More than 370 civil society organisations, including Madhyam, have urged the Members of the World Trade Organization to adopt the proposal titled, “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19” submitted by India and South Africa on October 2, 2020. The proposal allows member-countries to suspend certain intellectual property protection related to the prevention, containment, and treatment of COVID-19. The WTO’s TRIPS Council will meet on October 15-16 to discuss this…
More than 500 civil society organisations and academics from 87 countries, including Madhyam, have issued a statement today calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop promoting austerity and instead support policies that advance gender justice, reduce inequality, and put people and planet first. The statement comes ahead of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings scheduled to take place from October 12-18, 2020.
Following is the full text of the statement issued on October 6, 2020:
Two hurriedly enacted new farm laws do not throw up altogether new ideas. These so-called ‘reforms’ in agricultural marketing have been on the cards for much of the last two decades. Among other things, the emphasis two new central laws place on agricultural export and large players are not reformative. Unless global trade…
By Kavaljit Singh | Briefing Paper # 41 | September 19, 2020
India has become the world’s new hotspot of the Covid-19 pandemic as infection cases have surged in recent weeks. On September 7, India overtook Brazil with 4.2 million confirmed cases to become the country with the second-largest number of confirmed cases in the world. On September 16, the total number of confirmed cases surged past five million (Figure 1). If the current trend continues, India may soon become the world’s worst-hit country surpassing the US.
By Shalini Bhutani | Commentary | September 10, 2020
The possibility of a trade deal between India and the United States (US) is being discussed again. The timing of it is predictably before the presidential elections in the US in November 2020. Trade deals have figured in President Trump’s campaign speeches, including the one at the Republican National Convention. The Trump administration has been negotiating several trade deals in the past year, clearly with an eye on the elections. The more notable ones are referred to as…
