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Top Stories
Patents Bill passed amid
walk-out
What is India News Service,
Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 1400 hrs IST
After two days of hectic behind-the-scene negotiation between the Left and the Congress and strong opposition by the NDA, the UPA Government on Tuesday was finally able to ensure the
passage of the Patents (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha.
With the entire NDA bloc staging a walkout, the Lok Sabha passed by voice vote a Bill to amend the Patents Act, 1970, even as the Government assured that it has enormous powers to ensure that prices of patented products do not rise.
"I have ensured that all flexibilities and elasticities that are permissible are taken advantage of. If any upsurge in prices comes to the notice of the members, it will be brought to the notice of the Government. The Government will have enormous powers to deal with any unusual price rise," Industry and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said in his reply to the contentious debate.
The Bill have both pre-grant and post-grant opposition, Mr Nath said. Besides, traditional knowledge will be protected as plants cannot come under patents. "All safeguards have been put in the product patient regime," he said.
Refuting the charge that the Government had cowed down to pressure from multinational corporations, he said: "The Bill is not multinationally driven, but nationally driven." He said two of the 12 amendments had been referred to the expert group, to be set up by the Government. These relate to micro-organisms and the definition of new entities.
Unsatisfied with the assurances given by the minister, the entire Opposition staged a walkout. Before the walkout, deputy leader of BJP parliamentary party Vijay Kumar Malhotra intervened to say that the Government had so far been claiming that the compulsion of international obligations and the threat of sanctions necessitated the Bill's passage.
Patent
Bill cleared: Domestic firms cheer, MNCs sulk: The
Patent Amendment Bill was cleared in the Lok Sabha with the government conceding
another round of crucial tweaks to Left allies and local drugmakers.
Spotlight
Musharraf in India
Cricket
CBMs here, human rights in Geneva
Pakistan may be engaged in cricket diplomacy with India back home and both
countries are seemingly talking about promoting greater people-to-people
contact through a series of confidence-building measures, but in Geneva,
the two sides are locked in a verbal battle over providing basic human
rights to Kashmiris.
Earlier headlines
PM
plays host to Musharraf family
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India
TV denies news report on CDs:
India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma today
categorically denied that the network had anything to do with the supposed CDs
featuring top ministers and that it may play them at an appropriate time. He
dismissed it as a canard not supported by any evidence.
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India
to build aircraft carrier:
India is set to join the select band of three countries having the capability of
manufacturing heavy aircraft carriers when Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee
launches the construction work on the 37,500-tonne displacement indigenous Air
Defence Ship (ADS) at Kochi on April 11.
Upgrading
institutes to IIT level: Experts to assess suitability:
The Government is considering the SK Joshi Committee report to
constitute an expert group to assess the suitability of upgrading seven
institutions to the level of IITs.
Fly-by-night
varsities to be dealt with sternly: The government will deal sternly with
fly-by-night private universities, including foreign ones, Human Resource
Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh told the Lok Sabha yesterday.
US
Navy cover for Indian submarines in distress soon:
India and the US are likely to firm up an agreement by the
year-end for American assistance for Indian naval submarines in distress and for
purchase of submarine rescue vehicles, Vice-Chief of Naval staff Vice-Admiral
Yashwant Prasad said here on Tuesday.
Media
in India more developed than China, says BBC:
India
is seen to be a far more developed and evolved market than China, even when it
comes to media,
according to the BBC.
States
Hooda
rejects Punjab\92s offer for talks on SYL: The
water distribution pattern in Haryana is set to change. While replying to the
debate on the Governor\92s Address delivered in the Assembly earlier in the day,
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda reiterated that his government would ensure
the equitable distribution of water among various regions of the state.
Amarinder
Singh receives 564 prisoners at Wagah:
The Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, received 564 Indian prisoners
released by Pakistan at the Wagah border this evening. They included 528
fishermen and 36 youths. Of the 36 youths, 23 are from Punjab.
Karunakaran aide quits Cabinet:
In stepped-up dissident
activities by the Karunakaran faction in Kerala\92s ruling Congress, a minister
loyal to the veteran leader today resigned even as 13 MLAs supporting him were
today served show-cause notices for attending a rally defying the party high
command.
Gemini
Ganesh, `King of Romance', passes away: Gemini
Ganesh, Tamil cinema's first acknowledged romantic hero, (`Kadhal Mannan'), died
here in the early hours today at the age of 84 after a prolonged illness.
Money,
properties keep spilling out from AP Singh's coffers:
Money and property documents continued to pour out of the coffers
of disgraced retired IAS officer and former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary AP
Singh whose multiple premises were raided by the CBI on Monday.
Neighbours
Pakistan
Day
on
Wednesday: The Nation
will observe Pakistan Day on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of the
passage of the historic Lahore resolution passed at a meeting of All India
Muslim League at Minto Park Lahore on March 23, 1940.
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Musharraf,
Karzai reiterate pledge to root out terror:
Pakistan and
Afghanistan resolved on Tuesday to forge a broad-based relationship with a
thrust on invigorating trade and economic ties and expressed the common
commitment to step up their coordination in the fight against terror.
Global
trade union day of action on Nepal: Trade Union organisations worldwide have
observed \91Global Trade Union Day of Action on Nepal\92 Tuesday calling for
restoration of trade union rights in the Himalayan kingdom.
Benazir
to offer prayers in Ajmer:
Indian officials were tight-lipped about reports on Tuesday that
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari would visit
Ajmer.
View from abroad
'Canada's Sikhs know who bombed Kanishka'
: Many Canadian Sikhs know who planted a bomb on
Air-India's Kanishka aircraft 20 years ago, killing 329 people, but refuse to
come forward for fear of terror reprisals, a Sikh community spokesman claimed.
Lord Paul emerges UK's host with the most
: Lord Swaraj Paul has crowned an extraordinary
40-year journey from small-town Jalandhar to the very summit of British power
politics by becoming the UK's best-known and arguably best-loved 'host with the
most' after an extraordinary display of the influence immigrant money cannot
buy.
Overall
Patents Bill was passed:
But the opposition walked out of Parliament.
Gemini Ganeshan died: The Tamil romantic hero of yesteryear died in
Chennai.
Canada Sikhs knew who bombed Kanishka: A spokesman said they were not
talking for fear of terrorist reprisals.
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