-Business Standard Amendments will bar whistleblowers from disclosing info which govt and its agencies are exempted from providing under RTI Act The NDA government has proposed to substantially reduce the kind of information the whistle-blowers will be able to disclose under the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2011. The government has tabled an amendment bill in the Lok Sabha that reduces the mandate of the law considerably. If the amendment is passed, the whistle-blower would no...

-The Indian Express Government has been speaking in two tongues on intellectual property. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his desire to see India adhere to “global” IP standards. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) was quick to latch on to this, noting in its latest Special 301 report: “The United States also welcomes April 2015 statements made by Prime Minister Modi recommending that India align its patent laws with international...

-Economic and Political Weekly Ten years on, the progressive provisions of the amended Indian Patents Act are being watered down. Ten years have passed since the Indian Patents Act, 1970 was amended in 2005 to bring the country’s laws in line with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPS). The most important of the 2005 amendments was the introduction of product patents for 20 years, including for pharmaceutical products,...

-Down to Earth US continues to question India’s patent regime in its latest report. The country was kept in the category where unfavorable conditions exist for ‘innovation’ In April, US president Barack Obama wrote a piece in the Time magazine, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For a few people it might have been a happy moment, but for others it was scary as they tried to read between the lines as to...

-The Hindu The Environment Minister insists on clearing all hydro projects, even when the government itself earlier agreed that the Himalayas must be avoided for development work. A battle of epic proportions between the hydroelectric power companies and the people of Uttarakhand has now culminated with the struggle shifting to the office of the Prime Minister of India. It began with the extraordinary and far-sighted 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in...