The focus for developing countries at the upcoming Cancun WTO Ministerial must be on food and agriculture, says Suman Sahai.

The World Bank, IMF and WTO want 'coherent' operations, but poor nations worry that behind this vague objective is a determined effort to hijack their aspirations.

The anger against the multilateral trade regime is pushing developed countries on the defensive before the forthcoming WTO Ministerial, says Devinder Sharma.

With the world's economic powers poised to strike at the food security of the developing world once again, Devinder Sharma looks back at the devastation wrought by WTO arrangements on agriculture so far, and urges the Third World to take a more resilient line.

Bilateral deals will be harder to resist;; India must strengthen the home front as well as regional partnerships, says Suman Sahai.

The Cancun fiasco shows that the industrialised countries have failed to bring in meaningful trade reforms in agriculture, says Devinder Sharma.

A proposed new charity for intellectual property will simply legitimize the biopiracy of developing nations' traditional knowledge, says Devinder Sharma.

New Delhi's policy-makers are busy bartering the millions of jobs in agriculture for the far fewer ones with outsourcing firms in the cities, says Devinder Sharma.

Swati Narayan surveys the landscape of thought and action behind free trade, even as the WTO faces imminent collapse in the aftermath of Cancún.

Varupi Jain concludes a two part series on the country's messy Geographical Indications regulatory system through the eyes of MP's Chanderi fabric, one of first serious applicants for a GI.

When water intensive commercial crops are grown in water scarce areas and the produce exported, it amounts to a virtual export of water, even as water availability becomes scarcer. The virtual water concept must be considered seriously in India, asserts Shama Perveen.

Can something be 'novel' if it is already well known? Patent offices in some countries require only that the patented bits be novel in their own country, and completely ignored the knowledge of other nations. Countries like India that are rich in biodiversity and traditional knowledge are seeking to end this biopiracy. Kasturi Das looks at the issues involved.

A new study confirms that traditional production in small communities faces grave threats from globalisation. The security of employment linked to local consumption is eroded, and traditional knowledge too is being lost. This has particularly harsh consequences for women, N P Chekkutty finds.

More than a year after the application for recognising Basmati as a GI was filed, there is still no way to be certain if the grain on our plates is the real thing. As a result, a lot of the rice packed and sold in Haryana is called basmati, and traders in other countries too freely use the name. Varupi Jain reports.

A new sop came into effect for net-foreign exchange earning businesses in designated export zones from February 10 -- a 15-year income tax holiday. But are the costs of the revenues foregone worth the claimed benefits of more investment and jobs? M Suchitra examines the reality and does not find a rosy picture.

Last year, Reliance Industries Ltd. had filed a geographical indications (GI) application for its Krishna-Godavari gas and Jamnagar petroleum products, despite the fact that the products are not characteristically attributable to geography. Varupi Jain finds that if RIL is granted the GI, it will gain exclusive benefits that it has no rightful claim over.

With the World Trade talks in limbo, the focus remains on aggressively pushing on the bilateral front. What could not be achieved through a multilateral trade regime, is now being pursued by the US through bilateral and regional deals. Devinder Sharma connects the dots.

The central government launched the Handloom Mark scheme in June 2006. The idea is to popularise handloom products in domestic as well as international markets and provide a guarantee for the buyer that the product is genuine. But will it work? D Narasimha Reddy looks at the challenges.

When technological change has the potential to put the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk, it must be regulated differently from other products in a free market. Blindly promoting innovation, as is now being done with genetically engineered crops, is self-defeating, writes Suman Sahai.

The government's recent traditional knowledge digital library will send data to patent offices abroad, so that indigenous knowledge that India abundantly has is not patented overseas. Following India's example, other nations too are showing interest in similarly protecting their interests. Ramesh Menon reports.

While single-minded pursuit of exports has helped China touch record growth figures, millions have been left behind, besides incurring huge environmental costs. And without even the limited dose of welfare that China offers its poor farmers, India must wary of copying China's SEZ-approach, writes Bhaskar Goswami.

At a two-day international seminar on "Saving Doha and delivering on development" that concluded at New Delhi on 13 March, India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath provided ample evidence of India's willingness to go along with the rich and industrialised countries. The writing is on the wall, says Devinder Sharma.

It is widely accepted that agricultural subsidies in developed nations are distorting global agriculture trade. And yet, Purdue University and the World Bank are cleverly using economic models and simulated 'welfare gains' to push for market access in developing nations. Therein lies a danger, says Devinder Sharma.

Claiming highest quality standards in the world when it comes to its own agricultural imports, the United States has no qualms in exporting sub-standard wheat to India. US participation in India's wheat procurement cannot be at the cost of India softening quarantine standards, says Devinder Sharma.

