-TheWire.in * The proposed Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2021 encourages a conducive environment for investments and to simplify the patent application process. * Farmers in India have historically been against any kind of IP rights – whether patents or plant variety protection over seed and planting materials. * In a confused mix of laws, the government also grants IP rights to BMCs for farmers’ varieties – formed under the Biological Diversity Act –...

-Press release by Mineral Inheritors Rights Association dated March 29, 2022 This is to urgently appeal for immediate release of Deme Oram and 21 other people who are still under arrest since yesterday and their location is still unknown. Yesterday (28th March) Deme Oram and 200 displaced villagers of Bondamunda were initially arrested while they were sitting on an indefinite dharna since 16th of March demanding justice and implementation of the...

-The Hindu There are many indices of proof that seriously contradict the tall claims of employment generation in India Reports on and the visuals of the recent agitations by railway job applicants reveal a widespread problem of massive job insecurity among India’s youth. Alarming figures of unemployment have been recurrent even before the huge dislocation unleashed by lockdowns imposed in 2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much before the pandemic,...

-TheCitizen.in Eight years on GANGNAULI: On the banks of the Krishna river, in the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, toxic chemicals discharged by nearby industrial units have turned the drinking water of villages around the river poisonous. This toxic river might be the reason for life threatening diseases like cancer, hepatitis, paralysis, mental illness and congenital bone deformities prevalent among people here. Back in 2014, former Haryana Pollution Control Board scientist Dr Chandraveer...

-IndiaToday.in Moon Beverages (Coca-Cola) and Varun Beverages (PepsiCo) have been accused of breaking the terms of their licences by failing to meet their requirements to recharge groundwater. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently imposed a fine of Rs 25 crore on PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for illegally extracting groundwater from the land at their respective manufacturing plants located in Uttar Pradesh. Moon Beverages (Coca-Cola) and Varun Beverages (PepsiCo) have been accused of breaking the...