Science and Technology › Biotechnology
Agricultural and food biotechnology
Biotechnology on the farm and in the fish pond: genetically modified and genome edited crops and their regulation, crop and animal genomes, breeding technologies, fish farming systems and food grown from cells. Prelims has asked how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture and about biofilters in recirculating aquaculture.
4 Aug 2026 · Prelims
Pigeonpea telomere-to-telomere genome
Pigeonpea is the pulse sold as arhar or tur. A draft genome stops at the repetitive stretches that sequencing cannot assemble, which is where the centromeres and the telomeres sit. Closing those stretches is the whole difference between this assembly and the draft that came before it. A genome read from one chromosome end to the other is what lets a trait be placed on a chromosome, and a breeder then go after it.
752.65 millionbase pairs in the genome
11chromosomes, with their centromeres
22telomeres, the chromosome ends
36,557genes annotated
- The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) released India's first telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome, of the pigeonpea variety 'Asha', and deposited it at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
- The gapless sequence is now the global reference genome for the crop.
- The same institute produced the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop, also pigeonpea, in 2011.
- Molecular breeding and genome editing both need the precision a gapless assembly gives, and in pulses they serve the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, the national effort to make India self-reliant in pulses.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2017: how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture
PIB, 4 Aug 2026: India's first telomere-to-telomere genome: pigeonpea (opens in a new tab)
Aquaculture
India farms more fish than ever, and the growth is being pushed into systems that use very little water. Two of them carry the scheme money, recirculating tanks and biofloc ponds, and both work by raising the fish stocked per unit of water rather than by asking for more pond and more land.
Also drawn on, not yet tied to one subject: PIB, 7 Sep 2026: Next-Gen Aquaculture in India: Harnessing RAS and Bio-floc Technology in the Blue Economy for the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat Vision (opens in a new tab)
7 Sep 2026 · Prelims
Recirculatory Aquaculture System
Fish waste turns to ammonia, and ammonia is what limits how many fish a tank can hold. Take it out of the water and the same water will carry a far heavier stock.
- The biofilter of a Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) converts the ammonia in fish waste first into nitrite and then into nitrate.
- That is what lets the system reuse 90 to 95 per cent of its water and stock its tanks intensively all year.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2023: biofilters in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems
7 Sep 2026 · Prelims
Biofloc technology
The other route to the same end needs no filter and no tank, and works the pond water itself. What cleans the water there also feeds the fish.
- Biofloc technology, or heterotrophic pond farming, grows beneficial microbes in the pond water, which clump together and clean it.
- Those clumps are eaten by the fish, so the pond grows part of its own feed.
- Because the water is cleaned where it stands, little or none of it is exchanged.
10 Sep 2026 · 7 Sep 2026 · Prelims
Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana
Both systems are built with money from the same scheme. Six years of it are the backdrop to a harvest that has more than doubled since 2013-14.
- The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), launched in 2020 on the base of the earlier Blue Revolution scheme, supports both recirculating and biofloc units.
- Fish production reached a record 197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.
- India is second in world fish production, at about 8 per cent of global output, and first in shrimp production and exports.
Also filed elsewhere
- Mutation breeding · on Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance
Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.