-TheWire.in * The proposed Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2021 encourages a conducive environment for investments and to simplify the patent application process. * Farmers in India have historically been against any kind of IP rights – whether patents or plant variety protection over seed and planting materials. * In a confused mix of laws, the government also grants IP rights to BMCs for farmers’ varieties – formed under the Biological Diversity Act –...

-Newsclick.in Religious bigotry and violence are meant to distract people from questioning sweeping unemployment, sky-high prices and faltering incomes. If you go by Sarkari views, India's economy is on an upward bounce after the devastation caused by the Covid pandemic. But, in reality, there is ever-widening discontent because of the inability of the government to rein in prices of essential items, its complete neglect of job creation and low incomes that are...

-The Tribune Actress-activist Gul Panag also attends the ‘sansad’ Gender lines blurred and traditional roles reversed ever so often as men and women joined hands to share responsibilities in the farm, at home and at protest sites to keep up the prolonged fight against three agri laws, women farmers said here on Monday. Gathered for an all-woman Kisan Sansad (farmers' parliament), they demanded the repeal of the Essential Services Commodities Amendment Act, and...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-Down to Earth The increasing trend of legal penalty for abandonment will backfire Bruised by anti-cow slaughter laws and widespread vigilantism, farmers simply don’t want cows around. This means tactical abandoning, with decreasing options to trade unproductive cattle. But several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, have formed laws to penalise such abandonment too. Stray cattle has become a menace in villages as well as towns in several areas, to...