A range of criticisms raised at a recent seminar in Mumbai are a sufficient indication of the extent to which SEZs are being pushed as a government policy without any public consultation on their pros and cons. The seminar, on SEZs and their implications for urban planning, was held at the Rachana Sansad School of Architecture. Darryl D'Monte reports.

To great fanfare, the G20 announced a US $1.1 trillion global package, which will actually deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. Meanwhile issues of fundamental economic reform were left off the agenda.

The country's latest Geographical Indication certificate offers some new hope - of putting the sheen and colour back in a vital piece of Indian heritage, and livelihoods linked to it. Puja Awasthi reports.

Three and half decades after a scientist demonstrated the idea, chappals made with areca leaf sheaths have hit the market from Kerala. Shrikrishna D writes about the early success and challenges.

Whether foreign direct invesmtent in retail in India is good or bad should be judged by a reasoned debate based on facts, not hyperbole and exaggeration. Jacob John reports.

India's current account deficit reached alarming levels in the year 2012-13. Kannan Kasturi provides a historical context and lucid explanation of the phenomenon and rues the government's shocking lack of action.

The drying up of the dollar and the resultant plummet of the rupee reflects on the government's flawed economic strategy. Shyam Sekhar draws upon the famous business fable Who Moved My Cheese? to show the kind of behaviour and actions that could resolve the crisis now.

The Indian government has stopped short of imposing effective controls on gold imports despite the soaring current account deficit and its concomitant ills. Kannan Kasturi examines recent trends in gold demand to see if the government's rationale behind the soft policy holds good.

A recent editorial in The New York Times rightly recognises the flaws of a growth model driven by lower trade barriers. But Devinder Sharma wonders if the American daily will take a stand and extend its arguments to champion the cause of all nations, including India.

The immense untapped potential of hydropower generation in Bhutan has led to several major projects in the offing, with varying degrees of Indian involvement. However, Shripad Dharmadhikary finds a steady rise in voices questioning their impact on the Himalayan environment.

Most measures of inflation over the last couple of months point to an encouraging downward movement in price indices; Shambhu Ghatak deconstructs these measures and quotes observations of the RBI to show why it may still be premature to take low inflation for granted.

The government’s thrust on ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘Make in India’ rests significantly on the premise of attracting foreign capital into manufacturing. Kannan Kasturi tracks data on FDI inflows to see whether it indicates true potential to boost the sector and job creation.

The ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s dispute settlement body (DSB) in a complaint filed by USA against elements of India’s solar mission is again in the news. Shalini Bhutani helps to piece together the sequence of events and points out how the global trade architecture keeps domestic laws and policies under intense scrutiny.

P Sainath joins migrants fleeing the desperate conditions in Mahbubnagar, seeking a meagre living in faraway places
Part II : The wrong route out?

June 2003, Mahbubnagar bus depot, Telangana, AP - The mercury is coming up on 46°, maybe 47°C as the passengers arrive. It's the bus to Mumbai and its 58 seats will be more than full. Perhaps at the starting point itself.

It's a temperature at which you hate everybody and arguments driven by colourful prose ring out in the bus depot (and on the buses). The travellers, like lakhs of others in this poorest of Andhra Pradesh's districts, are voting with their feet. Most of them are tiny farmers and landless workers. The biggest group consists of Lambada adivasis. There are many poor dalits too. All getting out of a situation they find intolerable. In some estimates, close to a third of the district's populace could be working outside it just now.

P Sainath reports on the serious problem of rural hunger in Andhra Pradesh, and the politics of free lunches.
Part II : Hi-tech, low nutrition

The worse things have become in Anantapur district, the more fancy cars have shown up in town. Drought, says P Sainath, is the organised plunder of the poor.

Didn't parliament condemn this war? Then why do we need a new consensus on sending troops to Iraq, asks P Sainath, remembering similar sacrifices of Indian lives for the British empire.

P Sainath makes the case for sustainable rhetoric.

The India Shining advertisement campaign is a government-media joint venture, says P Sainath.

By having elections at a time when people are forced to migrate in search of work, we are simply excluding an ever-growing number of citizens from the vote, says P Sainath.

The media have decided that 70 per cent of the population does not make news. The electorate has decided otherwise. P Sainath contrasts expectations before the elections with actual outcomes, and finds plenty that should have been always evident.

P Sainath on the fault lines in Andhra that led to the ouster of the Chandrababu Naidu led Telugu Desam Party.

Even allowing for under-valuation, many candidates are worth crores officially. P Sainath looks through election candidates' disclosures in Andhra Pradesh.

P Sainath.

Almost every sector failed the Andhra Pradesh farmer - the Government, the political class, intellectuals, planners, human rights groups, a once-activist judiciary and the media, says P Sainath.

On most indicators, Chandrababu Naidu ran the worst performing state in the south of India for nearly 10 years. Yet the more damage he did, the more his media standing grew, says P Sainath.