Health activists and cancer patients in the US have pounced on Swiss drug multinational Novartis for the high price of its famous, multi-billion dollar anti-cancer drug Glivec, a development which challenges pharma MNCs' claims of cheap access and affordability for patented drugs. Such protests, which began first in Europe, and have now spread to the US, could make it more difficult for pharma MNCs in developing countries to convince sceptical governments...

-The Indian Express India's wholesale price inflation accelerated 7.23% in April, compared with 6.89% in the previous month, as food and manufactured items turned dearer, heaping pressure on the central bank against any dovish approach to monetary easing despite shrinking economic activity. The government has revised up the inflation figure for February to 7.36% from 6.95% estimated earlier, according to the data released by the industry ministry on Monday. prices of food articles...

With an eye to mainstreaming sustainability, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has reached out to the United Nations Development Programme to suggest ways for 'greening' rural development schemes and programmes. "We are spending Rs 99,000 crore this year on rural development programmes and it would be a shame if we don't mainstream green objectives in these programmes. Rural development programmes offer a huge opportunity to deal with green concerns and challenges...

On February 9, 2010, the then Minister of Environment and Forests, Government of India, Jairam Ramesh, imposed an indefinite moratorium on the introduction of Bt Brinjal in India. It is necessary and desirable to quote the order verbatim. It reads as follows: It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary based approach and impose a moratorium on the release of Bt Brinjals till such time independent scientific studies establish, to...

Pawar’s Report Card The Negatives     Per capita availability of cereals and pulses has fallen in last eight years     No improvement in irrigation, 60% of agriculture still dependent on monsoons     Farmers growing cereals, sugarcane, oilseeds and pulses assured higher MSP, but majority don't benefit     Production up, but not productivity. Farmer suicides are on the rise.     Poor market advisory on exports being misused to buy cheaply from farmers and make profits overseas     Pawar...