That this is the first time a compulsory licence has been granted in India is in itself important. INDIA'S long struggle to ensure access to affordable medicines for its people recently took a positive and interesting turn. In early March, just before he demitted office, Controller General of Patents P.H. Kurian passed an order on an application filed by Natco Pharma, headquartered in Hyderabad, requesting a licence to produce an anti-cancer...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Malnourished children yet to get eggs, milk-Mohit M. Rao
Although the State Government issued an order to supply eggs and milk to severely malnourished children in anganwadis from April 1, many children have not received the promised nourishment even 20 days after the programme began. A majority of the anganwadis are either in the dark about the Government Order or, even if they have received information, there is little clarity on the details of implementation. The decision by the Department of...
More »D-voter tussle in PM court -Umanand Jaiswal
Dispur has decided to seek the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the contentious D-voter issue as well as consider the case of Hindus who came to Assam after Partition on humanitarian grounds. These issues will be part of the memorandum Dispur will be submitting to Singh, who will be here on a daylong visit to attend the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Assam Assembly, despite the 12-hour Assam...
More »Debate on poverty does not alter the reality of declining poverty or strategy to combat it-PP Sangal
The Planning Commission drew flak when it calculated that if an urban person spent 28 per head every day and someone in rural areas spent 22, that was enough to consider them to be above the poverty line. These figures are based on consumption expenditure data collected in the 66th round of NSSO for 2009-10. From these new estimates, using the Tendulkar Committee methodology, the number of poor in 2009-10 was...
More »SIT challenges acquittals in Sardarpura massacre case-Manas Dasgupta
-The Hindu The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has challenged in the Gujarat High Court a fast track court's judgment acquitting 31 persons of the Sardarpura massacre, witnessed during the 2002 communal riots in the State. (Thirty-three persons were killed by a mob at Sardarpura in Mehsana district on March 1, 2002.) On November 9 last, Special court judge S. C. Srivastava sentenced 31 persons to life imprisonment and exonerated 11 others...
More »