Most of the research on crop biotechnology currently underway in India is being supported by the Government and the DBT has been the main agency amongst government departments to support research endeavours in this area. The DBT has supported over the last 12 years a large number of research projects which deal with the development of in vitro regeneration and genetic transformation protocols of important crop species grown in India, the development of transgenics with genes of agronomic importance and several projects dealing with basic research in plant molecular biology.