Spotlight: Will India Support A 'Small Firm's Bid' To Make 'Cheap Diabetes Drug' Or Cave In To 'Big Pharma'?

By Dr.Muneeb Faraaz

If the government grants Hyderabad's Lee Pharma a licence overriding AstraZeneca's patent, more than 60 million diabetes patients will benefit.

A little known pharmaceutical company of Hyderabad has again lit the fuse to the volatile issue of access to medicines and patent rights in India. Lee Pharma has applied for a compulsory licence to produce a cheaper version of a patented medicine to treat diabetes, a move that is likely to set off a furious global debate on the contested aspects of India’s patent law.

Reality Check: Vegans, There’s More Animal Blood On Food

By Oliver Sebastian in Sydney

HEALTH ALERT: We should choose the way that causes the least unnecessary harm to animals. Most animal rights advocates say this means we should eat plants rather than animals.

The ethics of eating red meat have been grilled recently by critics who question its consequences for environmental health and animal welfare. But if you want to minimise animal suffering and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.

Why Telangana 'Govt Employees' Are On 'Strike' Spree?

By Swati Sharma in Hyderabad

The strike by municipal civic staff employees of Telangana government has paralysed sanitation in the entire state. The streets and public places are stinking. Many people have already started complaining about health issues like diarrhea and viral fever.  

Swachch Hyderabad has become "durgandh" Hyderabad. Government has turned deaf ears on the demands of civic staff pay hike. The  government should have initiated steps to call the union leaders and municipal bodies and given a settlement immediately as the state is calling tourists also for Pushkarams.

Armed With The 'Qura'an' And The 'Constitution', These Strong Women Are Fighting 'Fundamentalism' In Life!

SUCCESS STORY: India's Muslim women, often called a minority within a minority for their double handicap of gender and faith, are challenging medieval religious laws that have oppressed them for centuries. 

In 2007, two women co-founded the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), a group that is leading this fight. When Noorjehan Safia Niaz (43) and Zakia Soman (50) came together to empower Muslim women, they did not imagine the response they would get.

Coal-Based Power Plants: What Exactly Govt Is Missing?

By Likha Veer - Group Executive Editor

The draft notification specifying emission standards for coal-based thermal power plants is a welcome first step towards regulation, but needs much greater attention to detail and further calibration.

On 15 May 2015, the Government of India came out with a draft notification on emission standards for coal based thermal power plants, opening it up for public comments. Till the time, there had been no specific emission standards for thermal power plants, except in respect of Particulate Matters which was also very high when compared to global standards.

Focus: An Increase In MPs' Salaries Will Be Gift From India!

By Kartik Trivedi in Boston

Higher wages do not deter corruption, as is evident from the Enron and Satyam frauds. By how much would we have to raise salaries to deter a 2G-scale scam and most deadliest Vyapm scam to name a few?

"If we want India’s brightest to take to politics, we had better pay them well", Akshat Khandelwal committee has justified a proposal to increase the salaries of parliamentarians. His argument sounds logical on the surface but contains some deep-seated flaws.

After Two Years Of Sexual Harassement At The NGO I Worked For, An Apology E-mail Is All I Got As A Reward!

SHOCKING STORY OF A GIRL: In 2009, I joined as a volunteer for a well-respected environmental NGO, bright-eyed, idealistic, and ready for change. But in 2012, two years after I joined as an employee, my view of this place was completely and utterly undone, when an older male employee repeatedly sexually harassed me, and the senior management didn’t even blink.

One night at a hotel, on a work trip in October 2012, the man in question was drunk when he made an official call to me at around 10-11pm, telling me to vacate my room and insisting I sleep in his. He approached me physically despite my obvious discomfort, followed me around, insisted on force feeding me my birthday cake and sat next to me at breakfast when there were multiple other seats empty. At times, two of my male colleagues had to physically place themselves between the two of us to stop him from coming on to me.

Salman Khan Will Cast In My 'Ek Tha Tiger-2': Kabir Khan

By Nishi Khan in Mumbai

WEEKEND KA TADKA: Ace Bollywood director Kabir Khan talks about his equation with Salman Khan, why his daughter Saira isn’t in Bajrangi Bhaijaan and why filming it was satisfying in a informal chat with INNLIVE, recently.

Here are the edited excerpts: His first outing with Salman Khan in Ek Tha Tiger was not exactly smooth — there were creative differences — but with Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kabir Khan not only got the superstar on board as an actor but even as a producer. “Salman liked the script so much that he decided to produce it,” Kabir says happily. Clearly, the director and the actor have come a long way.