THE Jan Lokpal Bill fills the vacuum in the fight against corruption, at least in a theoretical sense. The existing systems of identifying and prosecuting cases of corruption against public officials are woefully inadequate. At present, public servants can be prosecuted for corruption under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. However, the investigating agency, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has to get...

An Indian government science agency has established a formal mechanism to track patent claims filed in other countries to guard against India’s traditional knowledge, primarily in medicine, being passed off as innovation. The Global Biopiracy Watch System is a new component of an effort initiated 10 years ago by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to create a giant database of traditional knowledge contained in the Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha...

“I know in my heart that I never betrayed the people of this country” At 7 O'clock on a sultry Monday evening, human rights activist and paediatrician Binayak Sen walked out of the Raipur Central Jail and into the arms of his daughters Aparajita and Pranhita. “I know in my heart that I never betrayed the people of this country,” Dr. Sen said soon after he was released on bail,...

Binayak Sen walked out of prison this evening to warm hugs from his mother, wife, daughters and friends but not before technical problems relating to his bail threatened to stall his release today. Eventually, the frail 61-year-old in kurta-pyjamas emerged from Raipur Central Jail a couple of hours later than expected, ending his four-month stay behind bars under a bail condition that requires him to surrender his passport. The rights activist, granted...

Indian public health expert and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen has been freed, after the Supreme Court granted him bail last week. Dr Sen was released from a prison in the central state of Chhattisgarh on the condition that he would surrender his passport and attend court whenever he was summoned. In December a court in Chhattisgarh sentenced him to life in prison for helping Maoist rebels. Mr Sen has denied the...