Highlights of Annual Supplement (2013-14) to the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 Announced by Shri Anand Sharma 1. Measures to revive investors’ interest in SEZs. 1.1 A package of measures has been formulated to revive investors’ interest in SEZs and to boost exports. The salient features of the package are:- (i) In view of the acute [...]

Government has issued guidelines for suo motu disclosure by Central Government Ministries/Departments and Public Authorities thereunder. These guidelines are based on the recommendation of the Task Force set up by the Government for strengthening compliance with provisions for suo motu (proactive) disclosure as given in Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005. This task force [...]

TRAI has released a consultation paper on “Guidelines/Accreditation Mechanism for Television Rating Agencies in India”. MIB has sought recommendations of TRAI for laying down comprehensive guidelines/accreditation mechanism for TRP (Television Rating Points) rating agencies in India to ensure transparency and accountability in the rating system. TRP ratings are generated by measuring what is being viewed [...]

Instances have come to notice wherein a few PSUs/Departments have approached Tribunals/Courts to re-open the cases in which permission to litigate was denied by CoD. In a few cases, Public Sector Undertakings/Departments have filed petitions in the High Courts. In an isolated case, a Special Leave Petition (SLP) has also been filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court by an organisation against the High Court decision seeking clarification of the Order dated 17.2.2011 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, although the High Court had declined to re-open the case.

Pawan Kumar Bansal Launches Wi-Fi Facility on Howrah Rajdhani Express Train The Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal launched Wi-Fi- facility as a pilot project on Howrah Rajdhani Express (train no. 12302), here today. To introduce internet access in moving train was a technological challenge considering that the train passes through all type of [...]

Lok Sabha on 19th March 2013 passed Criminal amendment Bill aiming to toughen laws dealing with crime against women. The bill provides natural life term or even death for repeat offenders of rape. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 commonly known as the anti-rape bill was passed by Rajya Sabha after amendments moved by Left MPs were defeated.

Patent Filing Services The Section 5 of the Patents Act, 1970, through which the patent was restricted only to the methods or processes of manufacturing of medicines, has been omitted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005. Consequently, the amended provisions of the Act allowed the product patent for medicines also. The said amendment was intended [...]

The Copyright Rules, 2013 has been notified by the Copyright Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development on 14th March, 2013. The amendments to the existing provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 and introduction of new provisions under the Copyright(Amendment) Act, 2012, which came into the force on 21st June, 2012, necessitated [...]

In a landmark decision, the Parliament passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill, giving more women the security of a law to address this issue which is often hidden and forgotten in India.

All new debit and credit cards to be issued only for domestic usage unless international use is specifically sought by the customer. Such cards enabling international usage will have to be essentially EMV Chip and Pin enabled. (By June 30, 2013).