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3. Certain persons not to undertake Biodiversity related activities without approval of National Biodiversity Authority
(1) No person referred to in sub-section (2) shall, without previous approval of the National Biodiversity Authority, obtain any biological resource occurring in India or knowledge associated thereto for research or for commercial utilisation or for bio-survey and bio-utilisation.
(2) The persons who shall be required to take the approval of the National Biodiversity Authority under sub-section (1) are the following, namely:—
(a) a person who is not a citizen of India;
(b) a citizen of India, who is a non-resident as defined in clause (30) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);
(c) a body corporate, association or organisation—
(i) not incorporated or registered in India; or
(ii) incorporated or registered in India under any law for the time being in force, which is controlled by a foreigner within the meaning of clause (27) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013).
Note: Sub-clause (ii) of clause (c) of sub-section (2) was substituted by the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023 (10 of 2023), with effect from 1 April 2024. The Chapter II heading was also amended to read “Regulation of Access to Biological Resources”.
