-The Indian Express SC is right that natural resources are held in public trust, but its comments on allocation are simplistic In its ruling in the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Supreme Court said that auctions were the best route for allocation of finite natural resources. “While transferring or alienating the natural resources, the State is duty bound to adopt the method of auction by giving wide publicity so that all eligible...
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Opposition to Monsanto patent on Indian melons by Gargi Parsai
Activist Vandana Shiva and an Europe-based NGO have jointly opposed a patent awarded to an American company on virus resistance traits taken from indigenous melon varieties in India. The NGOs — Navdanya and No Patent on Seeds — contend that, armed with this patent, the U.S. company (Monsanto) could block access to all breeding material inheriting the virus resistance derived from the Indian melon. Seeking complete revocation of the patent the NGOs,...
More »Court grills CBI over its Pathribal probe by J Venkatesan
It seeks statement fromthe Special Task Force chief The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to answer CERTain questions relating to the 2000 Pathribal encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir initiated by it. The CBI has initiated a case against five Army officers involved in an alleged fake encounter since the Army did not take any action under the Army Act and also did not allow the criminal...
More »Don't trash this law, the fault lies in non-implementation by Brinda Karat & Sabu George
There can be little quarrel with the argument that India requires a comprehensive policy to prevent sex selection as put forward by National Advisory Council members Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shiva Kumar in The Hindu (“India & the sex selection conundrum,” January 24, 2012). That the use of sex selection technologies to abort female foetuses is linked to the increasing devaluation and disempowerment of women is well known. It is...
More »Rainy Days by Arti Sharma
Central pension plan NPS finally gets a boost The ‘New’ NPS Measure: Improve incentives for distributors. Has been recently implemented. Impact: Was required. But won’t be enough, need consumer education to build volumes. Proposal: Increase fund management fees with an option to lower later. Impact: Under consideration. But finance ministry unhappy with increase in costs. Proposal: Relax the norms to appoint more fund managers to increase distribution. Impact: Unlikely. At...
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