-The Times of India Big pharma may be crying hoarse over India's "weak'' intellectual property environment, but over the past five years or so, they have introduced only a handful of their patented blockbusters in the country. That's not all. The contribution of patented drugs in the Rs 72,000-crore pharma retail market is not even 1%, indicating that multinationals have been traditionally slow and have a poor track record in introducing...

-PTI The Unique Identification (UID) Aadhaar number will soon be a "valid" proof of identity and address to obtain a PAN card. A proposal for inclusion of Aadhaar in the existing list of valid proof of identification and proof of address for allotment of PAN was sent to the finance ministry by the Unique Identification Authority of India sometime back. The ministry has decided to notify rules in this regard. It is aimed...

-Live Mint Attempt to broad-base direct benefits transfer plan may help shore up the Congress’s standing among rural population The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government plans to include its flagship rural job guarantee programme in the second phase of its ambitious direct benefits transfer (DBT) plan, under which beneficiaries of social welfare programmes will receive money directly in their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The attempt to broad-base the cash transfer plan before several...

-The Business Standard Bill would pave way for setting up of an authority to help control pests & diseases in plants and animals Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha that would pave way for setting up of a National Biosecurity Authority, which would help in prevention, control, eradication and management of pests and diseases of plants and animals and unwanted organisms. The Bill which was being debated...

-The Business Standard For the first time, the Union Budget for 2013-14 made a provision of Rs 10,000 crore for rolling out UPA-2 most ambitious social security programme--the proposed Food Security Law. This is over Rs 80,000 crore as normal food subsidy. Food Minister K V Thomas tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee that the Budget provision of Rs 90,000 crore as food subsidy will be enough to roll out the Bill in its...