The Centre is expected to announce a new pharma policy in the next few months. The ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has discussed with concerned stakeholders and will seek further inputs on the matter before placing the draft note to a group of ministers (GoM) for final touches, chemicals and fertilisers minister MK Azhagiri said on Wednesday. Hinting this at a conference on ‘Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges and way forward for...

Halt ongoing negotiations, says open letterWith Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set to hold talks with his counterpart in Brussels on trade and economic issues, a broad civil society alliance on Thursday called on the European Commission and India to immediately halt the ongoing negotiations for an India-EU Free Trade Agreement.The India-EU summit on Friday is likely to give a political mandate for working towards the conclusion of the FTA in...

Keen to act as a "bridge" between developing and developed nations at the UN climate summit in Cancun beginning tomorrow, India has offered two proposals on the issues of monitoring of national emissions cuts and sharing of green technologies with poorer countries. "We need to be practical and cannot remain frozen and should engage with all countries as part of our foreign policy," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said recently about...