This Eid, Hyderabad was on a high—a haleem high. Haleem is a great dish, a rich broth of wheat, lentils and meat that the city feasts on during the month of Ramadan, and it hit the headlines because it had just been granted a geographical indication (GI) certificate. Newspapers went …
WORLD’S leading green energy producers, Japan and the US have accused Canada and China of unfairly promoting domestic manufacturers of renewable energy equipment. Japan filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Canada on September 13 because one of its provinces, Ontario, passed a green energy act in …
Of late, honey is being associated with shady dealings, crime, and and a thriving illegal trade spanning the globe. One may wonder why honey, a natural product, is shipped illegally. The reasons become clear if one considers the stringent food safety regulations in Western countries and questionable beekeeping practices in …
In May 1833, Daniel Wilson, Calcutta's Lord Bishop, wrote to his family in England: "The weather is perfectly suffocating. None can pity us but those who know our sufferings. The mind, body, functions, tempers, words, and feelings are all morbidly affected…a constant heat which unnerves, depresses, annihilates the European mind …
India is these days relying on imports to meet the demand for a plant extract valued for its medicinal properties. Guggal or Commiphora wightii grows in the wild in the arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan and northern India; its resin, guggal-gum, is prescribed in Ayurveda for heart ailments, obesity …
If tariffs were the big-ticket issue of trade disputes in an earlier decade, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are making for all the drama, standoffs and skulduggery in international negotiations today. Why are IPRs so crucial to the new economic order? To understand this one needs to come to terms with …
WHAT RICH COUNTRIES SAY AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO is worlds apart. At the just concluded round of discussions on ACTA, the controversial Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, in Lucerne in Switzerland, the countries trying to steamroller a plurilateral pact to tighten enforcement of global intellectual property (IP) rules made some …
SEVERAL industrialized countries are negotiating a treaty that could deny developing countries access to low-cost medicines, making them dependent on expensive patented drugs. The pact is very likely to go further than the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) trademark- related arrangements by branding any item suspected of violating patents as counterfeit. …
India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. However, pulses production has been stagnant at between 11 and 14 million tonnes over the last two decades. Per capita pulses consumption over the years has come down from 61gm/day in 1951 to 30 gm/day in 2008. This …
One of the major underlying causes for increased biological invasion is the growth and development of world markets facilitated through globalization, and the booming intercontinental trade of live flora and fauna.
AFTER numerous delays, India and Myanmar have finally inked the agreement for the ambitious Rs 535.91-crore Kaladan project that is expected to benefit India economically and increase trade connectivity across the northeastern states. Also, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Myanmar vice senior general Maung Aye, who is vice chairman …
India and Myanmar on Wednesday signed an agreement on Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project that is expected to enhance the connectivity between the two countries, especially with the northeastern states. The Framework Agreement and Protocols for facilitation of the project was signed in the presence of Myanmar's Vice-Senior General Maung …
By curbing food exports, governments buy relief for consumers at the cost of lowering output Argentine farmers are among the world's most nimble and efficient. They need to be: few countries have been as badly governed as Argentina. Over the past 70 years it has often been the farmers and …
World Trade Organisation (WTO) experts have stressed the need for raising awareness about WTO laws among Gujranwala businessmen so that local ceramics, sanitary fittings, sanitary wear and fans industries are flourished. They said this at a seminar on
Sir, A profoundly ill-conceived decision by the European Union leaders on March 14 could pave the way for a global trade war over climate policy. The decision opens up the possibility for the EU to impose trade barriers on countries with a less ambitious climate agenda than the EU. The …
The fifth (2005) round of the World Bank's International Comparison Program, which produces estimates of the gross domestic product at purchasing power parity prices, has been the most extensive and carefully monitored project so far. The preliminary estimates were noticeable for the large downward revisions of GDP estimates of China …
CONCERNED over rising food prices, the government on Wednesday said that agricultural trade barriers within the country were making commodities costlier in some states. "Why should food prices be different across states in a national economy...that is because there are barriers to agricultural trade,' finance minister's adviser Shubhashis Gangopadhyay said …
New Delhi expects SAFTA to make concrete progress as quickly as possible, leading to an increase in regional trade. Last November, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had directed the Commerce Ministry to examine the possibility of reducing the 744-item trade negative list for the SAARC least developed member countries …
Pretoria: The Doha round of world trade talks could still be concluded by year's end, the head of the World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy said, despite a European warning of a "high risk of failure.' "We are nearing the end game. Whether it's a success or failure I can't say, …
