-The Indian Express New Delhi: Bihar, along with Chhattisgarh and Orissa, have recorded the highest improvement among all states in the operations of their public distribution system (PDS), measured by the extent of grain leakages taking place. Development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera estimate that only 9.3 per cent of the foodgrains channeled through Chhattisgarh's PDS network failed to reach the intended consumers in 2011-12. This is a substantial reduction relative...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prices of most food items have been inching up relentlessly through the past year despite several so-called reforms in management of food supply chains. While staples like wheat flour and rice have become marginally costlier, prices of pulses like masoor and arhar have soared by up to 30%. Barring a few exceptions, prices of vegetables and fruits have shot up by 20 to 50%, and...

-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: A fresh bout of opposition has been filed against Gilead's patent application on hepatitis c drug sofosbuvir. This comes close on the heels of a spate of developments involving the drug, last month. Non-government organisation Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust, represented by the Lawyers Collective has filed a pre-grant opposition on the drug in the Delhi patent office. (A pre-grant opposition allows interested parties to oppose a patent application...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Health and patients' rights groups have called on the government to resist American pressure that they claimed was aimed at weakening safeguards in India's patent laws that allow drug companies to sell inexpensive generic medicine. Health activists representing patients' rights said they were concerned that bilateral talks on intellectual property rights, to feature during US President Barack Obama's visit to India beginning this weekend, may be rigged against...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The latest census data on the population of religious groups, set to be released shortly, shows a 24% rise in the Muslim population between 2001 and 2011, with the community's share of total population rising from 13.4% to 14.2% over the 10-year period. While the growth rate of the Muslim population has slowed from around 29% between 1991 and 2001, it is still higher than the...