-PTI   Aiming to preserve the indigenous knowledge of tribals and products manufactured by them with the help of natural resources, government is planning to patent some of these under the Intellectual Property rights (IPR). "Tribal Affairs Ministry has taken an initiative to patent the forest by-products and indigenous knowledge of making these products through the Intellectual Property rights," Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo said here. "The use of products and the...

-The Business Standard   Its guarantee of non-duplication can have far-reaching cost benefits but it has deep design flaws that can be compromised. PRAVEEN CHAKRAVARTY Former Volunteer, Financial Inclusion, UIDAI* “Aadhaar is an unadulterated identity programme that answers the question: Is the individual who he or she claims to be?”   The word “unique”, and not “identity”, is central to the unique identity programme or Aadhaar. It may be true that the vast majority of people possess some...

The government’s recent actions in notifying the Intermediary Guidelines for the internet with minimal public debate have resulted in the creation of a legal system that raises as many problems as it solves. The regulations as presently notified are arguably unconstitutional, arbitrary and vague and could pose a serious problem to the business of various intermediaries in the country (not to mention hampering internet penetration in the country) and also...

-The Hindu It will make land acquisition more difficult for private players The Union government proposes to take yet another shot at the crucial land reforms agenda in a bid to help the rural poor affected by a host of land issues and inflation. Having introduced the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in Parliament, Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, who also holds the Department of Land Resources, aims to address...

What was our immediate response to further decline in the child sex ratio in India? Within days of the provisional 2011 Census results (March-April 2011), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reconstituted the Central Supervisory Board for the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act 1994 , which had not met for 3 years, and on November 30, 2011 the Ministry of Women and Child Development...