Political and Social Issues

The Indian pharma sector will soon carry its own brand in the international market with the Government planning to come out with a ‘pharma brand India' with a logo even as it seeks to step up exports to China.
Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), told reporters here on Monday that at present the major problem for Indian pharma sector was that it was not enjoying a brand.
Pharmexcil would be for pharmaceutical as Nasscom is for IT.
around 17-20 per cent growth was expected in pharma exports this year with major emphasis on increasing them to China

Public servants accused of taking bribe, caught red-handed in traps or facing any other criminal charge cannot seek to stay or quash their suspension orders on grounds such as long delay in initiating action, failure to frame definite charges, use of wrong terminology in the suspension order or the fact that the police had already filed a charge sheet against them, the Madras High Court Bench here has ruled.
Proliferation of corrupt public servants could garner momentum to cripple the social order if such men are allowed to continue to manage and operate public institutions.
Corruption is opposed to democracy and social order besides being anti-people … Procedural delays and technicalities of law should not be permitted to defeat the object sought to be achieved by Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region (CII-SR) has proposed setting up of cold supply chain facility for bananas under the public-private-partnership model at Tiruchi
The new facility would help the farmer right from the stage of production to harvesting, processing, sorting, packaging, selling and transporting of bananas to improve efficiency and reduce wastages.
There is immense opportunity for Indian universities to collaborate with UK universities and research institutes. Staff and student exchange programmes have to be encouraged. There is significant scope for R&D links between multinational firms and academia.

A section of students who left for further studies in the United States to join the ‘Fall' semester in August this year are contemplating completing their studies within three semesters instead of four. The reason: loan amount (in rupees) borrowed from Indian banks has increased with the depreciating value of rupee against the dollar.
For the $10,000 that I have to pay in fees for the next [spring] semester, this increase of Rs. 5 adds another Rs.50, 000 to what I had paid for the Fall 2011 term.
With living expenses coming at a minimum of $400 (Rs. 20,000) a month, the students said the additional Rs. 50,000 could have been used to manage expenses for over two months.
the hike in the dollar value from Rs. 45 to Rs. 50 within a very short time (a month) would hit everyone with a commitment in dollars.