-The Hindu Well before the Supreme Court rejected Novartis' application for patent for Glivec (Gleevec in the U.S.), drawing attention to the dichotomy of generic and patented drugs, activists have been demanding access to expensive drugs used in the treatment of cancer, hepatitis C and serious HIV. Trastuzumab is one such, used in the treatment of HER2+ type of breast cancer, which affects about one in four patients with the disease. Rough...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-The Financial Express A patent law that is transparent, based on principles of good science & encourages innovation is in India's interest In 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris, it was proclaimed that "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year." England followed with the Statute...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court order rejecting a plea to grant patent protection for Glivec, a cancer-fighting drug from Novartis, is a landmark. It will greatly strengthen the quest for access to affordable medicines in India. The decision affirms the idea that a patent regime loses its social relevance when a drug is priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of a country's people. That pharmaceutical companies employ high pricing...

-The Business Standard Ashok Gulati in a paper also gave measures to contain the inflation As India's food inflation continues to remain stubbornly high - it was in double digit for the third straight month in February 2013 at 11.38% - a discussion paper floated by eminent agriculture economist and chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) Ashok Gulati has blamed high fiscal deficit, rising farm wages and global food...