-Outlook Gandhinagar: A more stringent safety regime will be in place for genetic engineering in agriculture or medical sciences once the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) Bill is cleared by Parliament, a senior official said here today. "The NBRA bill has been introduced in Parliament and being debated. Once it (bill) is cleared, a more stringent safety regime shall be in place for genetic engineering, be it in the agriculture space or...

-FAO   Prices of cereals and oils decrease - FAO expects bumper cereal harvest this year Rome: The FAO Food Price Index dropped for the fourth month in a row in August reaching its lowest level since June 2012. The index, which measures the monthly change in the international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 201.8 points in August 2013, nearly 4 points (1.9 percent) below its July value and 11 points...

-The Hindu Business Line   Arsenic and fluoride contaminated water has condemned millions to live wasted lives in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Business Line visited several villages in the affected regions for this special report by A. Srinivas. Sixty-nine-year-old Renubala Ari of Deganga village in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district is counting her last days. But it is not her death that worries her. Blind in both eyes and with painful...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: India's strong stance on minor drug innovations could reverberate in national parliaments and courthouses of the developed world as Australia, the EU and Canada get ready to discuss and ban patent protection for frivolous improvements. A top Australian government body on Wednesday asked for changes in its patent laws relating to drugs saying that the indiscriminate grant of patents to incremental innovations should be checked and that...

-The Economic Times Foreign pharma companies could be forced to overhaul their strategy for the Indian market by striking more local deals and cutting sky-high drug prices after the Supreme Court slammed the door on Swiss giant Novartis' attempts to gain a patent for its blood cancer-busting drug Glivec. But the ruling, welcomed by activists campaigning for affordable drugs and local generic companies, threatened to reinforce a narrative that India...