-The Business Standard The Novartis verdict by the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of flexibilities in drug patent laws, in contrast to Western countries which are seeking TRIPS-plus hardening through free-trade agreements As curtains on the six-year-long legal tussle with Swiss drug giant Novartis AG finally came down earlier this month, the Indian government did not waste a second in hailing the Indian patent law which it said was in "full...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Supreme Court judgment on the Novartis-Glivec case is remarkable because it has gone beyond the specific technical and legal issues surrounding patents and has put the matter in a much larger political and economic perspective. The deeper implication of the judgment is that it is not only justified to deny patents when incremental innovation is trivial as in the Glivec case. The judgment has linked the...

-The Hindu High Court tells state to install CCTVs to monitor police behaviour Bangalore: In a people-friendly move, the Karnataka High Court said the State government should install video cameras (closed-circuit television cameras) in and around all police stations to ensure discipline among the police force. If this is implemented in letter and SPIRit, people in the near future may walk into police stations without fear of being harassed or ill-treated. A bunch of...

-The Hindu The lawsuit by publishers seeking to stop Delhi University from distributing photocopied course packs goes against the SPIRit of education for all Late last year, leading publishing houses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press brought a copyright action against Delhi University and a tiny photocopy shop licensed by it, seeking to restrain them from supplying educational course packs to students. This lawsuit sent shock waves across the...

-Down to Earth Two developments in the last week essay the progress of panchayatiraj in the past 20 years. The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj issued public notifications asking village panchayats to hold the next village council meeting in April/May. It is an irony that the highest unit of government i.e. the union government decides the dates of meetings for the lowest tier of governance. The notification violates the letter and...