An Indian government science agency has established a formal mechanism to track patent claims filed in other countries to guard against India’s traditional knowledge, primarily in medicine, being passed off as innovation. The Global Biopiracy Watch System is a new component of an effort initiated 10 years ago by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to create a giant database of traditional knowledge contained in the Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha...

The first results of Census 2011 put India's population at 1,210 million, indicating a demographic transition. CENSUS 2011 is the 15th one undertaken in India since 1872 and the seventh after the country attained Independence. While there have been stray historical references to population counts of one kind or another in earlier periods over much smaller territories within the territory that constitutes present-day India, the consensus view is that the...

The former Union Law Minister and senior advocate, Shanti Bhushan, on Monday moved the Supreme Court for a directive to initiate contempt proceedings against the former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, for allegedly fabricating a compact disc containing his conversations with him and party president Mulayam Singh. In his application, Mr. Shanti Bhushan said: “The alleged contents of the CD have been fabricated with a malicious intention to interfere with the...

The former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh on Monday challenged the father-son duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan to prove that the controversial CD allegedly containing a conversation between Mr. Shanti Bhushan and him (Amar Singh) and SP chief Mulayam Singh on a legal deal was fake and asked the Bhushans to step down from the joint drafting panel on the Lokpal Bill. Addressing a news conference here, Mr. Amar Singh...

“There is a clear conspiracy on the part of some people which appears to have the blessings of many powerful people in the country” Barely a day after the first meeting of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill, the process has come under stress with the civil society members on the panel alleging a “clear conspiracy” to not only derail the anti-corruption movement but also to subvert the...