Bluntness marks Ashish Bose who has destroyed more myths about India’s development and population growth than anyone else. No government, says the country’s foremost demographer, is capable of tackling the population problem because it is incapable of understanding the issue or doing anything about it. Since the infamous nasbandi (sterilisation) programme of Sanjay Gandhi which led to the defeat of Indira Gandhi in the 1977 election, governments have been afraid to take the problem head on.

In an interview to Latha Jishnu, Bose minces no words in dismissing the current fixation of the government—and the world —with India’s demographic dividend. This is a term used to describe the period when a greater proportion of the population of a country is young and in the working age-group. This enables the state to cut spending on dependants and is expected to spur economic growth. But, far from providing a dividend, the number of the young in India will be a demographic nightmare, he warns. “We have millions of anguta chhaaps (people who sign with their fingerprints because they are illiterate) and what is the outlook for them?” Bose, 82, pioneered the study of population at Delhi’s Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) where he headed its Population Research Centre for decades. He has sifted through enormous amounts of data, classified and segregated it, and written dozens of books and magazine articles that have helped us understand how and where our numbers have grown and why.

But the emeritus professor’s forte is not just numbers. He is a sharp observer of economic and sociological phenomena and a great believer in field research. Once, when he lay ill in a Delhi nursing home, he stated a survey about Kerala nurses that uncovered eye-opening facts about their social and economic profile. Bose is a fascinating raconteur who has dozens of delightful anecdotes about his encounters with prime ministers, lesser ministers and bureaucrats on the population issue. Excerpts from the interview

India is learning that there is a heavy price to be paid for the large number of bilateral investment treaties, or BITs, it has signed in the hope of attracting foreign investment. In recent months, a slew of global investors upset with policy changes made by the government are seeking huge compensation from India in international arbitration. They are using provisions of the various BITs to seek not just monetary damages but also revocation of regulatory measures and key decisions such as on taxation.

Latha Jishnu outlines the threats such treaties pose by highlighting the most alarming investor complaints that have been filed worldwide against the state. If India does not review its investment policies and trade agreements and build in adequate safeguards, it could be in for worse shocks

Supreme Court upholds amended law that bars patents for insignificant improvements to an existing drug—in this case anti-cancer drug imatinib mesylate

Budget outlays will not do much for job creation or readying youth for skilled work

Budget 2013 pushed up allocations for agriculture, but it will not help farmers

In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur across the political spectrum of nations, even in liberal democracies. In the run-up to the just-concluded World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai, there was a frenzied campaign to ensure that governments kept their hands off the Internet. It was feared the International Telecommunications Union, a UN body, was aiming to take control of the Internet. That hasn’t happened. But the outcome in Dubai has highlighted once again the double speak on freedom by countries that claim to espouse it and by corporations interested in protecting their interests, says Latha Jishnu, who warns that the major threat to the Internet freedom comes from the wide-ranging surveillance measures that all governments are quietly adopting. Dinsa Sachan speaks to institutions and officials to highlight the primacy of cyber security for nations, while Moyna tracks landmark cases that will have a bearing on how free the Net remains in India

Are Geographical Indications safeguarding the interests of growers and artisans?

New flexibilities make public interest safeguards integral to drug patent rights

Weeks after expert committee recommended moratorium Supreme Court agrees to agriculture ministry's request to add new member to panel

Experts to study socio-economic aspects of GMO release

Supreme Court-mandated expert committee recommends new tests in thorough overhaul of India’s regulatory regime

Michael Antoniou, head of the Nuclear Biology Group in the UK, has been studying the health effects of genetically modified (GM) crops since 1995. He hastens to add, however, that he does no research himself on the issue since his specialisation is human molecular genetics, a subject he teaches at King’s College London School of Medicine. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, he explains why the new research by Seralini et al on long-term toxicity of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and Roundup-tolerant GM maize has important pointers to human health risks

Balakrishna Pisupati is in the hot seat as chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), where he has to deal with regulatory and conservation issues against the backdrop of a precipitous loss of biodiversity and increasing cases of biopiracy.
He comes well equipped for that task, being among a handful of people in the country with two decades of experience in dealing with issues of conservation and formulating policy at the local, national, regional and global levels. He has had stints at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN University’s Institute of Advanced Studies based in Yokohama, Japan, and with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
 
Before taking over as NBA chairperson, Pisupati was directing UNEP’s project on biodiversity, land law and governance programme from Nairobi where he served as the focal point for UNEP multilateral environmental agreements. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, he explains the various challenges he is tackling.

