TRAI has initiated this consultation paper suo-motu focusing on future looking regulatory framework for provisioning of Mobile Value Added Services. URL:[http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/ConsultationPapers/256/MVAS_C_Paper.pdf]

The pentavalent vaccine and many other combination vaccines waiting to enter Universal immunization Programme (UIP) have brought into sharp focus the gaping gap between lofty slogans of ‘evidence based medicine’ and the actual dynamics that drive policy on the ground1-4....

The paper is motivated by concerns about the depletion of traditional knowledge and recent efforts to preserve this knowledge through commercial use. The study looks at incentives that can induce companies to invest in bio-prospecting and persuade traditional communities to share their knowledge.

Under certain conditions it is optimal for the noninnovating south to give patent protection for a longer time period than the innovating north. A cooperative patent agreement involves a larger protection by each country compared to the non-cooperative situation. [WP 9].

Using a survey of 1774 users and non-users in 84 slums in three metropolitan cities (Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata), we try to understand the impact of mobiles on their social and economic lives. Urban slum dwellers spend significant amounts on communications, both for a first time acquisition of...