-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: As patent wars heat up in the pharma space, mobile phone messages and Right to Information filings have emerged as potent weapons in the hands of multinationals keen to delay competition from low-cost generic versions of their patented products in India. Innovator drugmakers, who used to strike with patent suits after generic drugmakers released their versions in the market, have started gleaning information from text messages sent...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government's earnestness to change the lives of millions untouched by high-street banks is being tested with a proposal from its own department of posts. Armed with an amazing network of offices, the department has sought Rs 1,900 crore from the Centre to launch a bank that would connect with the aam aadmi in Indian villages and far-flung areas where few institutional lenders have a presence. Financial...

-The Economic Times The monsoon made a dream start this year. Bountiful rainfall in June has prepared the ground for bumper harvest and lower food inflation. But don't celebrate. Look beyond the immediate future and good monsoon this year may not really be good news. It has merely delayed an agricultural crisis, which our complacent policymakers perhaps need to jolt them into action. With food demand rising in step with the growing...

-Frontline Professor Sukhpal Singh, a faculty member of the Centre for Management of Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been researching and documenting the process of contract farming and food supply chains in India for more than a decade. He is of the view that the small farmer is being excluded in the method currently in place, which defeats the very purpose of improving Indian agriculture. Sukhpal Singh,...

-The Economic Times CHENNAI: India's patent appeals board has denied Monsanto a patent for a genetically-engineered method of increasing climate resilience in plants. The decision is significant not only for Monsanto's loss of possible exclusivity in an increasingly important segment but also for the interpretation of India's home-grown clauses in patent law - these are unpopular with global companies - for the first time in the case of plants. The Intellectual Property...