India, Sept. 22 -- India has always been one of the world's biggest users of crop protection chemicals but never a source of them; the underlying molecules have historically been discovered by multinational agrochemical majors abroad and simply licensed, formulated or manufactured here. Homegrown discovery research has been rare because it is punishingly expensive and slow, and Indian companies have mostly built their strength around manufacturing scale rather than original chemistry. A domestically discovered molecule getting regulatory clearance is therefore a genuinely uncommon event in this industry.

Shares of PI Industries Ltd. closed at Rs. 2,400.00, up 3.42 percent from previous close of Rs. 2,321.80. The stock opened at Rs. 2,36...