-The Times of India NEW DELHI: After being in deep freeze for over three months, a global trade deal is finally in sight with the US and the European Union showing signs of accepting India's demand for providing flexibility to developing countries in fixing minimum support price for farm products. In return, India will sign the stalled international treaty on easier customs rules once an agreement on the contentious food security...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government's efforts to promote 'khadi' are facing a trademark hurdle with the brand having been registered abroad, in countries such as Germany, as well as in India. After haldi and basmati, this is the latest instance of infringement of intellectual property rights, which is essentially traditional knowledge. What makes the task more difficult for the government is that 'khaddar' and 'khadi' are common across the...

-Down to Earth Letter to Modi says Indian government should be wary of higher IP standards that are typically demanded by the US administration and its trade negotiators in bilateral negotiations People's organisations have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public the specific purpose of the Indo-US joint working group on Intellectual Property (IP) and pursue inclusive public consultations approach for the formulation of country's IP policy. The demand follows Modi's...

-Down to Earth India presents its case on potential damage posed by WTO's trade facilitation agreement; civil society groups support India India made a strong pitch for food stockpiling for public food security at the 41st session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) earlier this month at the FAO headquarters in Rome. The meeting of the intergovernmental body, attended by representatives of governments, UN food agencies, civil society and private...

-Economic and Political Weekly The cultivation of geneticallymodified crops, especially food crops, is not just a domestic issue; it has an impact on global food trade as well. Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iimahd.ernet.in) is at the Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmedabad. There is no doubt that the application of biotechnology can lead to yield improvement, cost cutting and lower crop losses, besides providing more processable raw materials and designer products. That is why...