-The Economic Times MUMBAI: India's strong stance on minor drug innovations could reverberate in national parliaments and courthouses of the developed world as Australia, the EU and Canada get ready to discuss and ban patent protection for frivolous improvements. A top Australian government body on Wednesday asked for changes in its patent laws relating to drugs saying that the indiscriminate grant of patents to incremental innovations should be checked and that...

-First Post In an interview with Firstpost, Ajay Chhibber, Regional Director of the UNDP, tells us why India ranks low on the Human Development Index, below China, Sri Lanka and Iran, what we need to do to improve our standing and why welfare schemes are not to be blamed for poor growth or inflation. Excerpts from the interview: * Why does India lag other BRIC countries in the HDI ratings? Compared to the other...

-The United Nations The rapid growth of developing countries is propelling millions out of poverty on an unprecedented scale and radically reshaping the global system, according to a flagship United Nations report launched today. “The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale,” says the Human Development Report 2013, which uses the term “South” to mean developing countries and “North” to mean developed nations. “Never in history have the...

-The Times of India Delhi is not close to any of the tiger belts of the country, yet it figures among the five hotspots in India connected to big cat poaching, says a report by a global wildlife trade monitoring network and WWF. Tiger seizures in the capital are predominantly of skins, although there has been no big catch since 2005. The other four hotspots identified in the global report are: Ramnagar...

-The Economist A steadily rising Muslim population continues to fall behind IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a...