-The Indian Express   The NDA government's move to amend the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 in the coming winter session of Parliament has run into rough weather following differences between various government departments over whether government servants and their family members should declare their assets, and whether such information should be made public or not. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is learnt to have sided with the bureaucracy in...

-Kafila.org Dear Prime Minister Modi ji, We, the undersigned, wish to share with you some of our concerns on India's position on intellectual property (IP), particularly in the context of bilateral relations between the United States of America and India. We gather from the US-India Joint Statement dated 30 September 2014 that the Indian Government (a)greeing on the need to foster innovation in a manner that promotes economic growth...

-The Hindu With public schools not performing and private schools teaching students to compete rather than learn, India's primary sites of education are at risk The Rajasthan government recently decided to close down more than 17,000 schools, the Maharashtra government decided to close down about 14,000 schools and the Odisha government is closing down 195 schools because of low attendance by students. These are not stray incidents, but indicate the decline of...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government has constituted an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) think-tank to help draft a new National IPR Policy and to advice it on issues related to intellectual property. The think-tank, headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, will highlight anomalies in the present IPR legislations and advice the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on possible solutions, according to an official release. It will also provide views on the possible...

-The Times of India The man who has been appointed the chief economic advisor to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, was until recently urging the US to initiate disputes against India before the World Trade Organisation and also seeking changes in provisions within Indian patent law aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharma companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations. Subramanian...