-Live Mint Our food procurement policies may be lopsided but there is no link between the food security law and free trade The upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Bali has attracted considerable attention in India because of its repercussions on our food policy. It is feared that the recently passed food security law will breach the negotiated limits on the aggregate measure of support (AMS) to farmers. AMS is...

-IPS   Food security activists who secured a moratorium on introducing genetically modified brinjal (aubergine) into India fear that their efforts are being undermined by the release of GM brinjal in neighbouring Bangladesh. "India and Bangladesh share a long and porous border and it is easy for GM brinjal varieties to be brought over," says Suman Sahai, director of Gene Campaign, a Delhi-based research and advocacy group devoted to the conservation of...

-The Hindu The Bali ministerial conference in December presents a crucial opportunity to bring about changes in WTO rules Ending hunger and poverty requires major national policy initiatives in developing countries. The United Nations Secretary-General has articulated a broad zero hunger vision, endorsed and embraced as a priority by national leaders in many developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Production of food by small cultivators in developing countries has a...

-The Hindu The issue of easing the costs of intellectual property resources on clean technologies takes centre stage For the developed countries it was a devil buried at the climate negotiations last year at Doha. At the Warsaw talks, the developing countries, including India, resuscitated the devil - easing the costs of intellectual property rights (IPR) on clean technologies - back to life, by demanding that a funding mechanism be set up...

-PTI Plan panel member appreciates ICAR, Agrinnovate India Ltd for encouragement of entrepreneurship and innovations Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) should focus on the development of intellectual properties for promoting entrepreneurships among farmers, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said today. "Today knowledge and technology are becoming the property rights and it brings benefits for those who own it," Sen said while delivering the foundation day lecture of Agrinnovate India Ltd. ICAR should concentrate...