-Livemint.com Economist Esther Duflo on demonetisation impact, role of randomized control trials in policymaking, low priority assigned to health and education in India New Delhi: India’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes is a dramatic example of a policy announcement made without any serious thought given to implementation, said Esther Duflo, one of the leading development economists of the world and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of...

-The Hindu The proposal to extend the time limit for State-level drug regulatory approvals from four to 10 years could hit the generics market In a scathing letter to the Government of India, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) took issue with what it considered to be a backdoor extension for data exclusivity norms in the country. It pointed to the recent government proposal to change the four-year time limit for State-level drug...

-The Hindu New Delhi: As videos of the alleged police encounter of eight SIMI men who broke out of the Bhopal Central Jail continue to raise demands for a judicial probe, a series of Supreme Court judgments show that the law is heavily, even fatally, loaded against police officers found guilty of 'fake encounters'. One of the judgments even recommends death penalty to “trigger-happy” cops and compares them to Nazi war criminals...

-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: Faced with stiff opposition from the states, civil society groups and even the RSS on GM food crops, the Central government is reaching out to the state governments to bring them on board for field trials. Acting on the directives of the PMO, the environment ministry on October 21 organised a meeting which was attended by representatives from different states. More such meetings are expected to...

-Livemint.com Nearly 150 organizations protested in Delhi, warning against govt’s approval of commercialization of the genetically modified mustard New Delhi: Nearly 150 organizations from across India protested on Tuesday at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, warning the central government of a stir against it if it approves commercialization of genetically modified (GM) mustard. GM mustard has been developed by Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants. On 5 September, the genetic engineering...