The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
China is tightening norms toprotect scientific and technological research within its boundaries. The country's ministry of science and technology wants all public and private organisations involved in state-funded research to have special departments and funds for intellectual property protection. Moreover, institutes will have to investigate beforehand if a patent has …
thai jasmine rice could soon suffer a similar fate as that of Indian basmati . The us is developing a new strain of the aromatic rice that is indigenous to Thailand. Under the research project, Chris Deren of the University of Florida, is altering original jasmine rice using gamma rays. …
a group of 12 European institutional investors has come out with a prescription for the international pharmaceutical industry, exhorting the latter to provide developing countries with easier access to urgently required medicines
EU Legislation The music industry is crying out loud against eu legislation for protecting intellectual property, complaining that it falls short of what is needed to fight piracy. The eu recently proposed a directive to integrate currently divergent systems in the continent for enforcing intellectual property laws, including copyrights and …
A new initiative for the welfare of indigenous people was launched by an international group of experts at a meeting in Bellagio, Italy, from November 25-30. Known as
Is there a special need for a politics to protect the public domain? What might such a politics of intellectual property look like? The intellectual property scene today is just like the American environmental movement in the 1950s. A rag-tag bunch cared about the park system; there were hunters and …
INFORMATION FEUDALISM . Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite . Earthscan Publications Limited . London . 2002 . Rs 920 In the last two decades, the intellectual property standards have changed drastically. Today, these rules are set by the global strategies of a small number of companies and business organisations. The …
one year ago, Sri Lanka was asked to consider an unusual proposal by the us. The latter offered to waive the island nation's debt in exchange for control over four tropical forests. The Lankan government had then responded with an unequivocal
the World Food Summit, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao) and held in Rome from June 10-13, failed to secure an enhanced commitment to its goal of reducing the number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015. What it could just do was to …
There were quite a few adherents to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the World Food Summit. The treaty defines plant genetic resources as any genetic material of plant origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture. India ratified the pact along …
Over the past couple of decades, agricultural research has seen increasing involvement of the private sector in what was almost exclusively the preserve of public-funded institutions. With research taking place in the public sector, there was no problem with sharing technology. The spread of the Green Revolution technology is a …
amid uproar, parliament recently passed the controversial Patents (Second Amendment) bill. Even though Union commerce minister Murasoli Maran gave an assurance that all safeguards to ensure easy availability of drugs at affordable prices were incorporated in the bill, there were voices of dissent. It was argued that the government had …
With the adoption of the Patents (Second Amendment) Bill by Parliament on May 14, a trips (Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) compliant patents law is now only a matter of the President of India's formal assent. The amended legislation provides for changes in the scope of …
The global pharmaceutical industry is feeling the heat. Following the industry's embarrassing withdrawal in April from a case against the South African government over the issue of access to cheap aids drugs, the us government dropped its complaint against Brazil's law dealing with the same issue at the World Trade …
The New Delhi-based National Patent Office has granted a patent of an anti-diabetic medicine to the Kani tribals of Kerala. The medicine, now scientifically proven to be potent and safe, is derived from the roots of the creeper Humboldita decurrens ( Chembravalli in Malayalam). The herb has been used traditionally …
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. The lowest price …
A nation like South Africa is the most dramatic example of a situation where drugs are available that would make a big difference to a sizeable part of its population that has been infected by the hiv virus but the people cannot afford to buy them. The country has more …
for more than half a century, the National Botanical Research Institute ( nbri ) in Lucknow has been doing pioneering work in the collection, study and conservation of the vast and varied floral diversity of India. With the entry of P Pushpangadan as its director, the institute is at the …
