-The Hindu   ‘Start with areas where the Army is no longer required to operate' Raking up the issue of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) again, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday hoped that the Centre would revoke the controversial Act from those areas in the State where it was not required. "We understand that you (the Centre) cannot take it (AFSPA) away overnight. It has to be a...

-The Hindu Chandigarh: For one Sarabjit Singh, whose death brought politicians to his funeral and financial assistance for his family, the Punjab countryside is dotted with scores of men knocking on the doors of courts seeking compensation for the years many of them spent in Pakistani jails, and recognition of their services as spies for India. Neither the government nor his family has ever acknowledged that Sarabjit - who died this week...

-The Hindu     The mistaken notion that the 53 per cent of India's population ‘dependent on agriculture' are all ‘farmers' leads many to dismiss the massive farmers' suicides as trivial There are nearly 15 million farmers (‘Main' cultivators) fewer than there were in 1991. Over 7.7 million less since 2001, as the latest Census data show. On average, that's about 2,035 farmers losing ‘Main Cultivator' status every single day for the last 20...

-The Economic Times The recent patent rulings in India may get frequently challenged in international courts if the government yields to the European Union's demand of including matters related to intellectual property in the investors-state dispute mechanism in their proposed trade pact, health activist groups have warned. An investor-state dispute resolution mechanism typically allows foreign investors to sue countries for compensation if national laws, policies, court rulings of the country infringe upon...

-The Economic Times WASHINGTON: Big Pharma found little support from the small guy on the street as the Indian Supreme Court's decision to reject patent claims of the drug maker Novartis for its celebrated cancer medicine Glivec reverberated across the world. The pharma lobby railed against the decision but the overwhelming sentiment, from physicians to politicians, from academia to media, particularly in a country groaning from the high cost of health care,...