AquAgri pays highest sum in royalty but benefits do not reach people

The Convention on Biological Diversity, 20 years on, is still struggling to stem the precipitous decline in biodiversity. After missing the 2010 target of reducing biodiversity loss, it is now pulling out all stops to meet the Aichi Targets, named after the Japanese prefecture where new goals for protection were set two years ago. As time runs out to protect the world’s ‘natural capital’, the forthcoming CBD conference in Hyderabad will discuss innovative ways of financing biodiversity from partnerships with business to payments for ecosystem services. Will this save the planet, asks Latha Jishnu

The US appeals court has upheld the patents for isolated human genes, ignoring scientists’ warning that it would obstruct vital research and discovery

Tirupati temple wins its Geographical Indications case on a specious logic; registry order sidesteps fundamental issues

Legendary scientist James Watson files court brief against lunacy of gene patents

Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material

The Brazilian lawsuit against Monsanto’s royalty on soybean seeds exposes the irrational way in which laws apply to GM crops

Government takes seven years to admit Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha and return to Desi varieties

Amending the Copyright Act to give directors, composers and musicians rights over their work has corrected a historic wrong but trouble is brewing

Deepak Pental, former vice-chancellor of Delhi University and currently director of the university’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, is as controversial as scientists can get in India. He has come under flak from fellow scientists who ripped apart his paper “Detrimental effect of expression of Bt endotoxin Cry1Ac on in vitro regeneration, in vivo growth and development of tobacco and cotton transgenics” (written with 10 other scientists) and published in the June 2011 issue of the Journal of Biosciences. However, the lobby against genetically modified (GM) crops loved it because it bolstered their case and they distributed the paper widely. But Pental continues to be in the cross-hair of the anti-GM activists who oppose his GM mustard (Brassica juncea) and its field trials in Rajasthan. Pental, who has spent the last 16 years developing this mustard, returns the compliment by calling the activists “hysterical people you cannot communicate with”. In an interview to Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood, the geneticist says both scientists and activists are locked into their respective positions, making rational debate impossible. Even scientists, he says, are not willing to discuss issues related with transgenics candidly

The biotech seed giant sues a farmer for planting unbranded commodity seeds bought in the open market for patent infringement

Genetically modified (GM) mustard hybrid DMH-11 developed by Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants ran into trouble in March when the Rajasthan government suddenly withdrew permission for the field trials. Developed after 16 years of research by Deepak Pental, director of the centre, the GM mustard is being promoted by the National Dairy Development Board, which supplies cooking oil to the domestic market under the brand Dhara. So far the board, along with the Department of Biotechnology and the European Union among others, has put in around Rs 45 crore in this project which uses the interplay of the barnase and barstar genes to produce high oil yielding mustard (Brassica juncea). These genes come from a soil bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. In an interview to Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood, Pental explains why it is important for India to move forward in research on transgenic crops. Excerpts:

The compulsory licence granted to Natco may not be a trendsetter but it will shake up the pharmaceuticals market

The denial of a patent on a medical test that correlates drug dosages with treatment could mean the end of human gene patents

Jack A. Heinemann, professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, has expertise in genetic engineering, bacterial genetics and biosafety. As director of the University’s Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety (INBI) since 2001, has contributed in no small measure to a better understanding and management of emerging biotechnologies.

INBI, says the academic, has special responsibility for developing tools that improve safety assessments of genetically modified organisms. These tools are aimed at helping government regulators and scientists with other specialities to access the best available and latest research and apply it to hazard identification. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, Heinemann explains why he was taken aback by the way Mahyco’s Bt brinjal data was assessed by the GEAC, the regulator, and its experts committees.

Bureaucrats sit on file, while GM mustard sails through

Europe is on the boil over an anti-piracy bill that will curb Internet freedom but its impact on trade in generic medicines is not on the radar

ICAR sets up independent investigation into Bt Bikaneri Narma research scam

The fight to protect Internet freedom turns into war of attrition as protests against US measures to curb piracy grow strident

Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, conference presentations and a monograph, Investment Treaty Arbitration and Public Law (Oxford University Press). This treatise presents a public law critique of investment treaty arbitration and proposes the setting up of an international investment court made up of tenured judges to ensure independence and accountability in investor-state disputes. Van Harten is associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, where he teaches international investment law and governance of the international financial system. He was previously on faculty at the London School of Economics. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, he explains how states are at risk from investment treaties. Excerpts:
 

Private policing of Internet backed by courts is leading to censorship that affects everyone

Gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels and also more efficient and cheaper to use. Yet, in India, there has been no policy focus on this fuel, leading to a huge mess in critical sectors. Investments of Rs 35,000 crore made in the power sector will remain stranded unless projects get assured gas supplies in coming months. Similarly, funds sunk in the fertiliser sector, too, face a bleak outlook. Much of the problem stems from the sudden, controversial stoppage of supplies from Reliance Industries’ D6 fields, the largest producer of gas. Added to this is the country’ s singular inability to tie up long-term supplies from gas-rich countries. As such, hopes of turning India into a largely gas-based economy and reducing carbon intensity have been dashed, finds Latha Jishnu

As the Internet becomes the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Its potential for diffusing knowledge and subverting the traditional channels of information is tremendous. So it is not surprising that governments, corporations and even seemingly innocuous social networking sites all want to control and influence the way the Internet operates. It’s easy to see why. Close to a third of humanity is linked to this system—and the dramatic growth in Internet usage over the past decade is set to explode in coming years. So is its commercial promise. Latha Jishnu looks at events in the US following the WikiLeaks exposé of its diplomatic cables, and in the hot spots of political turmoil across the world to understand the significance of the Internet in today’s interconnected world and the threats it faces. Arnab Pratim Dutta explains the technology used to block access to the Net

Rice is at the heart of a fierce strategy debate as the country prepares to launch the second Green Revolution in the eastern states. Policymakers and scientists have drawn up ambitious plans to increase the productivity of this cereal which feeds two-thirds of Indians.

