-The Hindu ‘It didn’t go well with India’s IPR policy’ New Delhi: The former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia criticised an Agriculture Ministry order earlier this year to cap the royalty and sale price of cotton seed. The Ministry, in March, used its powers under the Essential Commodities Act — a legislation that allows the government to determine the price of commodities including seed — to declare that...

-The Hindu Panel set up by Environment Ministry to take a call on GM mustard. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said the use of genetically modified (GM) technology for seeds is important for improving agricultural productivity and food security. He said 18 field trials, testing various kinds of GM seeds, were under way but the government would take a considered view on releasing genetically modified mustard. GM mustard, likely to be the first...

-TheWire.in The new policy is clearly informed by conservative pro-IP ideology, which big capital promotes in order to gain from current developments in science and technology. The National Intellectual Property Rights policy was approved by the cabinet on May 12, 2016 and released to the press a day later by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It is a “first of its kind” policy for India, covering all forms of intellectual property together in a...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Cultivable land in the country is decreasing by 0.03 million hectares every year but the situation is not alarming, government said in Rajya Sabha today. "The average cultivable land is reducing by 0.03 million hectares per year. But land productivity has increased slowly. It is not an alarming situation," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjiv Baliyan said during Question Hour, adding that the net sown area has remained almost...

-The Indian Express (Edit) Punjab’s wheat payment crisis strengthens the case for direct transfers in MSP operations. For a state whose farmers have already suffered from crashing basmati paddy prices and damage to their cotton crop from whitefly pest attacks, the current payment crisis in wheat couldn’t have come at a worse time. Government agencies have so far procured over 6.5 million tonnes (mt) of wheat from Punjab in the new...