BANGALORE, India (AP) - In many parts of India and in much of its news media, the term "genetically modified crops" raises fears about long-term health defects or new diseases. 

However, scientists at the Bangalore Bio 2003 show in one of the country's technology hubs said genetically modified food could solve some of the basic problems of the country's more than 1 billion people, most of whom are poor. 

In India, 61 infants out of 1,000 die before their first birthday from disease or hunger. Doctors are fighting diseases such as malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis and jaundice. 

The scientists speaking up for genetically modified crops said fruits laced with vaccines, or a midday meal of protein-enriched potatoes and vitamin A-fortified rice could fight disease and malnourishment. 

"I have great belief that transgenic crops will create a revolution in increasing nutrition among our school children," biochemist Govindarajan Padmanabhan of the Indian Institute of Science, said Thursday at the biotechnology event. 

He said a group of scientists headed by Asis Dutta, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, has developed a potato _ named Protato _ that contains a third more protein than a normal potato. 

Many Indian groups who oppose genetically modified foods portray them as all Western-made. The Indian scientists made clear they are on the front lines of such developments. 

The gene-modified potato contains a gene called AmA1 taken from Amaranth, a plant common in South America and available in health food stores. The gene increases the potato's protein content, including some crucial amino acids, such as lysine, needed for complete development of a child's brain. 

The transgenic potato, developed last year after three years of field study, awaits approval from the Indian government before it can be sold, Padmanabhan said. 

He also urged that India embrace the use of "Golden Rice," a strain that includes beta-carotene, which gives the carrot its golden color and is a rich source of vitamin A. 

Lack of this vitamin contributes to blindness. 

The strain, created by Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus and his German collaborator, Peter Beyer, contains two genes from the daffodil flower and one from a bacterium. 

Vaccine expert M.S. Shaila, also of the Indian Institute of Science, said genes could be added to fruits and vegetables that give them power to prevent diseases. 

This way, children would eat their favorite fruit or vegetable without knowing they were being given a vaccine, which many now associate with painful injections, she said. 

"The normal practice is to inject proteins or give them orally to children to achieve immunity. Instead, we can use plants as factories that produce antigens against disease-causing agents. It can be done both for viral and bacterial diseases," she said. 

Padmanabhan said Indian scientists are also researching the possibility of a gene-modified "universal vaccine" _ one plant that will protect a person from several diseases. 

He favors using the genes of illness-fighting native herbs to modify fruits and vegetables eaten daily. 

Padmanabhan said India has begun to benefit from modern biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences only in the last five years and cannot compete with advanced countries. 

"Our advantage is traditional medicines, mostly from herbals that our ancient texts refer to," he said. "We must validate them, standardize them and use them in transgenic crops." 

He said activists who oppose genetic modification of plants were preoccupied with BT cotton, the only genetically modified crop allowed in India on a commercial basis. It has had mixed success. 

Environmentalists are fighting against genetically modified cotton seeds sold by the Monsanto company, saying they will damage the soil and ecology and increase the cost of cultivation. 

"We are bogged down by (the debate over) BT and nothing else. This uninformed criticism will retard growth," Padmanabhan said.