-The Hindu Mumbai: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken on Tuesday wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, asking him to stop demolition of the houses of slum dwellers, after a delegation of the National Alliance of People's Movements headed by Medha Patkar met him in New Delhi. He asked Mr. Chavan to see that the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) was implemented with much more enthusiasm and in...
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No extension to RTE Act’s implementation deadline -Akshaya Mukul
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: HRD ministry has categorically ruled out extension of three-year deadline to states who failed to create the necessary infrastructure to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act, whose deadline expired on March 31. Acceding to the extension request would have meant amending the RTE Act. But at the end of 61st meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) HRD minister M M Pallam Raju...
More »Novartis order may force pharma MNCs to change
-The Economic Times Foreign pharma companies could be forced to overhaul their strategy for the Indian market by striking more local deals and cutting sky-high drug prices after the Supreme Court slammed the door on Swiss giant Novartis' attempts to gain a patent for its blood cancer-busting drug Glivec. But the ruling, welcomed by activists campaigning for affordable drugs and local generic companies, threatened to reinforce a narrative that India...
More »The silent war over education reforms-Krishna Kumar
-The Hindu Despite apparent similarities, the reports of two centrally appointed committees are split on the relationship between knowledge, skills and social needs Two major reports with overlapping concerns were submitted to the central government during the last decade. They were drafted by committees appointed by two different offices of the same government. One was chaired by Yash Pal, and the other by Sam Pitroda. The titles of the two committees indicated...
More »A just order
-The Hindu The Supreme Court order rejecting a plea to grant patent protection for Glivec, a cancer-fighting drug from Novartis, is a landmark. It will greatly strengthen the quest for access to affordable medicines in India. The decision affirms the idea that a patent regime loses its social relevance when a drug is priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of a country's people. That pharmaceutical companies employ high pricing...
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