-The Hindu The Supreme Court’s verdict on the Singur land acquisition issue is a re-statement of first principles relating to the limitations of ‘eminent domain’. By quashing the entire land acquisition process done by the erstwhile Left Front government in West Bengal, the court has reiterated that the term ‘public purpose’ cannot be arbitrarily invoked to acquire land and hand it over to a private party. One of the two judges...

-The Indian Express Farmers can install solar panels on their fields that can generate income in addition to regular crop agriculture. Of its several new initiatives, the Narendra Modi government has set out at least two very ambitious targets, which are also quantifiable. One is achieving 100 giga-watts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by the year 2022. The other is doubling farmers’ income — presumably in real terms — also by 2022,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday imposed penalty of over Rs 6,700 crore on 10 cement companies including ACC, Lafarge, Ultratech, Jayprakash Associates, Binani and their trade association the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) on charges of cartelisation in the sector. The information in the case was filed by the Builders Association of India against the cement firms and the CMA, alleging that they flouted...

-The Hindu New Delhi: Seed technology major Monsanto says it is suspending plans to introduce an upgraded version of its genetically modified cotton in India because of uncertainty in the “business and regulatory environment”. Activists say this is a “hypocritical” position. On July 6, Monsanto notified the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, the regulatory authority for approval of biotechnology traits in India, that it was withdrawing its application for the commercial release of...

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional trade agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...