-Down to Earth India has complained about subsidies and domestic content requirements in eight US states which favour American companies over imports Earlier this year, the US won a major case against India at the World Trade Organization (WTO). It had complained that the domestic content requirements (DCR) in India’s solar mission favoured Indian manufacturers, violating Trade Agreements signed by both parties. Now, India has complained to the WTO on similar grounds....

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional Trade Agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...

-The Hindu Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal could hit supply of cheap Indian drugs New Delhi: As the next round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade talks begin in Vietnam on Monday, humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for the removal of intellectual property provisions — known as the TRIPS-plus provisions — from the agreement. The talks are scheduled for August 15-19. According to the MSF, the TRIPS-plus...

-Frontline The inability to resolve pressing problems with respect to the production, distribution and availability of food is one of the important failures of the entire economic reform process. IN the fateful month of July 1991, when the devaluation of the Indian rupee presaged the introduction of a whole series of liberalising economic reforms, agriculture was very far from the minds of most policymakers and commentators. The immediate focus was on...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The government is readying a new policy framework to rein in the inflationary impact and stabilise the supply of pulses, a widely consumed but scarce food item with economy-wide implications. Three ministries – agriculture, food and finance – and the state-run policy think-tank Niti Aayog are coordinating efforts to frame the new measures that will see the government step in as one of the key importers of pulses. “The...