A bitter dose

cipla Limited of Mumbai has invited the wrath of multinationals companies (mncs) for offering to sell aids drugs at a cheap prices. The company proposes to sell the medicines to non-government organisations and doctors who would then distribute it in South Africa, where aids cases are high.

Foot in mouth disease

It was Henry Ford who invented the assembly line system of manufacturing automobiles and today the car is a victim of its own success. Therefore it is not surprising that Europe is stricken by a crisis, which is the result of the factory-like food production techniques adopted in the Continent today. Has the European agricultural machine run out of steam?

MIAMI GROUP VS rest of the world

on a radio programme aired on a popular international station, representatives of the plant biotechnology industry likened the fear for genetically modified organisms (gmos) to the initial fear of vaccinations. Both, they claimed, are equally unfounded and come in the way of benefits to humankind. Just as vaccinations put an end to dreaded diseases, plant biotechnology could put an end to world hunger and malnutrition.

Heard at the conference

"Children in India remain malnourished while foodgrains rot in our granaries. The key to this is proper management of our granaries." V Ramalingaswami National Research Professor "There's a big gap between scientific research and application. We have crude facts of science, locked up in laboratories and research institutes, but we cannot make them available and applicable for the common person." N Kochupillai

Threatened industry

the biotech industry in the us is receiving brickbats from all directions. Some key grain processors, such as A E Staley Manufacturing, which is the us corn processing unit of British commodity firm Tate & Lyle Public Limited Corporation, are discouraging farmers from growing genetically modified ( gm ) crops. It could not have been better timed, coming at the peak of the seed selling season, say experts.

In the red

Protest in the backwaters

vypeen Island in the backwaters of Cochin, Kerala, has been rocked by protests against government plans on development of the island. "The government wants to sell reclaimed land of the island to multinationals to build a bridge to the island," says Jacob Vadakkancherry, chairperson of Swasraya Vypeen (sv), a voluntary organisation.

Haunted by the past

allegations that the oil multinational Shell aided and abetted the torture and murder of Nigerian activists -- including the executed writer Ken Saro-Wiwa -- will be tested by a full jury trial in New York, after the oil company's attempts to have the case thrown out were rejected.

Food safety

The recent flooding of untested and unlabelled genetically engineered foods, such as soybean oil, potato chips and milk in the markets and also food received from some international organisations for victims of the Orissa cyclone has caused widespread panic in farmers.

UN PLc

For many developing countries, the un represents half a chance at fair play in an increasingly globalised world. Many see it as their only chance of countering the World Trade Organisation's obsession with free trade. Many of them prefer to strengthen the un rather than create an altogether new World Environment Organisation to protect their local environment and the rights of their indigenous communities from a trade organisation that only recognises the might of multinational corporations.