-Live Mint There are also ways in which we can help Indian institutions that have come to us seeking access to our technologies Bangalore: A key perception change is emerging in the global pharmaceutical industry on the long-established divide between the so-called generics and innovative business. While the two are still at loggerheads in several developed as well as developing markets, the world’s top drugmakers are reinventing the wheel. Paris-based Sanofi SA,...

-World Watch Institute An estimated 70.2 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide have been sold or leased to private and public investors since 2000, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online service. The bulk of these acquisitions, which are called “land grabs” by some observers, took place between 2008 and 2010, peaking in 2009. Although data for 2010 indicate that the amount of...

A probe panel of the road ministry has recommended a CBI investigation into allegations of fraud against private contractors involved in the Lucknow-Muzaffarpur highway project. The inquiry committee, instituted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, supported findings of the World Bank Institutional Integrity Unit report, which alleged fraudulent practices and graft by private contractors involved in the Lucknow-Muzaffarpur highway project. The committee, formed in April by minister CP Joshi, recommended...

-The United Nations A sustained rise in prices for raw natural resources and basic agricultural goods is defying long-standing patterns and appears to be hurting poor nations through rising food and fuel costs more than it is helping them through higher revenues for their commodities exports.   That was one of the findings of the Commodities and Development Report 2012, a study launched at the 13th session of the UN Conference on Trade...

In climate change talks, the countries need to think equity differently Just before the BASIC ministerial meeting on climate change in Delhi this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed on “equity” in climate change talks and said economic growth should not harm the environment. Although the BASIC countries — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — are growing, making them a powerful voice in global economy, they still view themselves as...