The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came together to chart a road map for sustainable development and poverty eradication. The theme was green economy. But developed and developing countries refused to bury their differences. Developed countries were not ready to let go of their extravagant lifestyle, while developing countries were expected to take on green commitments. The countries could not even reach a consensus on the definition of green economy.

Differences galore over the commitments made at the Earth Summit

As the leaders met in a mountain-girdled Brazilian town for the crucial official round of discussions on the Rio+20 text, what was most noticeably missing was the kind of excitement that was witnessed two decades ago, when more than 172 governments, as many as 108 of them sending their heads of state, participated for the first-of-its-kind global awakening event. The developed nations are seen advising the developing nations to “look forward” and not to “look backwards,” to the promises made in 1992.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put in place a mechanism to define counterfeit medical products.

The set of definitions of sub-standard, spurious, falsely labelled, falsified and counterfeit products will be globally accepted and help to bring about uniformity in identifying such drugs, without interrupting worldwide supplies. The decision to establish a member state mechanism was taken at the World Health Assembly, the WHO's policymaking body, at a meeting held recently.

Developing countries in Asia, led by China and India, are among the fastest growing economies in the world today. Economic growth in the region in the coming 20 years will exceed the average level of world economy, boosting a continuous increase in primary energy demand.

The RNR Research Policy of Bhutan responds to building a knowledge-based society and emerging challenge of transforming Bhutanese agriculture from subsistence to a commercial-based economy in the 10th Five Year Plan and beyond.

Health is a crucially important social and economic asset - a cornerstone for human development. Three of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for specific health improvements by 2015: reducing the child and maternal mortality and slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

In January 2005, drug product patent protection was reintroduced in India to comply with the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. How are the multinational pharmaceutical companies responding to the new policy environment? Is India likely to see monopolisation of the industry and high prices, which was the pattern before 1972 when India had product patent protection? Will the positive features of the post-1972 process patent era be diluted or negated?

The government today asserted India would invoke the flexibility it had under the WTO agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) for compulsory licensing of patented drugs to e

This paper reviews theoretical and empirical literature that originated predominantly during and after TRIPS, focusing on the influence of changes in patent protection on developing countries. Previous studies identify two channels of gain for developing countries, from strong patent rights. Firstly, the promotion channel whereby, patent rights affect innovativeness of the South and concomitantly its economic growth. Theoretical studies do not give unambiguous hypotheses concerning the influence of patent protection on domestic innovation leaving it for empirical investigation.

Preparations for the Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainable development have begun, but the first round of preparatory meetings did not address important issues such as sustainable resource use, production and consumption.

Pages