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.
NSA Jake Sullivan and EAM Jaishankar discussed Indo-Pacific, climate change and agreed that people-to-people ties and shared values are the foundation of US-India partnership.
US is learnt to have told both India & South Africa that while it supports temporary TRIPS waiver, it will 'only' be applicable to Covid vaccines and not to medicines, ventilators etc.
It is time countries acted with a humanitarian approach at WTO and relaxed IPR provisions for Covid-19 vaccines. And it can be done without disincentivising R&D efforts.
For President Joe Biden to take a stand against pharmaceutical companies is no small matter. His presidential campaign was the near sole beneficiary of pharma largesse in 2020.
India and South Africa have proposed a broad waiver from the Trips agreement’s rules on the production and export of vaccines needed to combat the Covid-19 virus.
Before social media, depiction of violence on news was the exception—graphic visuals were either not shown on TV or in newspapers or the images were blurred. This is no longer the case.
Neither state govts nor companies earn large profits from lotteries. However, a look at the system shows there’s ample evidence of murky dealings and financial irregularities.
The ‘idea’ Kejriwal's politics grew around was a no-holds-barred fight against corruption. That is the reason Modi govt has now tarred him and his entire party with the same paint.
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