSCO approval
AstraZeneca Pharma India recently received CDSCO approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for the import and marketing of Andexanet Alfa.
This groundbreaking treatment addresses life-threatening or refractory bleeding associated with the use of Factor Xa (FXa) inhibitors.
Understanding FXa Inhibitors and Their Risks
FXa inhibitors play a crucial role in preventing thrombotic events, but their use comes with a significant risk of major bleeding.
This article delves into the delicate balance between the benefits and risks of these medications.
The Critical Need for a Reversal Agent
Major bleeding can be a life-threatening consequence of FXa inhibitors, underscoring the necessity for a specific reversal agent.
We explore the challenges and implications of managing bleeding events associated with these anticoagulants.
Andexanet Alfa: A Lifesaver in Emergency Situations
Andexanet Alfa emerges as a novel and life-saving antidote designed to reverse the effects of anticoagulant medications promptly.
Learn how this therapy proves to be well-tolerated and facilitates the early restart of anticoagulation following a bleeding event.
Clinical Trials and Safety
Detailed insights into the clinical trials involving healthy subjects and patients with major life-threatening bleeding highlight the efficacy and safety of Andexanet Alfa.
This section provides a comprehensive understanding of the research backing this breakthrough antidote.
Administration Process
Explore the intricacies of administering Andexanet Alfa, involving an intravenous bolus over 15–30 minutes, followed by a two-hour infusion.
Understanding the process is crucial to appreciating the speed and effectiveness of this intervention.
Tolerability and Early Restart
Discover why Andexanet Alfa’s well-tolerated nature is instrumental in the early restart of anticoagulation post-bleeding event.
This section delves into the advantages this brings to patients using FXa inhibitors.
Time Sensitivity
Uncover the time-sensitive nature of Andexanet Alfa in emergency situations and how quick intervention can significantly impact patient outcomes.
Learn why every moment counts in managing major bleeding associated with FXa inhibitors.
Impact on Morbidity and Mortality
Explore the potential impact of Andexanet Alfa on reducing morbidity and mortality in patients using FXa inhibitors.
Real-world implications and the transformative effect on healthcare outcomes are discussed in this section.
CDSCO Approval: Regulatory Milestone
Detailed information on the CDSCO approval in India provides insights into the regulatory landscape surrounding pharmaceutical products.
This section emphasizes the significance of CDSCO approval for new and groundbreaking treatments.
Global Relevance
Understand the global relevance of Andexanet Alfa’s CDSCO approval and its potential to shape healthcare practices worldwide.
This section explores how this breakthrough could influence anticoagulant therapy management on a global scale.
Future Implications and Ongoing Research
Consider potential future developments in FXa inhibitor reversal agents and the importance of ongoing research in this field. Stay informed about the evolving landscape of anticoagulant therapies.
Public Awareness and Education
Advocacy for increased public awareness regarding anticoagulant treatments is essential.
Learn about the role of education in promoting responsible use and understanding of these medications, fostering a sense of shared responsibility.
Collaboration for Effective Anticoagulant Management
Encouragement for collaboration between patients and healthcare professionals is crucial.
This section emphasizes the role of open communication in managing anticoagulant therapies effectively and ensuring optimal patient outcomes.
Source: Thehealthmaster

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Knitwear exporter Eastman Exports Global Clothing has partnered Bharat Biotech Group’s investment arm for about 20% stake sale.
A press release said the share purchase agreement between the two companies has been approved by the Competition Commission of India under the “green channel” route. The deal has now been executed with both teams working in a partnership model to grow the business.
Eastman Exports will use the funds for capital expenditure, strengthening backward integration, and customer acquisition.
The funds will also be used to increase its global presence. N. Chandran, chairman of the company, said, “The funds will be used in strengthening our capacities and backward integration besides reaching out to newer markets. We have already set up an office in the U.S. and our U.K. office is expected to open soon. With India signing a Free Trade Agreement with the UAE, we will look at foraying into West Asia as well.” The company is also keen on venturing into the Australia, Japan, UAE and the European markets.
Suchitra Ella, Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said, “India is one of the few vertically integrated countries in cotton-based apparels, our vision is to grow this industry and support manufacturing from India to the world.”
Source: TheHindu

