Pandey, P. (2013), Moving Forward Responsibly: From Agribiotechnology to Agrinanotechnology in India, Asian Biotechnology and Development Review 15, 3, 81-101
The agribiotechnology debates in India over the last decade have set precedents for reflecting on the changing relationship between science and society. This article tries to engage with these lessons in order to stress the need to assimilate them while imagining new technological interventions such as nanotechnology for agriculture and their governance. While searching for an appropriate governance mechanism, the article opens up the parallel international debate on ‘Responsible Innovation’ (RI) in the context of emerging technologies, for scrutiny in the Indian context. In doing so, the article highlights the neglected power dynamics in the overall debates on responsible innovation and proposes a ‘beam-balance’ metaphor to engage with the idea of ‘Responsible Innovation’ in order to take the inequalities and alternative perspectives into account.