-The Hindu A study shows that Indians are not immune to health consequences of smoking and that smokers have a higher death rate than non-smokers. Recently, a parliamentary committee declined to extend the size of health warnings on cigarette packets due to lack of independent evidence on the health impacts of smoking on the Indian population. A longitudinal study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economics (NCAER) and University of Maryland shows that in...

-Economic and Political Weekly Ten years on, the progressive provisions of the amended Indian Patents Act are being watered down. Ten years have passed since the Indian Patents Act, 1970 was amended in 2005 to bring the country’s laws in line with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The most important of the 2005 amendments was the introduction of product patents for 20 years, including for pharmaceutical products,...

-Economic and Political Weekly Ashish Bose coined the acronym BIMARU in the early 1980s to describe the backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh relative to the best-performing states in terms of demographic indicators. This article extends Bose's analysis to recent years to ascertain if the proposition is still valid. To retain the integrity of the original exercise, the same indicators examined by Bose have been analysed, as far...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The land acquisition law passed by the previous government may not be the villain of the piece when it comes to stalled projects, according to data generated by a Right to Information (RTI) query. The Modi government's determination to amend the land acquisition law in the teeth of resistance from farmers and political parties has stemmed from the legislation's apparent role in just this — bringing projects...

-The Economic Times BENGALURU: To fend off an agrarian crisis similar to the one sweeping across parts of north India and prevent farmer suicides, Karnataka has begun to implement a scheme to monsoon-proof the farmer that could turn out to be a national solution. About 35,000 farmers across the state's 175 taluks are implementing the pilot programme by setting up polythene-lined water storage ponds in their fields to prevent water seep age...