-The Hindu Intellectual property accelerates innovation in certain technology SECtors, but it impedes innovation in others. The biggest flaw of the new policy is that it does not acknowledge this. Intellectual property (IP) regimes suffer a classic paradox. While they attempt to encourage innovation and creativity, they have themselves been shielded from innovation experimentation. For some years now, India has been attempting to break this mould and craft a regime to suit...

-The Hindu Wells being dug in mountainous terrain of Vellie, Bhor taluks; water tankers arranged for remote hamlets. Pune: Moved by poignant stories of suffering coming from drought-hit Maharashtra’s hinterland, social outfit volunteers and IT professionals have taken the initiative to look for long-term solutions, besides arranging for water tankers to address immediate needs. A group of volunteers from Jnana Prabodhini have started digging wells in the mountainous Velhe and Bhor taluks of...

-The Indian Express MPs must not run down a law that promises a more informed citizenry The Right to Information (RTI) Act has undoubtedly been a most empowering legislation for citizens. The law has initiated the vital task of redistributing power in a democratic framework. It is perhaps this paradigm shift in the locus of power that has resulted in consistent efforts by the powerful to denigrate it. The latest attack on...

-TheWire.in According to NCRB data for 2014, the suicide rate for ‘housewives’ was more than double that of farmers, though the latter gets far more media attention. What does this really indicate? In 2014, National Crime Records Bureau data showed that 20,148 housewives took then own lives across the country. This amounts to approximately 18% of all suicides that year. A recent article in the Economic and Political Weekly by political scientist Peter...

-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...