The economic crisis, the ecological crisis and the food crisis are a reflection of an outmoded and fossilised economic paradigm. It is a paradigm that grew out of mobilising resources for the war by creating the category of “growth”. It is rooted in the age of oil and fossil fuels. It is fossilised because it is obsolete, a product of the age of fossil fuels. If we have to address...

-PTI Competition watchdog CCI has imposed Rs 317 crore in penalties on three companies, including agro-Chemicals major United Phosphorus, for collusive bidding to supply ALP tablets to Food Corporation of India (FCI).  The aluminium phosphide (ALP) tablet manufacturers -- United Phosphorus, Excel Crop Care, and Sandhya Organics -- have been fined 9 per cent of the their three years' average profits.  ALP tablets are used by the FCI for preserving its central pool...

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...

Nagpur orange’s survival hinges precariously on its return to sustainable cultivation. Farmers have woken up to this, but will the government? A beaming Uday Wath hugs the trunk of his sturdy, disease-free Nagpur orange tree. All around him are trees drooping with the fruit, large and healthy. The tree trunks are singularly free of both telltale gummosis wounds and bluish white bordeaux paste, the chemical meant to prevent them. Not more than...

Non-urea fertilizer prices were freed in April 2010, but GSFCL, DFPCL, RCF still got gas at regulated prices The fertilizer ministry is considering asking three non-urea fertilizer makers to return part of the gains they have made since April 2010 on account of gas supplied to them at regulated prices while they were allowed to sell their products at market prices. Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF), Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals...