-The Hindu India’s first IPR policy trots out the worn western fairy tale that more IP means innovation, and encourages the pointless privatisation of indigenous knowledge India’s National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, released in mid-May, is a bewildering document. There are two ways to read this policy. The first is as a gigantic exercise in dissimulation, with a terse declaration — India is not changing its IPR laws — tucked inside...

-PTI It said that changes in settlement patterns, urbanisation and socio-economic status in Asia have increased exposure to climate extremes. United Nations: Nearly 40 million Indians will be at risk from rising sea levels by 2050, with people in Mumbai and Kolkata having the maximum exposure to coastal Flooding in future due to rapid urbanisation and economic growth, according to a UN environment report. The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6): Regional Assessments said that...

-PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi today directed setting up of a task force to study the economic impact of drip irrigation in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra on parameters like water saving and productivity. Reviewing the drought situation in Andhra Pradesh with its Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here, Modi also asked the NITI Aayog to set up a task force that could come up with a model on how to use...

-The Hindu It is critical that the HPS is finalised after considering possible distortions in medical insurance schemes and looking at models that have worked. The Health Protection Scheme (HPS) that was announced in the Union Budget 2016 is more generous than the earlier scheme, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Poor households now get an annual health cover of Rs.1 lakh; the limit under RSBY was Rs.30,000. In principle, the HPS...

-The Hindu Business Line It should apply to long-term rather than short-term loans, to prevent funds misuse and promote capital formation The Budget 2016-17 witnessed an increase of Rs. 2,000 crore in the allocation towards interest subsidy for short-term credit (i.e. crop loan) to farmers, compared with the revised estimate for 2015-16, thereby making a total provision of Rs. 15,000 crore towards interest subsidy. In fact, of the total allocation of Rs. 35,984...