Ministerial conference was postponed in November due to Omicron variant emerging. India & South Africa had proposed intellectual property rights waiver for Covid vaccines in 2020.
New variant Omicron has put ‘spotlight’ back on the fact that there exists ‘discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated people’, India said at a WTO meet in Geneva.
When WTO delegates leave Geneva for their August break, they will be pausing their fractious debate over a proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid vaccines until September.
India along with 61 co-sponsors submitted a revised proposal in May on TRIPS waiver for all WTO members regarding prevention, containment, and treatment of Covid.
US & China have backed the revised proposal by India and SA, but EU, Australia, Japan & others continue to oppose it and plan to prevent any formal negotiations on the matter.
Vaccine manufacturers China and Russia never came forward to share the formula with or waive IPR for other BRICS members. So much for the cooperation in the Covid fight.
Most Indian ministries do not have much expertise on international trade, so they oppose every proposal of reduction of tariff. We need lateral entry of experts.
For India, the strategic ripples are significant. The immediate concern is Pakistan’s diplomatic gain as it embeds itself deeper into the defence framework of the Middle East.
SEBI probe concluded that purported loans and fund transfers were paid back in full and did not amount to deceptive market practices or unreported related party transactions.
This is the first major attack on central security forces since last November, when a CRPF jawan was killed and four were injured in an ambush in Jiribam on Manipur-Assam border.
Many really smart people now share the position that playing cricket with Pakistan is politically, strategically and morally wrong. It is just a poor appreciation of competitive sport.
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