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The Hindu January 06, 2020 Author: Dakshiani Palicha “Innovate, patent, produce and prosper,” was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new motto for young scientists, at the inaugural function of the 107th Indian Science Congress. He suggested innovation and patenting will “make our production smoother” — but, in reality, it is the process of patenting any innovation itself that’s complicated and harrowing, and needs greater attention. To safeguard against frivolous patents, the Patents Act, 1970 has imposed certain ‘restrictions’ on patentability. One well-known example is Section 3(d) of the Act — brought to fore in 2013 during the controversial case of Novartis’ Glivec — which aims to prohibit ‘evergreening’ by barring patenting of products which are only slight variations of known substances. Although it does curb monopolistic behaviour by industry giants, it also discourages solutions achieved through deeper research of established concepts. But this is not all. New technolo...

The Hindu January 06, 2020 The Middle East has been thrown into chaos in the wake of the US assassination of Iran’s Major Gen Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds special forces and the second-most powerful figure after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s vowed to retaliate, and rockets have already landed near the US Embassy in Baghdad. This conflagration could destabilise oil prices at a time when India’s economy is in fragile health. Meanwhile, with the US now an oil exporter, higher prices could help it narrow its trade deficit. India, a major Iranian oil buyer before US pressure forced a halt, purchases two-thirds of its crude from the Gulf, with Iraq the top supplier. Oil prices rose $3 right after the attack and Indian pump prices were hiked Monday. Gold prices have also hit six-year highs and the BSE slid by 800 points on Monday. Reference: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/editorial/after-soleimani/article30495979.ece

The Hindu January 04, 2020 Amid the epidemic levels of youth use of e-cigarettes and the popularity of certain products among children, the United States Food and Drug Administration has issued a policy prioritising enforcement against certain unauthorised flavoured e-cigarette products that appeal to kids, including fruit and mint flavours. Under this policy, companies that do not cease manufacture, distribution and sale of unauthorised flavoured cartridge-based e-cigarettes (other than tobacco or menthol) within 30 days risk FDA enforcement actions, the regulator said. “By prioritising enforcement against the products that are most widely used by children, our action seeks to strike the right public health balance by maintaining e-cigarettes as a potential off-ramp for adults using combustible tobacco while ensuring these products don’t provide an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for our youth,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. Gates foundation gets new head Refere...

The Indian Express January 07, 2020 The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Monday dismissed the petition filed by the Registrar of Companies (RoC) seeking modification in the former’s judgment passed in the Tata-Mistry case. A two-member Bench headed by NCLAT Chairman Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya dismissed the plea filed by RoC, saying, “there is no ground to amend judgment dated December 18, 2019.” On December 18, the NCLAT had directed to reinstate Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of Tata Group and also termed conversion of Tata Sons from a public company to a private one by the RoC as “illegal”. Tata Sons moved the Supreme Court last week against NCLAT’s December 18 order. The RoC, which comes under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, had sought to be impleaded as a party in the two petitions and deletion of words “illegal” and “with the help of the RoC” used by the appellate tribunal in its 172-page judgment. The NCLAT had termed the appointment of N Chan...

Live Mint January 06, 2020 The RBI on Monday revised the Supervisory Action Framework (SAF) for urban cooperative banks to ensure expeditious resolution of financial stress being faced by some of them. The move comes in the backdrop of the scam in Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank causing distress to over 9 lakh depositors. "Keeping in view the experience gained, it has been decided to further rationalise the SAF to make it more effective in bringing about the desired improvement in the UCBs as also expeditious resolution of UCBs experiencing financial stress," said a RBI notifications. The central bank also added that it will continue to monitor asset quality, profitability and capital/net worth of UCBs under the revised SAF. As per the revised norms, a UCB may be placed under SAF when its net NPAs exceed 6% of its net advances. Depending upon the severity of the stress, the RBI may ask them to curtail their lending powers, among other safeguard...