Old wisdom, new threats
Traditional knowledge has long been under threat but the proposed text of talks at World Intellectual Property Office is unlikely to protect it …
A Fair Deal?
DTE Senior Editor Latha Jishnu explains how the access and benefit sharing protocol on biodiversity is -- and isn't -- a fair deal for …
A deadly virus of patenting
A Dutch institute's patent application on the MERS virus raises concerns about public health
India's gold follies and food security
Why are lawmakers so ready to forego huge tax revenues on gold but baulk at spending on food for the poor?
Workers don’t count
The recent strike reflects how the workers’ bargaining power has been crushed, and the impotence of the Left to lead them
Making labour the fall guy
BJP thinks undoing labour laws will spur a manufacturing boom. Even now workers enjoy little protection or social security
Who owns our identity?
Between Nilekani’s UID and National Population Register’s KYR+is a huge mess and a looming nightmare
Waging war on state
Why are the dispossessed accused of undermining the nation when it is crooked politicians, businessmen who are destroying it?
Our Frugal Innovation
India is working on a model of inclusive innovation to provide solutions for people at the bottom of the heap. Will it work?
Doing very nicely without IPRs
We need to re-imagine the role of the state in creating knowledge without intellectual property rights
If only we'd listened to Kosambi
India shelved solar energy in favour of nuclear energy and now we are miles behind China and the US
Mindless on ‘reform’
Reforms in India have become synonymous with opening up to foreign capital. Does it reform our corrupt polity or institutions?
Blood on the Internet
Governments are censoring digital content on the ground that it infringes intellectual property rights or offends people. Can they be stopped?
Modi and irrational exuberance
India's youth is pinning its hopes of jobs on the development promise of Modi. Can he deliver?
Cotton saga unravels
Flat yields for five years and rising insecticide use are jeopardising the success of Bt cotton technology
In praise of open-source innovation
India slams mania for patents and says open-source models work better to spur innovation
God’s Invincible Laddoo
Tirupati temple wins its Geographical Indications case on a specious logic; registry order sidesteps fundamental issues
Annoying the US, our way
Despite close cooperation with American enforcement officials, US unhappy with India’s report card
Big blue trips up Twitter
IBM’s claim of patent violation by Twitter reflects the madness in software litigation in the US
The Microsoft way
Wherein an Indian firm using pirated Microsoft software here is sued in the US by California state for using unfair trade advantage
Looming threat of a secretive trade pact
Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will extend restrictive intellectual property laws globally
Medicines Pool Swirls
Drug companies are slowly joining the UN effort to offer life-saving patented medicines to poor countries but the terms are sometimes restrictive
“The climate crisis is here and now”
Increasing risk of extreme weather has made it easier to have conversations on environment in El Salvador, the country’s minister of …
Patently hollow claims of the US
Global organisations and academics defend India’s IP laws and call for US to back off
Why scientists don’t back Novartis claim
As Novartis’ Indian patent case reaches end, a reminder of how scientists view unfair patents