The Lok Sabha to-day [August 13, New Delhi] decided to refer to a Joint Select Committee the comprehensive Bill to amend and consolidate the law relating to patents. At the same time it passed another related Bill, the Indian Patents and Designs (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to replace an Ordinance …

At the Burma Resources Committee to-day [in Rangoon, on August 13], the chairman, Mr. J.P. Hardiman, Controller of Munitions, announced that the Tata Industrial Bank intended to open a branch in Burma as soon as possible, the date being governed by the difficulty at present of obtaining staff. A sub-committee …

Given conflicting claims about health effects, India should tread cautiously on e-cigarettes In a recent hearing on a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court, the Delhi government said it was planning to ban e-cigarettes. If it follows through, the NCT will join States such as Karnataka and Maharashtra …

Kerala’s floods show the need for governments to strengthen resilience planning The catastrophic impact of monsoon rainfall on several districts of Kerala has come as a grim reminder that the vigil against unpredictable natural disasters must never be relaxed. More than three dozen people have died and an estimated Rs. …

Kerala is increasingly becominga transgender-friendly society Where have Kerala’s hijras gone?” was the rhetorical headline of my story on transgender individuals (TGI) published in The Hindu a decade ago. The story opened with this sentence: “After a quarter century of tortured life as a woman trapped in a man’s body …

An oxide of arsenic can help fight cancer Arsenic is an acknowledged villain because of the way it has contaminated groundwater reserves. Its reputation as a poison has a long history and stretches back to fourth century treatises on medicine. This has often led inventive physicians to use the metal’s …

Egyptian economist Samir Amin observed the dangers of our world but also its possibilities On Sunday, August 12, Samir Amin died. With him went a generation of Egyptian Marxists who came of age in the time of Nasserism and departed with the world in tatters. Amin was born in 1931 …

How India can tap into new sources of leadership talent Most CEOs are grappling with one particular challenge, irrespective of industry or geography: getting the right leadership talent. Governments face this challenge too. The Indian government has responded to this challenge by taking the initiative to invite executives from beyond …

India may well clock the highest growth rate globally, but more is needed to create jobs and reduce poverty With more than one quarter of the year and two months of the monsoon over, it is time to take a look at what the whole year is going to be …

Seven decades after Independence, the massive obstacle of caste is still difficult to dislodge At a recent lecture-demonstration of Koodiyattam, a complex form of Sanskrit theatre practised in Kerala, one of the leading exponents of this beautiful art, Margi Madhu Chakyar, performed an episode from the epic literature titled “Kailasoddharanam”, …