-The Indian Express CBI director Ranjit Sinha admitted to the Supreme Court on Friday that the agency's status report on the coal blocks allocation case had been shown to Law Minister Ashwani Kumar "as desired by him". The report was also shared with a senior official each from the Prime Minister's Office and the coal ministry, the CBI director said. The government has been in turmoil - facing demands for an explanation...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: Sixteen MPs of Opposition parties, have appealed to the Centre to withdraw the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill in view of the flaws it had. The MPs pointed to the inherent conflict of interest in the Bill in that it was introduced in Parliament by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology which is also promoting GM crops. The provisions showed limited public participation, no transparency, lack...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Supreme Court judgment on the Novartis-Glivec case is remarkable because it has gone beyond the specific technical and legal issues surrounding patents and has put the matter in a much larger political and economic perspective. The deeper implication of the judgment is that it is not only justified to deny patents when incremental innovation is trivial as in the Glivec case. The judgment has linked the...

-The Hindu     They say Supreme Court-appointed panel's recommendations reasonable Even as the final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on open field trials of genetically modified crops is awaited, 51 independent international scientists with expertise in genetic engineering and biosafety protocols have approved the panel's Interim Report. The report has called for a 10-year moratorium on open field trials of Bt food crops until adequate regulatory mechanisms and safety...

-The Hindu The lawsuit by publishers seeking to stop Delhi University from distributing photocopied course packs goes against the spirit of education for all Late last year, leading publishing houses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press brought a copyright action against Delhi University and a tiny photocopy shop licensed by it, seeking to restrain them from supplying educational course packs to students. This lawsuit sent shock waves across the...