-The Indian Express India's role in pharmaceutical patent wars has broadened access to healthcare. Recently, there were rumours that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) was getting ready to announce "trade enforcement actions" or sanctions against India over its intellectual property rights regime. The Obama administration has been under pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce and lobby groups, like the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, to take a tough stance...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Consumers can soon engage a non-advocate or an NGO to fight their case in consumer forums. However, such agents can't charge arbitrary fees. The charges will be decided by presidents of the relevant forums. The grounds to be considered while deciding fees will include the paying capacity of clients, skill of the agent and complexity of the case. In a recent notification, the consumer affairs ministry...

-The New York Times BOLLIKUNTA, India - Latha Reddy Musukula was making tea on a recent morning when she spotted the money lenders walking down the dirt path toward her house. They came in a phalanx of 15 men, by her estimate. She knew their faces, because they had walked down the path before. After each visit, her husband, a farmer named Veera Reddy, sank deeper into silence, frozen by some terror...

-The Indian Express ‘Infertility treatment' in a remote village of Satna district left Anju Kushwaha with 10 dead foetuses and no hope doctors consider it unlikely they will ever see a case like hers again. Anju Kushwaha, 26, is sure she is never returning to them. The woman who carried and lost 10 foetuses - the maximum borne by a woman in India - is spent, in money, energy and hope. Working...

-Sunday Pioneer A cluster of villages engaged in weaving the exquisite Benarasi sarees is in the midst of a serious health crisis. More than 1 lakh people from this once prosperous region have fallen prey to aggressive tuberculosis. Poor living conditions, working in dark rooms and constant inhalation of minute silk threads have weakened the lungs of these artisans. With an average monthly income of not more than Rs3,000, it is...