-Vikalp Once again, India is under pressure from the US to revise its patent law. Anyone familiar with the activities of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) would know that this is nothing new. It has been among the USTR's primary mandates to use trade restrictions in order to persuade (to put it mildly) countries to strengthen their IPR laws. There is, however, a qualitative difference between the actions it has...

-The Hindu Business Line   Cocoa has enriched the lifestyle of one lakh farmers in the four southern States When Cadbury India (now Mondelez India Foods Ltd) representatives approached Sabapathy, a coconut farmer at Sethumadai village, 16 km from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, with some cocoa seedling to be raised as an intercrop in his coconut grove, Sabapathy says he was not interested at all. "They did not give up and I ultimately gave...

-The Hindu Other States in India can study how the family planning programme has worked in Kerala and incorporate those features in their own programmes The recent tragedy of several women losing their lives in the state-sponsored tubectomy camp in Takhatpur, Chhattisgarh, has caused severe damage to the national family planning programme. This, however, is not an invalidation of the importance of sterilisation as an integral part of the programme, but only...

-FAO Spotlight turns to humanity's silent ally and the risks it faces Rome: Healthy soils are critical for global food production, but we are not paying enough attention to this important "silent ally," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on the eve of World Soil Day, to be celebrated on 5 December. Healthy soils not only are the foundation for food, fuel, fibre and medical products, but also are essential to...

-The Hindu It is not the responsibility of the government alone to act in order to curb corruption; corporate firms need to be proactive as well in checking fraudulent financial practices The winter session of Parliament witnessed a noisy debate on the black money controversy. Governments of all hues have disappointed the Indian janata on the issue of black money and the failure is often associated with a perceived nexus between politicians...