UPSC Prelims 2018 · Question 63 of 99

UPSC Prelims 2018 question on GM Mustard

With reference to the Genetically Modified mustard (GM mustard) developed in India, consider the following statements:

1. GM mustard has the genes of a soil bacterium that give the plant the property of pest-resistance to a wide variety of pests.
2. GM mustard has the genes that allow the plant cross-pollination and hybridization.
3. GM mustard has been developed jointly by the IARI and Punjab Agricultural University.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 and 3 only
  2. 2 only
  3. 2 and 3 only
  4. 1, 2 and 3
Show answer

Answer: B. 2 only

Verdict

Only statement 2 is correct, so the answer is (b) 2 only.

Statement by statement

Statement 1 is INCORRECT and statement 2 is CORRECT, and the two turn on the same fact. According to its developers, India's GM mustard does use a system of genes from a soil bacterium, but the purpose is to make the plant better suited to hybridisation than existing methods, not to confer resistance to a wide variety of pests.

Statement 3 is INCORRECT. GM mustard was developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants at the University of Delhi, under the leadership of Deepak Pental, a former vice-chancellor of the university, not jointly by IARI and Punjab Agricultural University.

Source

Indian Express report on GM mustard receiving clearance from the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee.

How to crack it

Statement 1 is a partial truth, which is the hardest kind to refute. The soil bacterium detail is genuinely present, and it is carried over from what everyone knows about Bt cotton, then attached to the wrong purpose. When a statement pairs a fact you recognise with a function, verify the function separately, because UPSC's current affairs distractors are usually built by keeping the noun and swapping the purpose.

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