India, as a party to the Convention on Biodiversity and having ratified the Cartagena Protocol (CP) is committed to the safe handling of living or genetically modified organisms (LMOs or GMOs).  CP provides a broad framework on biosafety especially focusing on transboundary movements of GMOs and also covers seeds that are meant for intentional release in the environment, as well as those GMOs that are intended for food, feed or used in food processing.  A number of countries have drafted their biosafety regulatory framework taking into consideration the socioeconomic aspects of release of GMOs, the common feature emphasised being the health and economic loss due to the release of such GMOs.  Besides many countries have also emphasised the labeling requirements to enable consumers to make a choice.  In the case of India, the regulatory framework, does not adequately emphasise the socio economic aspects, the need for which has been realised after the release of GMO; in the environment.  To examine the implications more research is going on in both public and private sector in India.  The major lacuna in the Indian system of adoption of GMO was, the failure of the monitoring of the GM crop after the commercial release to ensure proper implementation of biosafety measures.  Failure to adopt bio safety measures, irrational use of pesticides and an indiscriminate crossing of the unapproved variety could lead to wide spread pest resistance and resurgence and leading to a potential technology not utilised optimally.