India takes the chair, to guide world on biosafety

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India formally took over the reins of conserving the world’s biological diversity on Monday, with a call to nations to speed up the process of ratifying the Cartagena Protocol on bio-safety and sustainable use of biological resources.

The change in guard took place at the start of the three-week Conference of Parties (COP-11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity here. Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who inaugurated the CoP-11, took over the chair of the CBD from Japan.

India, as the host nation, will guide the 193-member CBD for the next two years in formulating
scientifically-designed risk assessment of living modified organisms, which include GM crops, and mobilisation of funds and resources to implement the CBD protocols on biosafety and biodiversity.

CoP-11 handbook mixes up Telugu
Learning a smattering of Telugu from the official guidebook can be detrimental for CoP-11 delegates during their stay in the city, thanks to the bad translation work done on a compilation of everyday words in the language.

The delegates’ handbook, supplied by the ministry of forest and environment, has several errors. The chapter titled Getting around Hydera-bad, has common words spoken locally with their equivalents in English, Telugu and Hindi. For instance, the word “excuse me” in English is translated as “Mee Avasaram Leedu” in Telugu, which actually says: “I do not need you.” “No, thank you” has been translated as “Kadhu/Danyavadhalu”. Another incorrect translation is for “What is the time now?”: “Samayamu prasthuama yenti”. It should have been either “time enthaindhi” or “samayam enthaindhi”. “Do you know a reasonably priced place with good Indian food?” is translated as “Yekkada manchi food dorukuthindhi takuva rate lo?”. The translators should have used the word “bhojanam” for food.