-Down to Earth The Coca-Cola plant that caused over-exploitation of groundwater, toxic contamination of soil, groundwater, loss of agriculture and health in Plachimada shut down 18 years ago Coca-Cola Co, the multi-American beverages giant with presence across the globe, has been in news for its Sponsorship of the upcoming 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Even as it draws flak for littering the world with...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Why do unethical pharma practices thrive? -T Srikrishna and S Srinivasan
-The Hindu Business Line The laws concerned are riddled with loopholes. A mandatory, enforceable code for ethical pharmaceutical marketing is a must The recent kerfuffle over a particular brand of the painkiller paracetamol 650 mg tablet is not really over the particular brand as much as about the unethical marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry in India. Gone are the days when a mere ball-point pen or a diary from a medical representative...
More »Have India and South Africa, Lead Sponsors of the TRIPS Waiver Proposal, Reconciled to a Weak Text? -Priti Patnaik
-TheWire.in At the cusp of the 12th WTO ministerial conference, the co-Sponsors seem to be giving up on the fight. Geneva: After more than 18 months of bringing their bold proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily suspend some intellectual property protections to decisively address COVID-19 in an effort to enable local manufacturing capacity, Sponsors India and South Africa do not seem to be leading from the front, Geneva-based trade...
More »Debunking the myth of APMCs regulating agricultural marketing in a real world
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...
More »Curbs on Indian media continue: U.S. rights report -Sriram Lakshman
-The Hindu Notes several instances of govt pressure on media outlets Washington DC: In its 2020 Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department said the harassment and detention of journalists critical of the (Indian) government in their reporting and on social media, has continued, although the government generally respected the freedom of expression. It also said government’s requests for user data from Internet companies had increased “dramatically.” The report, which is submitted each...
More »