Discuss the significance of Digital Sequence Information for benefit-sharing under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and India's stake in the debate.

Digital Sequence Information (DSI) is genetic data, such as DNA sequences, that is stored and shared online, often in open databases. Firms can now use a useful gene without ever touching the physical sample. That is why Target 13 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) extends fair benefit-sharing to DSI [1]. For a megadiverse provider like India, this closes a widening loophole.

Significance of DSI for benefit-sharing

• Closes the digital loophole: traditional Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) depends on access to physical samples. Sequences downloaded from public databases avoided both consent and payment. Target 13 now covers DSI [1].
• Global fund: COP 16 (Cali, 2024) set up the Cali Fund. Large users should pay an indicative 1% of profits or 0.1% of revenue [2].
• Sectors covered: the indicative list includes pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biotechnology and plant and animal breeding [2].
• Community focus: at least half of the fund should meet the needs of indigenous peoples and local communities [2].
• Protects open science: public databases and academic institutions are not expected to pay [2].
• Still unfinished: contributions are expected, not enforced. COP 17 must fix the thresholds, rates and allocation formula [2].

India's stake

• Provider interest: seed companies already pay ABS for Indian crop resources, including the Rs 2.02 crore disbursed in October 2026 [3]. As breeders shift to sequence data, these payments could dry up unless DSI is captured.
• Communities may lose out: when the people owed a share could not be traced, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) divided the money by crop cultivation area [3]. A State-routed Cali Fund could repeat this. The 2023 amendment also left "codified traditional knowledge" undefined and set up no prior informed consent mechanism [4].
• Diplomatic leverage: India presents its ABS record under Targets 13 and 19 ahead of COP 17 in Yerevan [3].
• Dual role: as a biotech and generics hub, India also uses DSI. It must balance provider gains against costs to its own industry.
• Domestic alignment: Parties are asked to align national DSI rules with the global mechanism to avoid double payment [2].

DSI moves benefit-sharing from samples to data, and India gains from both its genetic wealth and its research base. At COP 17, India should push for firmer contribution rates and direct payment routes to communities. At home, it should use People's Biodiversity Registers to trace landraces and define codified knowledge narrowly. Together, these would deliver Target 13's promise of fairness and the spirit of SDG 15.