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FeaturesProtecting vanilla farmers against global cartels
By N P Chekutty Set up to protect the interests of vanilla-growers in India, Vanilco is a model for farmers who face volatile market conditions and monopolies within the market More...
R&D-shy Indian firms may trip over drugs patents
By Biswajit Choudhury India is introducing new patent laws that will stop its drugs industry from making cheap versions of patented drugs. What this means for India's poor, and other developing countries dependent on India for inexpensive medicines, is uncertain. What is clear, though, is that India's companies are unlikely to start developing new drugs themselves - the cost is just too high More...
Beware, the term 'sustainable development' has been hijacked
Sustainable development has become a mantra for big business and multinational corporations. Worse, it has unwittingly opened the door to the gradual hijacking of the environmental movement by so-called 'corporate realists' More...
Western cow vs Southern farmer: The absurdity of inequality
By Devinder Sharma Around 1.5 billion marginal farmers in the developing world live in virtual penury. Simultaneously, 1.5 billion cattle in the industrialised world are reared in luxury, with a cow in the developed world receiving subsidies that amount to almost twice the annual income of an average Third World farmer More...
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