India shakes up WTO
The fracas over India's refusal to meet the deadline on trade facilitation exposes rich nations' double standards
Foreign food invasion
A growing taste for foods from across the globe is adding hugely to India’s import bill for groceries and raising health concerns
Testing the CL route
Roche’s Herceptin will be a test case for government and generics industry as India readies to issue compulsory licences for life-saving drugs
Standing up to the US
India does not have to be apologetic about its patents law, which is fully compliant with WTO requirements on intellectual property protection
EU threat to farmers
Free trade pact with EU will have a severe impact on Indian agriculture, specially the dairy sector
The Avon lady lifts our biodiversity
Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material
A panchayat president who does not speak
Chettikulam’s support for the Kudankulam nuclear plant reflects the politics of Tamil Nadu—and its economic dependence on the project
The Bali myth of $1 trillion trade gains
Trade facilitation is a major imposition on developing countries with little likelihood of promised benefits
‘PESTICIDES’ IN DRUGS
Sharad Pawar’s provision for protecting test data in the Pesticides Bill could spill over into trade agreements and hit the drugs industry, too
Wooing the judges, openly
There is conflict of interest as US patent owners schedule meetings with Indian judiciary and patent regulators
US pharma strikes back
Upset by the Supreme Court’s endorsement of India’s patent law, the American drug industry is lobbying with Obama to tighten the …
Contaminating millets
There is disquiet over government scheme to wean traditional millet farmers on chemical inputs
Big step for biocultural rights
The Nagoya Protocol promotes community stewardship of genetic resources. India needs to foster this
Meaty tales of vegetarian India
Indians are eating more meat and enjoying it. Higher incomes, global food chains and a vast population of young people indifferent to religious …
Rogue GM crops wreak havoc
Monsanto’s unauthorised GM wheat in the US has spooked the world, but contamination is widespread
Trail of a $500 m gene
How a rare African algae collected by a French academic turns into a commercial bonanza for an equity firm in Hong Kong. Are there any benefits …
`Top scientists misuse power, funds'
It seems like a lost cause but Kasturi Lal Chopra battles on. As president of the Society for Scientific Values (SSV), he leads the charge to …
GM maize and its health implications for humans
Michael Antoniou, head of the Nuclear Biology Group in the UK, has been studying the health effects of genetically modified (GM) crops since 1995.…
'They asked me to withdraw my court case'
P PARDHA SARADHI is tenacious. This mild-mannered professor at the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Delhi (DU) has …
Linkage between science and public policy has weakened
M S Swaminathan, popularly known as the father of India’s Green Revolution, has been associated with national agricultural research system (…
GM crop benefits are all in future
Nearly 40 years ago, Marc Van Montagu of Ghent University in Belgium, along with fellow researcher Jeff Schell, discovered that Agrobacterium …
Everyone is stealing germplasm
When agronomist Ralladoddi Hampaiah was advisor to the Russian government, he discovered how easy it was to take genetic resources out of India. …
Iran-India gas pipeline laid low by geopolitics
Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for the many controversies sparked by his provocative comments and controversial ideas. As Minister for Petroleum and …
A plant breeder comes into his own
Awards are finally coming to K Vinod Prabhu, 54, a plant breeder, for his work on building resistance in wheat, mustard and rice through the …
Who is watching GM crops?
As India gets ready to unleash a vast number of genetically modified (GM) food crops, politicians have joined activists in opposing engineered …