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Ravinder Balain, President, South Asia, Corteva Agriscience, speaks about the company’s plans on introducing Seed Applied Technologies (SAT) in India. The company, which is into both seed and crop protection, has plans to introduce best practices in India from other countries as well.
Q: What would be the division between crop protection and seed business?
We have been in India for about 50 years through the footprint of our company. In the seed segment, we operate in key crops – corn, rice, millets, and mustard — and we are in a leadership position in many of those. In the crop protection segment, we have solutions that focus on rice, corn, fruits and vegetables and span the whole gamut of herbicide, fungicide, insecticide and seed treatment categories. India is one of the key growth markets and we are committed to the long term.
Additionally, we offer Seed Applied Technologies (SAT) to provide the solution by coating the seeds with relevant treatment. (Seed treatments involve the application of chemical or biological substances, such as fungicides or insecticides, directly to the surface of a seed, safeguarding the seeds and seedlings against insects, fungal diseases and soil-borne pathogens). Seed treatment is used for paddy and maize crops in Indonesia and it has already been introduced in Thailand and China in the Asia Pacific region. We are gearing up to introduce similar seed-applied technology in India. We have already started field trials with rice farmers and have submitted our products for registration.
Q: What kind of investment has gone in for such development in India?
India is one of the key growth markets and we are committed for the long term. We think of it as a strategic supply base and not just for products. Moreover, we also have one of the best pipelines.
We have been majorly involved in four key crops — corn, rice, millet and mustard. We breed hybrids for all these crops and have our breeding stations in different climatic zones with an advanced research Centre based out of Hyderabad. After breeding a hybrid, it is tested in varying growing conditions at farmers’ fields before getting commercialised. In addition to high levels of hybridisation in corn and millet crops, we are seeing increasing hybridisation in rice and mustard as well. Our unrivalled pipeline of crop protection innovations is designed to deliver solutions with unique differentiation and to enable enhanced crop management. Corteva molecules and formulations feature properties such as low effective use rates, favourable environmental impact and minimal toxicological profile.
We have been partnering with multiple external manufacturing companies across the country, including two figuring in a list of our five key strategic suppliers globally. We would continue to pursue a strategy of both in-house and third-party manufacturing.
Q: Do the R&D centres only cater to India or do they also develop products for other geographies?
In India, we have three manufacturing units, five research and development facilities. The geographical outreach is across states and we deliver services to 10 million farmers and 150 million hectare of farmland in India, including a multi-crop plant breeding research facility in Telangana’s Wargal mandal that serves as our technology hub for both Asia and Asia Pacific.
Q: With climate change being a major threat, what products are being developed to mitigate the same by the company for India?
Corteva hybrid seed varieties help farmers to increase yields, maintain a sustainable supply of food and increase food security. Unlike traditional seeds, these are beneficial for both human health and the environment. These seeds require less water and have a low carbon footprint, allowing farmers to increase overall crop yield and productivity. By using seed technology, farmers can easily increase agricultural productivity and production in response to the rising global food demand.
Developed with sustainability in mind, our unrivalled pipeline of crop protection innovations is designed to address resistance, reduce residuals and work in synergy with our seed products. Corteva molecules and formulations feature properties such as low effective use rates, favourable environmental impact and minimal toxicological profile. We continue to build on two decades of leadership in Green Chemistry — with products such as Jemvelva, Rinskor, Adavelt and others but we are taking our commitment to sustainability even further.
To further address climate change, in 2021, Corteva signed a three-year project with the World Bank Group’s 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG) to promote sustainable rice farming on 40,000 acre in Uttar Pradesh.
The project aims to help 50,000 smallholder farmers replace water-intensive rice transplanting methods with Direct Seeded Rice (DSR). It also supports the state government to strengthen sustainability outcomes in rice production, putting emissions reduction, private sector-driven market linkages and agricultural water demand management at the core of sustainable agricultural growth and rural development in Uttar Pradesh.
Corteva is also running AcreNext next-generation rice farming programme in Punjab and Haryana and the water-scarce regions of Bihar. The programme aims at introducing Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) farming methods to improve the productivity and profitability of rice farming in India. Additionally, Corteva in partnership with PRADAN is helping Indian farmers, by replacing short-duration wheat in heavy soil and introducing farm mechanisation which increased household income, without disturbing their food security. This enabled farmers to access high-yield potential maize hybrids that were low-cost and suitable for their climate zone and get higher returns.
Q. How would the company react to the green signal given by the government for the testing of GM mustard in the country and also the use of drones?
The Indian agrochemical industry holds a prominent position on the global stage. India is the fourth-largest producer of agrochemicals in the world and the industry has a huge potential to grow further. India has fundamental advantages and with the right technology, investment and policies, I believe there are tremendous opportunities to unlock for the industry. It is important for the industry to have a future road map for investing or to remain invested in any technology.
Genetically modified crops are a topic of conversation – one we welcome. These crops are vital in helping farmers meet the need for sustainable and innovative solutions in agriculture, all while keeping the safety of humans, animals and the environment in mind. It is why we take the extensive studies and research on genetically modified crops seriously before these crops even make it to regulatory testing. There is no decision on the commercial cultivation of GM food crops yet. However, we are keenly watching for the readiness of the system and continue to engage in the agriculture biotech space with partners across the spectrum – farmers, consumers, legislators and regulators — and welcome the government’s decision. At Corteva, we believe innovation and empowerment go hand in hand. Our focus is always to bring in state-of-the-art technological advancements like drones to empower farmers’ livelihoods and increase their productivity and profitability.
The data-driven crop-management decisions whether it’s the use of AI or drones are all in an effort to boost yield, trim resource costs and improve the sustainability of their land. In particular, AI analyses data streams gathered by an array of field and crop sensors, drones and satellites to help farmers better understand crop and soil health and identify threats, such as pests or fungi, before they can be detected even by experienced farmers.
Moreover, our population is growing and consumers are increasingly demanding food that is healthier for their families and the planet. This means we need to grow more food that is better for people and the environment using fewer resources.
Source: Indianexpress

