-Live Mint Incidents at Bhopal and Indore highlight irregularities and ethical violations in some trials In 2004, doctors at the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC), established exclusively for treating the victims of the 1984 gas leak, recruited unsuspecting survivors for clinical trials without their knowledge or consent; 14 participants died during the course of the trials. Together with the episode in Indore’s Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital (that Mint reported on 10...

-IANS Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday termed farmers' suicide as a serious issue, but said such cases were showing a decline. The government is focusing on increasing investment in agriculture as well as raising minimum support price (MSP) of crops to increase farmers' income, Pawar told the economic editors conference here. "It is true that this is a serious issue before us. However, the percentage of farmers' suicide is coming down," the...

-The Hindustan Times Using his Constitutional powers, tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo has directed the Andhra Pradesh government to cancel bauxite mining leases to Andhra Pradesh Mining Development Corporation (APMDC) in the state's Aaraku valley to prevent reemergence of naxalism. The corporation has signed Memorandum of Understanding with several private companies to mine bauxite, which, according to Deo, is violation of Alienation of Land Transfer Regulation Act. The law prohibits a non-tribal...

-Deccan Herald The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the lives of people who, without their knowledge, were subjected to drug clinical trials by pharma companies and sought details of the number of such trials and the deaths and adverse reactions caused by them over the last seven years. “We are concerned with the lives of those who become subjects of clinical trials unknowingly and helplessly,” ta bench of Justices R...

-The Hindu Several unique species of flora-fauna fast approaching the state of extinction At a time when the representatives of 193 countries have gathered here for mulling over the conservation of biodiversity for better future of the humanity and for symbiosis of all living creatures on planet earth, lack of awareness about the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 among the Forest Department officials is resulting in the indiscriminate poaching of the biodiversity wealth...