The implementation of Patents Act, as last amended in 2005, raises significant issues of immediate concern to patients across the world. INDIA'S Patents Act has an interesting history. Enacted first in 1911 as the Indian Patents and Designs Act in the colonial era, it primarily addressed the interests of inventors, who did not want their inventions infringed upon by anyone who copied them or adopted the methods used to make them....

-The Times of India Karnataka, reeling under severe drought, has received a body blow: the Centre has withheld its next instalment of grant to a rural job scheme citing five shortcomings in its implementation in the state. "The release of the next instalment of the central share (for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) to the state depends very crucially on how it is able to spend the funds...

A government panel has recommended an income-linked cap on marriage expenses as part of amendments to curb dowry harassment. “Introduction of ceilings in terms of percentage of income on gifts and marriage expenditure needs to be considered. A limit should also be put on marriage expenditure in terms of food,” the high-powered Planning Commission panel on women empowerment has said. The panel, made up of senior officials of the women and child...

The Centre has cited three shortcomings in the implementation of the rural job scheme in Bengal and linked the next instalment of grant to the resolution of the problems. In a letter sent to chief minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has identified the critical areas as low completion rate of works, delay in e-transfer of wages and inadequate action on complaints of irregularities. “Let me make it...

Consumers may have to pay substantially more for pulses, oilseed, and rice in the coming months if the government accepts the recommendations of an expert panel to increase farm-gate price of these commodities by up to 30%, further stoking food inflation. The Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), under the ministry of agriculture, has recommended a 25% rise in the floor price of cotton, 16% rise in paddy, 30% rise...