-Economic and Political Weekly While the Supreme Court decision in the recent Novartis case has cleared the way for production of generic drugs in India, doctors have to prescribe cheaper alternatives to costly brands if patients with limited means are to benefit. What is being hailed as a victory in the struggle for affordable medicines in the country will actually be one only when there is a pro-patient slant to the...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: You could be popping certain pills and combinations that are illegally approved, harmful, cleared without proper clinical trials or even banned in the US and other countries. Delivering a severe rap on the government's knuckles, a parliamentary standing committee on health has charged it with "dilly-dallying and procrastination'' over serious irregularities in approval of life-saving medicines, not following the global ban on harmful drugs, and failing...

-CNN-IBN Kolkata: West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan has called a special session of the state Assembly next week beginning April 29 to discuss the chit fund scam. Speaker Biman Banerjee, in fact, has called an all-party meeting at 3 pm on Friday to discuss the special session. But the TMC wants the West Bengal Protection of Depositors' Interest in Financial Institution Bill to be returned by the Centre so that it could...

-The Hindustan Times Hisar: Members of the Dalit community on Thursday staged a protest in Hisar, demanding judicial inquiry into the suicide pact of a missing rape victim's family at Bheri Akbarpur village in Uklana, 50 km from here. Ashok Kumar, a Balmiki leader, said: "The inhuman treatment of police had forced the family to take the extreme step. We demand judicial probe into the incident. The government should provide best...

-The Hindu The lawsuit by publishers seeking to stop Delhi University from distributing photocopied course packs goes against the spirit of education for all Late last year, leading publishing houses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press brought a copyright action against Delhi University and a tiny photocopy shop licensed by it, seeking to restrain them from supplying educational course packs to students. This lawsuit sent shock waves across the...