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Ganji Kamala V Rao Appointed as Chief Executive Officer at FSSAI: The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India’s Chief Executive Officer has been named as Shri Ganji Kamala V Rao IAS (FSSAI). Shri Ganji Kamala V Rao IAS is currently serving as the Managing Director of Indian Tourism Development Corporation Ltd.
Source: Currentaffairs.adda247

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Genomics India 2023, the 2- day extravaganza is here! A perfect amalgam of science and ideas that it is, our conference will discuss applications of genomics across various domains ranging from Diagnostics to Agriculture, Pharma to disease surveillance and much more!
Here are just a few more reasons why you should attend the GIC 2023:
Hear from world-renowned experts such as Nobel Laureate Prof. Harold Eliot Varmus, Unit Head of the WHO Dr. Anna Laura Ross, and Children’s National Research Institute’s Prof. Robert Freishtat. The list of speakers also includes Dr. Deus Ishengoma from the National Institute of Medical Research in Tanzania, Executive Chairman of HCG Dr. Ajai Kumar, and Dr. Umesh Shaligram from SII and many such global industry experts.
Here is a list if topics that will be discussed at GIC 2023 :
• Genomics for Rare disease diagnostics
• Better crops with Genomics based breeding
• Microbiomes and health
• Soil nutrients/micronutrients/microbes
• Precision medicine and diagnostics
• Biopharma and vaccines
• Predictive health and AI
• Sports and Reproductive medicine
• Genomics- understanding cells to ecosystems
• Genomics in infectious diseases
• Surveillance and pandemics.
Our Speakers :
• Dr. Robert Freishtat
• Dr. Mehdi Totonchi
• Dr. Pradeep Vaideeshwar
• Dr. Yogesh Shouche
• Samik Ghosh
• Prof Niyaz Ahmed
• Dr Anna Laura Ross
• Dr BS Ajaykumar
• Dr. Chakshusmathi Ghadiyaram
• Prof. Partha Majumder
• Dr. Kar Muthumani
• Prof. Anand Damodaran
• Dr Anurag Agarwal
• Dr. Michael Sagner
• Dr Manoj Gopalakrishnan
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn, grow, and connect with others in your field. Register now to take advantage of our early bird pricing, which ends on 31st December.
Register here – https://genomicsindia.co.in/registration/
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Co- Sponsors Dhiti Omics Technologies, Qtlomics

Sponsored By : MiBiome

Media Partner : Gubba

Team GIC looks forward to hosting you at the Genomics India Conference. See you on 2nd February 2023!
Source – corpcomm@genotypic.co.in

