The subject of this case study is the role of intellectual property rights in the benefit-sharing arrangements surrounding the work of the Bio-resources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP) as a part of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) in the field of traditional...

One would expect, that a large number of innovations linked to cycle, a common person’s means of transport, would be of great interest to the cycle industry. But, if the leaders of cycle industry do not evince much interest, there must be some serious reasons. It seems that if a company can...

The debate on protection of intellectual property rights of the companies and scientific labs developing technologies through biotechnological means or otherwise has been highly surcharged with the emotions. I have argued in this paper that developing countries like India should negotiate this...

The forces of globalisation are known to squeeze space for local initiatives, ventures and sometimes even innovations. The markets are dominated by large players whose scale of economy makes it difficult for new entrants, even with better products and services to survive. At the same time, there...

Communities living close to nature invariably evolve a language to understand and interpret the variations and discontinuities in nature. A flower of new colour, an unusually tall plant, an unseasonal germination or an extraordinary fruiting have attracted human attention in every part of the...

The traditions of creativity, conservation and innovation exist in various developing countries along side the continuation of obsolete or inefficient technologies and resource use practices. At any point of time, one would notice certain resource use practices continuing in almost the same form...

The search for ethically responsible and scientifically precise alternatives for socially disadvantaged groups in high risk environments requires a multi disciplinary, multi market/multi institutional approach. Various groups of rural households diversify portfolios of their economic enterprises...

The dominant model of globalisation creates considerable anxiety and stress in the minds of small-scale entrepreneurs and civil society organisations. In this model, choices for small entrepreneurs are very limited. The model assumes a kind of one-way street. The self-employed small-scale...

The bio-diverse regions have been known to be inhabited by the poorest people all around the tropical world (Gupta 1981). It is obvious that we cannot conserve diversity by keeping people poor. Studies have also shown that many of the indigenous innovators whether individual or communities....

In the current euphoric mood of economic growth, many times we forget that there has been another extraordinary growth which should cause us concern. This is the growth in the number of districts affected by naxalite violence. According to well informed sources, there are 150 districts affected...