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WTO members debated on 2 March 2010 the question of whether a 2003 decision designed to improve access to medicines is working. Although opinions expressed in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council varied, members agreed that they should look at real-life experiences in order to assess the system.

The pollution load on major rivers has increased over the years due to industrialization and urbanisation. Use of water for irrigation, drinking, power and other purposes compound the challenge.

New Delhi: The Information Technology (IT), IT Enabled Services (ITES) and electronic hardware industries have sustained the global recession and continued to grow during 2008-09. While electronics hardware production registered a growth of 12.1 per cent in 2008-09, the IT and ITES exports registered a growth of 16.6 per cent in the same year.

New Delhi: Modernisation and upgradation of Immigration services in the country is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) to be undertaken by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the National e-Governance Plan(NeGP). The MMP is titled “Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT)”.

Negotiators endorsed new chairperson Darlington Mwape's “three-four-five” approach when he picked up the reins of the negotiations on a multilateral register of geographical indications (GIs) for wines and spirits on 4 March 2010. Their positions remained largely unchanged, but they were willing to dig deeper into how various proposals would be implemented in countries' domestic intellectual property systems.

NEW DELHI: The satyagraha and arrest of top leaders of nine central trade union organisations in the National Capital on March 5 was a heart-warming sight for observers, especially those who had been watching with dismay the steady decline of the labour movement during the post-Independence years.

NEW DELHI: The sudden forging of unity by all opposition parties on the price rise issue, cutting across ideological barriers, has cast its shadow over the early implementation of reforms in both banking and insurance sectors. The Finance Ministry is having second thoughts on pushing the proposed liberalisation measures in both these sectors to attract investment from both the domestic private sector and the foreign institutions.

New York: The Olympic Games and the football World Cup must champion the right to adequate housing, with such 'mega-events' often driving people out of their homes, according to a new United Nations report by an independent human rights expert.

New York: The United Nations is setting up mobile health clinics and distributing hygiene packs and maternity kits to women and children returning home to former conflict zones in northern Sri Lanka.