• The world’s first genetically modified (GM) rubber plant was planted at the Rubber Board’s Sarutari research farm near Guwahati in Assam.

• The plant was developed at the Kerala-based Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) through long years of research at its biotechnology laboratory.

• The genetically modified rubber plant, the first of its kind developed exclusively for this region, is expected to grow well under the climatic conditions of the mountainous northeastern region.

Insertion of MnSOD

• K.N. Raghavan, chairman and executive director of Rubber Board said the GM rubber plant would be a game-changer in natural rubber cultivation in India, with additional copies of the gene MnSOD (manganese-containing superoxide dismutase) inserted in it.

• The MnSOD gene has the ability to protect the plants from the adverse effects of severe environmental stresses such as cold, drought etc.

• The MnSOD gene used in the GM rubber was taken from the rubber plant itself. Its copies were multiplied in the laboratory and reinserted into a cell of the rubber plant which was then regenerated into a full plant that is now planted in the field.

Rubber Board

• The Rubber Board is a statutory body constituted under Section 4 of the Rubber Act, 1947 and functions under the administrative control of the ministry of commerce and industry. 

• The Board is headed by a chairman appointed by the central government and has 29 members representing various interests of natural rubber industry.

• The executive and administrative powers of the Board are vested with the executive director. 

• The Board’s headquarters is located at Kottayam in Kerala. 

• The developmental and regulatory functions pertaining to the entire value chain of the Indian rubber industry are discharged by the Board by way of assisting and encouraging research, development, extension and training activities related to natural rubber (NR). 

• The functions of the Board also include maintaining statistics of rubber, promoting marketing of rubber and undertaking labour welfare activities. 

• The Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), established in 1955, is situated at Kottayam in Kerala and has nine Regional Research Stations (RRS) located in various rubber growing states of the country.

• RRII takes up research activities for ensuring biological and technological improvement of natural rubber in the country. 

• The Board also has a training department — Rubber Training Institute (RTI) —  located at Kottayam and acts as the link between research and extension activities for technology transfer.  

• Rubber Board has the mandate for human resource development in all sectors of the natural rubber industry comprising production, processing, product manufacturing, marketing and consuming sectors and has a significant role in the development of the rubber industry.

Natural Rubber

• Natural Rubber, a commercial plantation crop from the tree species Hevea brasiliensis, is grown in tropical humid climatic conditions. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and India are major producers of natural rubber.

• The major consumers are China, India, US, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. 

• Rubber is largely perceived as a strategic industrial raw material and accorded special status globally for defence, national security and industrial development.

• Rubber is an internationally traded commodity and its price is influenced  by trends in economic growth, production in major producing countries and demand in major consuming countries. 

• Domestic prices generally follow the trends in the international market and are therefore, subjected to fluctuations in price.

• Traditional rubber-growing states comprising Kerala and Tamil Nadu account for 81 per cent of production in India. Major non-traditional rubber growing regions are the Northeast states of Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Rubber Goods Industry

• The Indian rubber industry is broadly divided into tyre and non-tyre sectors.

• According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), India is the fifth largest producer of natural rubber, second largest consumer of natural rubber, fifth largest consumer of natural rubber and synthetic rubber together in the world.

• India is also the world’s largest manufacturer of reclaimed rubber. 

• The turnover of rubber industry is estimated to be approx Rs 85,000 crore which comprises Rs 55,000 crore from tyre industry and 30,000 crore (non-tyre including latex industry) during 2020-21. 

• There are around 500 latex industries involved majorly to manufacture latex rubber goods using the latex obtained from the natural rubber trees.

• The rubber goods industry excluding tyres and tubes consists of 4,550 small and tiny units generating about 5.50 lakh direct jobs. 

• The rubber industry manufactures a wide range of products like rubber cots and aprons, contraceptives, footwear, rubber hoses, cables, camelback, battery boxes, latex products, conveyor belts, surgical gloves, balloons, rubber moulded goods etc. 

• The estimated export of rubber goods during 2020-21 is Rs 8,252 crore as against Rs 8,921 crore in 2019-20. The estimated import of rubber goods during 2020-21 is Rs 12,908 crore as against Rs 14,446 crore in 2019-20.

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