-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as an attempt to delay launch of low priced generic medicines, multinational drug makers have asked the government to create a registry providing information about all drug applications pending manufacturing and marketing approval. The proposal, if accepted by the government, will help ‘big pharma’ pre-emptively challenge generic drug makers in court for allegedly infringing upon their patents and in turn blocking...

-The Economic Times The group said the threat posed by digital platforms to the integrity of the upcoming elections has assumed “alarming proportions”. A group of rights organisations and citizens — including Internet Freedom Foundation, Common Cause and former chief election commissioners N Gopalaswami and SY Quraishi — have “made an urgent appeal” to the Election Commission to rein in digital platforms to ensure integrity of the general elections. The group, which also...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Congress talks about safeguarding privacy, Trinamool warns of the misuse of surveillance and CPM proposes limiting the influence of technology behemoths. Leading political parties have woken up to the issue of digital rights in their poll manifestos, a move that has been welcomed by civil society and activists. The Congress manifesto promises to safeguard privacy and personal data by passing laws. It also lays down ambitious...

-The Times of India THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: AICC president Rahul Gandhi owns assets worth Rs 14.85 crore. This is Rs 4.85 crore more than what he had declared during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In 2014 he had declared assets worth Rs 10 crore. In the affidavit filed before the Wayanad district collector on Thursday along with the nomination, Rahul Gandhi has declared that he has movable assets worth Rs 5,80,58,799 and immovable assets...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Thursday that the tax base and revenues had increased significantly post demonetisation and there was no surge in the people who stopped filing returns. “CBDT clarified that contrary to the report, it is a fact that demonetization had a phenomenal positive impact on the widening of tax base and direct tax collections,” the tax department said while...