-Economic and Political Weekly The National Democratic Alliance government has constituted the IPR Think Tank which, among other things, is to draft the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. India may not have a policy per se but it has a strong legislation on IPRs, a functioning patents office and mechanisms to grant patents as well as protect consumer interests. The Think Tank has other issues it needs to address, but is...

-The Hindu RAJAHMUNDRY (Andhra Pradesh): As the government is busy in holding meetings on how to conduct Godavari Pushkarams, findings by two separate NGOs from Chennai and Hyderabad have exposed dangers of unhygienic conditions, unclean surroundings and toxicants spread through excess usage of plastic along the Godavari bunds and its adjourning towns and villages. Centre for Environment Studies in Southern India (CESSI), Chennai and Organization against River Water Pollution (ORWP), Hyderabad have...

-The Hindu Adilabad (Telengana): For the shattered families, relief, as envisaged in GO 421 issued in 2004, at best a half-measure. How long does it take for a poor woman to come to grips with her drastically changed reality owing to the sudden and unexpected death of her husband as in the case of a farmer committing suicide? In some cases, it may even be a lifetime. Factors which have influenced farmers to...

-The Indian Express Oorugonda/ Warangal: Twenty -two kilometres from Warangal, a narrow road from National Highway 202 leads to Oorugonda, a village of around a thousand farmers in Atmakur mandal. An eerie silence hangs around it, with a few middle-aged men sitting under a tree looking up inquisitively at visitors. They are not done grieving for 40-year-old Modanti Krishnamma. Last week, she killed herself after the cotton crop she and her husband...

-Business Standard India, China, the Gulf and other large developing economies form the fastest-growing market for the refrigeration industry Despite India changing its stance and keeping quiet, select developing countries were able to delay the launch of formal talks on the phasing out of climate change-causing refrigerant gases under the Montreal Protocol, meant to deal only with ozone-depleting substances. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had signed a pact with US President Barack Obama during...