-Down to Earth US actions jeopardise India's pro-poor patent laws that promote generic drugs production, says online global petition More than 75,000 people have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to succumb to US pressure on Intellectual Property Rights (IP). With trade and intellectual property rights featuring prominently in the agenda of US president Barak Obama's India visit, civil society groups have expressed concern that talks on these issues are designed to make...
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Centre working on labour law changes -Somesh Jha
-Business Standard Working on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments The Centre might take up changes to the Industrial Disputes Act on the lines of what the Rajasthan government recently did, sources said. The Union ministry has started work on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments - industrial relations, wages, social security, working conditions and welfare cess. Sources told Business Standard the views of stakeholders had been taken...
More »What has ten years of RTI achieved? -Pamela Philipose
-The Tribune The biggest lesson of the last 10 years since the Right to Information Act came into force is that Indian democracy, if it has to be meaningful, has to have a strong, effective RTI regime. That regime has to be equally owned by those who govern and those who are governed. TEN years after the Right to Information Act promised the country a "practical regime of right to information for...
More »Five coal blocks in Chhattisgarh might see land conflict -Nitin Sethi
-Business Standard Since it came to power in May 2014, the NDA government has been working to do away with the need for such consent from tribal village councils Five coal blocks up for allocation and auction in the first phase could get stuck in a land conflict. A total of 20 tribal village councils in the Hasdeo-Arand and Dharamjaigarh forest areas of Chhattisgarh have passed formal resolutions under the Forest Rights...
More »Cash transfers, the lazy short cut -Mihir Shah
-The Hindu Alleviating poverty in India requires not only cash transfers but also other enabling changes Advocates of unconditional cash transfers claim that they can be both emancipatory and transformative. They argue that people are quite capable of making rational decisions. And that this kind of basic income support can improve their lives. I have no quarrel with the claim that we must trust the poor. Such suspicion is part of an elite...
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