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With the growing global need for climate-resilient crops, scientists attended an ICRISAT pearl millet field day to select enhanced pearl millet bred by the globally leading drylands Institute.
A total of 81 scientists and breeders (30 from 21 public organizations and 51 from 26 private organizations) visited ICRISAT’s fields – rich in crop diversity – to select material for hybrid pearl millet development. ​
Pearl millet traits being increasingly sought include improved taste, longer flour shelf life, greater drought, and disease tolerance and forage varieties with higher protein and digestibility qualities.
Global participants
The groups which included participants from Japan, Brazil, Mali and India were welcomed by Dr SK Gupta, Principal Scientist of Pearl Millet breeding research at ICRISAT.
During the two-day biennial event held from the 3rd to the 4th of October, more than 17,000 breeding plots were made available for the breeders to select desirable traits and adaptations.
ICRISAT-bred parental lines as well as progenies at various stages of development were on display for the participants. Samples from 11,000 pearl millet breeding plots were selected of which 2,000 represented unique breeding plots that were selected by the participants.
In speaking to participants, Dr Sean Mayes, Global Research Program Director, Accelerated Crop Improvement Program also spoke of the challenges climate change poses to the agricultural sector and how ICRISAT was responding.
“ICRISAT has initiated multiple efforts such as forward breeding and shuttle breeding to enhance drought tolerance in its breeding lines. Some of the materials developed using these methods have been planted in the fields for selection to enhance genetic diversity in drought-prone environments,” said Dr Mayes.
Heat and drought tolerance materials were made available to the breeders, developed through shuttle breeding, cytoplasm-specific maintainers and restorers, good combiners, and different panicle shapes with varying lengths and thicknesses and lines derived using promising African material.
Participants made extensive selections of potential hybrid parents and breeding lines and commended the Institute on the genetic diversity on display and the meticulous way in which material had been organized.
As part of the visit, participants also visited the Blast and Downy Mildew (DM) nurseries to learn about screening protocols and to select disease-tolerant donor parents. They were briefed about the recently collected pearl millet germplasm from Eastern African countries by ICRISAT’s genebank scientists.
Participants were also able to view different types of other millet genetic resources held by the genebank ahead of the International Year of Millets 2023 and were subsequently briefed by Dr Kuldeep Singh, Cluster Head – Genebank.
Dr CV Ratnavathi, Director IIMR (Indian Institute of Millets Research), Hyderabad and Dr Tara Satyavathi, Project Coordinator, AICPMIP (All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project), Mandor commended ICRISAT for its contribution toward enhancing the productivity of pearl millet in India through its breeding efforts.
Dr Bijendra Pal and Dr RS Mahala from the seed industry hailed ICRISAT for providing improved germplasm to private sector partners that were effectively enhancing genetic diversity and genetic gains in the crop.
Two monographs were released during the scientist field day visits, one on the characterization of 104 designated seed parental lines bred at ICRISAT from 2005 to 2018, and the other on the characterization of 144 selected restorer parents designated between 2006 to 2019.
Hybrid Development for Africa
ICRISAT’s pearl millet research will also focus on hybrid development to better suit the geographies of select regional areas of Africa. To support this endeavour, Riyazuddin Mohammad, a pearl millet breeder from West and Central Africa participated in the event, to help replicate the Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (HPRC) for adoption in Africa.
Source: Krishakjagat

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Syngenta Crop Protection announces PLINAZOLIN® technology a new and innovative active ingredient with a novel Mode of Action (IRAC Group 30) for insect control that will help growers protect their crops from a wide range of pests. PLINAZOLIN® technology delivers a new standard of performance, particularly against pests for which existing products no longer can provide effective control. It provides an effective solution in resistance management strategies and replaces older, less effective chemistries. The sunlight stability and rain-resistant properties of PLINAZOLIN® technology allow for longer spray intervals and fewer applications aimed at improving crop productivity and quality. “The launch of this new technology is a result of our ongoing commitment to investing in the long-term development of innovative and effective solutions that increase crop productivity in an environmentally sustainable and responsible way. It’s exciting that growers in Argentina will be the first to benefit,” said Jon Parr, President Global Crop Protection at Syngenta. “Pests and diseases are a continually evolving threat, and the changing environment makes it even harder for farmers to grow their crops. Delivering farmers state-of-the-art and efficacious solutions to safeguard their crops is precisely what Syngenta Crop Protection is all about.” PLINAZOLIN® technology will deliver unprecedented insect control on stinkbugs, mites, thrips, caterpillars, flies, and beetles. It will be commercialized in more than 40 countries and in over 40 crops, including soybean, corn, rice, coffee, cotton, and a wide range of fruits and vegetables. The technology also has the potential to be used in forestry and professional pest management programs, and as a seed treatment application. PLINAZOLIN® technology will be marketed under the brand name VIRANTRA in Argentina. Further registrations will follow over the next two to five years.

Source: businesswire

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