Enormous funds are being poured into research aimed at improving seed varieties, with a heavy focus on developing hybrid rice. Is it the right option for millions of small rice farmers who are already battling high input costs and increasingly unpredictable weather? Or does part of the solution lie in efficient methods of cultivation that will cut down water use and improve yield?

Latha Jishnu analyses these varied strands as she visits research institutes and gets down into the paddy fields of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to understand what might work. She discovers that traditional rice varieties are making a significant comeback in Odisha—as in Karnataka, where Aparna Pallavi finds some farmers have abandoned high-yielding varieties in favour of indigenous varieties and organic farming to meet the challenges of climate change.

From West Bengal, Sayantan Bera reports that the largest rice producing state has a different set of problems to contend with if it has to reap the promise of the new Green Revolution.

Reaching food to people who need it the most has remained one of the most stubborn problems in India. The public distribution system (PDS) is in a shambles in most parts of the country with the poor unable to get their quota of foodgrains despite the biggest build-up of government stocks in recent times. A chunk of the grain mountain is rotting for want of storage space and effective mechanism for releasing adequate stocks in times of high food inflation.

Is it time we dismantled the largely corrupt and inefficient PDS and switched to food coupons or cash transfers as some economists suggest? Some states have introduced food coupons but there is no certainty these will work any better. On the other hand, the Food Security Bill envisages an expanded PDS to cover a larger population. Can the system be streamlined?

Latha Jishnu and Ravleen Kaur analyse the different facets of managing the food economy and find that the PDS could become highly efficient if innovation and technology are harnessed to political will, as Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu did. These states offer valuable lessons in resolving the problems of procurement, storage and allocation of basic food items.

Aparna Pallavi, Ashutosh Mishra and Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, who travelled across large parts of the tribal belt, report on the extent of the problem that most destitute people face in getting their meagre rations, month after month. They highlight the urgent need to get food across to the large swathe of malnourished and chronically hungry people in the hinterland

Mother Dairy’s retail model helps farmers but is under pressure from chains

The Doha Declaration on protecting public health is a decade old, but developing countries have not been able to make use of TRIPs flexibilities

As a visiting American academic, Glenn Davis Stone has put in over 60 weeks of field research on the impact of Bt cotton on farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Stone, professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Washington University, looks closely at how traditional farmer knowledge breaks down when technology changes too fast. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, he explains why this should cause concern

Cotton cultivators are on a seed and pesticide treadmill that is draining them of traditional skills
 

ICAR tells Rajasthan to wait for guidelines on benefit sharing, biosafety

Regulating the Internet to keep it free of pressures from governments and corporate interests is turning tougher for the UN

Judges have recused themselves in a number of cases but there are no clear guidelines on what constitutes conflict of interest
 

Biotech firms object to states getting a say in approving GM crop trials

The Swiss pharma giant’s challenge to India’s patent law, now in the Supreme Court, may help define drug efficacy

Sharad Pawar’s provision for protecting test data in the Pesticides Bill could spill over into trade agreements and hit the drugs industry, too

Developing countries will now have to battle IP issues related to new agricultural technologies at WIPO instead of WTO

Flat yields for five years and rising insecticide use are jeopardising the success of Bt cotton technology

Pharma and biotech firms are lobbying hard to block disclosure of origin of genetic material used in inventions, but they also raise thorny issues

The rich world’s mania for patenting seeds and pushing the UPOV agenda do not aid food security or biological diversity

American organic farmers are trying to ensure the biotech giant cannot sue them

A crack in the western part of the red mud pond of Vedanta Alumina refinery has leaked into nearby water bodies and hence into the Vamsadhara river.

Google’s digital library project went too far, creating a monopoly over the heritage of books

Secrecy, fettered regulator are a worry as India plans nuclear expansion

The budget is more concerned about the consumer than the grower

Inclusion of intellectual property in bilateral investment agreements is injurious to the health of developing nations

As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers come together to devise ways to protect shared resources

Inter-Academy update on GM crops does little to redeem Indian science

The US seizure of domain names on the web is ostensibly a crackdown on online piracy but it could end up as censorship

India’s generic medicines export faces a huge threat from the anti-counterfeiting law which creates barriers to global trade

The access and benefit-sharing protocol on biodiversity may do little to deter multinationals from grabbing the planet’s resources

By ending ownership of ideas we can banish ignorance and change human history

We need spectacle in the capital, not mundane things like schools and hospitals in villages

US criticises India and BRIC group for strengthening provisions on life-saving medicines

India’s patent law excludes software per se, yet over a thousand patents have been granted

Alumina refinery’s illegal expansion under scanner

The Seed Bill takes away states’ power to regulate seed prices, could lead to Centre-state confrontation

Going by the Kudankulan example, India’s nuclear power generation target is a pie in the sky

Rich countries gang up for a more strident intellectual property rights regime