-Down to Earth Judgement against Pepsico potato variety sets precedent for all seed and food and beverages corporations not to transgress farmers’ seed rights and freedoms in India, experts say The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Authority December 3, 2021 revoked a PVP (plant variety protection) certificate granted to PepsiCo India Holding (PIH) on a potato variety (FL-2027) on multiple grounds.  This means that Pepsico’s Intellectual Property Right (IPR) granted...

-The Hindu The facilities, to be set up in containers, can be sent by rail or air to any part of country. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said the recently launched PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, with an outlay of more than ₹64,000 crore, is aimed at filling critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care and primary care facilities in both urban and rural areas. Speaking at...

-Newslaundry.com From a media blackout to carrying government handouts, Bangladeshi media’s coverage of the recent communal violence is a reflection of declining press freedom. A little after 2am on October 13, the eighth day of Durga Puja, a man walked into the puja venue at Nanuardighi in Cumilla, Bangladesh. The main idol was curtained off for the night, but near it was an idol of Hanuman. The man placed a book near...

When one of the three farm laws i.e., The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 was enacted last year, it was argued by its proponents that the legislation would allow the farmers to sell their produce (and the traders to purchase that produce) outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee-APMC mandis after crop harvesting. In a way, that particular piece of legislation was enacted to end the...

-TheWire.in The 'Freedom of the Net', an annual report that analyses the state of human rights in the digital sphere, found plenty to object to in the Indian context. New Delhi: “Where democratic checks and balances are lacking, government officials will exploit regulation to punish any company that moderates politicians’ speech, or pushes back against arbitrary orders to remove content or hand over data.” These lines come from Freedom House’s latest edition of...