-The Hindu     Antibiotics are often used as an excuse for poor infection control Arjun (name changed) is an 8-year-old boy who was being treated for breathing difficulty in a hospital in one of the southern cities. He had suffered on and off with cough/cold since infancy and had been treated multiple times with antibiotics. His parents were not highly educated and hoped that he would get better as he grew older. This...

-The Indian Express West Bengal is not new to chit fund scams. What is unique to the Saradha Group scandal is how it targeted the poorest and the most marginalised, leaving them on the verge of devastation. From 17-year-old agents who raised money from depositors to 50-year-old widows who invested money, the Saradha Group didn't discriminate in roping them in. Since the house of cards started collapsing, two agents and two...

-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 Indian Express New Delhi: Stung by the Saradha episode, the government has decided to drastically amend legislation governing the market regulator's power to police chit fund companies. The finance ministry will push for the legislation to be cleared in the current session of Parliament and, if that fails, to issue an ordinance immediately afterward. Government managers believe the explosion of Ponzi schemes in West Bengal and in Uttar Pradesh is enough...

-The Hindu Business Line Chit funds, one of India's oldest indigenous financial institutions, are regulated by the Chit Funds Act, 1982, a central statute, and various State-specific regulations. Further, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulates the operation of ‘collective investment schemes' (Collective Investment Schemes) through the SEBI 1999 Regulations (CIS Regulations). However, Section 11 AA of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 specifically excludes a...