The fight led by M Prabhakara Rao, the head of Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, against global seed giant Monsanto Co erupted in 2015. What at first looked like a David-and-Goliath showdown – Monsanto’s $15 billion of sales that year were roughly 80 times that of the firm headquartered in the south India city of Hyderabad – quickly became an example of how the rules of doing business have changed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Late 2016 – The costs of the battle have shown up in Monsanto’s bottom line. In its 2016 annual report, the company says its sales of seeds