Multinational drug companies appear to have used the Prime Minister’s Office to try and influence government policies that may severely undermine availability of affordable medicines, a group of non-government organisations has said. In a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 50 NGOs said the PMO had asked the ministry of health and the departments of legal affairs and industrial policy to examine intellectual property rights issues raised by foreign pharmaceutical...

What happens in open standards? All technology/software used for e-governance becomes inter-operable. In other words, any technology platform or software should be able to read government documents, maps, images and datasheets. Who gains? Government: Will not have to spend crores on a proprietary standard. Various offices would be able to access data without having same technology/software. Consumers: Will not have to buy proprietary software to access government documents Who loses? Big proprietary software companies and licensed...

Government has set up an expert group to devise better methods to achieve convergence of MGNREGA activities with that of various water conservation and management programmes. The 30-member expert group, constituted by the Rural Development Ministry, will be headed by the CEO of the National Rainfed Areas Authority. "It has been decided to constitute an expert group to devise process, methodologies and mechanisms for convergence of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA with...

In order to maintain transparency and direct control on the executing agencies in the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Agency) scheme, district magistrate Sanjay Prasad has ordered for conducting a social audit. He has also deployed about 82 officers for conducting social audits in the rural areas. These officers have also been allotted gram panchayats where they would conduct social audits. The officers have been instructed to conduct social...

Members of various NGOs and child rights activists, working for free, compulsory and quality education for underprivileged children, on Thursday lamented the fact that formulators and writers of the Right to Education (RTE) Act had failed to include children belonging to diverse minority groups. At a state-level training for various stakeholders on the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 — also known as RTE Act — activists...