-Outlook Hyderabad: India could win 105 claims on international patents due to its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here today, opening the high-level segment meeting at the Conference of Parties to Convention on Biological Diversity. "We decided to build this knowledge database because of the patent on the use of neem extract in Europe and another patent on the use of turmeric as a healing agent. Since...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Centre to notify within a week its fresh guidelines on tiger conservation. It indicated that it may modify its July 24 order that stayed all tourism activities in Tiger reserves. A Bench comprising Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar said it will not let its directives on tiger conservation remain ‘open-ended’. The Bench made it clear that the states, if unhappy...

-The Indian Express Emphasising on validation of rights of tribals and forest-dwellers over the forest lands, the Supreme Court has said that Naxalism was a result of an oversight of constitutional provisions relating to administration of schedule areas and tribes of the country. “Nobody looks at Schedules V and VI of the Constitution and the result is Naxalism. Urbanites are ruling the nation. Even several union of India counsel are oblivious of...

-The Times of India The official version of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) on Wednesday changed thrice in the space of one day. In a highly unusual sequence of events, the version of Singh's speech released by the PMO on its website on Wednesday was withdrawn on Thursday afternoon only to return in its original form by late evening. The flip-flop-flip is perhaps the...

-The Hindu Following resistance to the ban on tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves by several States, NGOs and interested parties, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted the Centre to review existing norms and come up with comprehensive guidelines on ‘Tiger Project’ and ‘sustainable tourism.’ A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar gave this permission after Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati drew the court’s attention to the objections received and...