-The United Nations Thirteen years after the world set the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), countries have made big strides to meet the eight anti-poverty targets by their 2015 deadline, says a United Nations report released today, which stresses that the unmet goals are still within reach, but nations need to step up their efforts to achieve them. "In more than a decade of experience in working towards the MDGs, we have learned...

-PTI India however maintained that the India Patent Act was in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement & the PARIs Convention The US pharma industry has expressed concern over deteriorating intellectual property environment in India, alleging that patent rights in the country are unreasonably denied. "PhRMA remains concerned about the deteriorating intellectual property environment in India," Mark Grayson, PhRMA spokesman told PTI. The remarks by PhRMA or Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, representing America's...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Despite the Supreme Court's order, the village councils, or gram sabhas of the Dongria Kondh tribals may not be able to decide upon their traditional and religious rights against the mining interests of Vedanta. A narrow interpretation of the SC order by the tribal affairs ministry promises to turn the district administration into the final decision-making body and the village councils of the tribals as...

-The Hindu New Delhi should stop its flip-flops and adopt a coherent policy in its negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions If the great Scott Fitzgerald were to have walked into the grand plenary hall of the Durban climate conference in 2011 to announce once again, "show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy," all fingers would have pointed to the tiny Indian contingent in the room. There, Fitzgerald would...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) has written to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to keep tabs on all suspicious transactions of politicians, especially those contesting elections, and report them to enforcement agencies for investigation. The directive to the FIU is a bid to cleanse elections of illicit money use. The FIU is also prePARIng dossiers on asset details of all candidates contesting Lok Sabha and assembly polls,...