New Delhi, March 22
With the entire NDA Opposition staging a walk out, the Lok Sabha today passed by voice vote a Bill to amend the Patents Act, 1970, even as the government assured that it had powers to ensure that prices of patented products do not rise.

''I have ensured that all flexibilities and elasticites that are permissible are taken advantage of. If any upsurge in prices comes to the notice of the members, it will be brought to the notice of the government. The government will have enormous powers to deal with any unusual price rise,'' Industry and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said in his reply to the Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2005.

The Bill has both pre-grant and post-grant opposition, Mr Kamal Nath said. Besides, traditional knowledge would be protected as plants could not come under patents.

''All safeguards have been put in the product patent regime,'' he said.

Refuting the charge that the government had cowed down to the pressure from multinational companies, he said: ''The Bill is not multinationally driven, but nationally driven.''

The minister said two of the 12 amendments had been referred to an expert group, to be set up by the government. The two amendments related to micro-organisms and the definition of new entities.

Not satisfied with the assurances given by the minister, the entire Opposition staged a walk out.

Before the walkout, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, deputy leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, said the government had so far been claiming that it was the compulsion of international obligations and the threat of sanctions that the Bill needed to be passed.

''Today, we are being told that the Bill is good and in national interest. We want the Bill to be referred to the Standing Committee.

The government will be responsible for the consequences of the Bill and the hardships that will heap upon the people,'' he said.

The government was able to pass the Bill with the help of its supporting parties, including the Left. The Bill seeks to replace the Ordinance to give effect to the product patenting in all fields of technology under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the WTO.

It seeks to introduce product patent protection in all fields of technology — drugs, food and chemicals, and to modify provisions relating to Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) — since these were part of the 10-year transitional arrangement which expired on January 1, 2005.

It seeks to lay down the rules for pre-grant and post-grant opposition in the Patent Office.

Mr Kamal Nath said fears that companies from the West would swamp the Indian market was unfounded as the flow of goods and services was in the opposite direction. He said 64 FDA-approved Indian manufacturing companies were supplying drugs to the European Union and America. — UNI

Chennai, March 22
The mortal remains of veteran film actor Gemini Ganesan, who died here early today, were consigned to flames this evening with police honours.

As the police fired 21 rounds in the air, the body of the 84-year-old actor was pushed into an electric crematorium at Besant Nagar in South Chennai at 3.45 PM by one of his daughters Kamala Selvaraj, a gynaecologist. She was assisted by her cousin since the actor’s only son Vijay Sathish was away in the USA and could not make it.

The actor, who had appeared in over 200 films in his five-decade career, is survived by wife, a son and seven daughters one of whom is leading Hindi actress Rekha who could not attend the funeral.

The octogenarian actor, who had been in and out of hospital for nearly a year, died at around 1.15.AM of “renal failure”, with his family members at his bedside.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and DMK President M Karunanidhi, both of whom also belong to the film world, were among a galaxy of film personalities to pay their last respects to the actor.

Ganesan had earned the sobriquet ‘Kaadal Mannan’ (king of romance) for his portrayal of subtle emotions, especially in love scenes.

Both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi said that with Ganesan’s death, a chapter in Tamil cinema had come to an end and his death was an irreparable loss to the Tamil film industry.

Several of his films were box-office hits during his heydays between 1950 and 1970 when he had paired with top heroines then such Vyjayanthi Mala, Sowcar Janaki, Devika and Savitri, whom he married later. He had also combined with Sivaji Ganesan in some films.

Memorable among his hit films are “Vanjikottai Valiban”, “Kalyana Parisu”, “Pasamalar”, “Iru Kodugal” and “Then Nilavu”.

Ganesan, who received Padmashree in 1971, had also won several other prestigious awards such as the “Kalaimamani”, “MGR Gold Medal” and “Screen Lifetime Achievement Award”.

Coming from an orthodox Brahmin family, he was one of the few graduates to enter the film world in those days.

After working as a lecturer in Madras Christian College, he joined the Gemini Studios as a production executive in 1947, which gave him the title Gemini.

After doing secondary roles in a few films, he was made hero by AVM Productions at the age of 30 and “Penn” and “Kanavane Kankanda Deivam” gave him the star status.

From then on, he never looked back. Her acted in over 200 films in all the southern languages and some in Hindi. — PTI

New Delhi, March 22
A decline in salt intake in Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttranachal is an impediment in the elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in India, according to the International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders.

Professor Chandrakant S. Pandav, Professor, Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS, and Regional Director of the International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders, told mediapersons here today that about 200 million persons in India ran the risk of getting iodine deficiency disorders. He said about 70 million persons were suffering from goitre and other Iodine Deficiency Disorders.

Professor Pandav said the reduction in salt consumption in households in Punjab and Haryana was also discernible. Relying on findings of the National Family Health Survey -II and the Reproductive Child Health Survey, Professor Pandav said the consumption of salt intake in households in Punjab had dropped from 75.1 per cent in 1998-99 to 64.4 per cent in 2002.

During the period, salt intake in households in Haryana dropped from 71 per cent to 52.9 per cent.

New Delhi, March 22
The government will deal sternly with fly-by-night private universities, including foreign ones, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh told the Lok Sabha yesterday.

The Supreme Court had on February 11 quashed the registration of over 100 such universities in Chhattisgarh after noted educationist, Prof Yashpal, had taken the matter to court. These universities were registered during the erstwhile Congress state government headed by Chief Minister Ajit Jogi.

He said the Vice-Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University had, in principle, agreed that requests received from institutes before March 31, 2005, would be considered for affiliation as ‘special cases’ provided such institutions met the required standards of higher and professional education.

“GGSIP University has also agreed to constitute evaluation and inspection committees, wherever required, jointly with the AICTE, to inspect the affected institutions expeditiously”, the minister informed Parliament.

Mr Arjun Singh said the government had “promised expeditious action on whatever procedural obligations are expected under the relevant laws governing these bodies, so that the standards of higher educations are maintained in the states”.

Besides, GGSIP University has also agreed to work out a system of credit-transfer for students who are enrolled in courses and programmes that could be equated with the existing degrees offered by the university, he said.

New Delhi, March 22
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh today marched to Parliament demanding India’s withdrawal from the WTO, hike in minimum support price (MSP) of various crops and enhancing of subsidy on farm inputs to offset the increasing cost of cultivation.

Slogan-shouting farmers and rural artisans, assembled under the banner of the Bharati Kisan Union (BKU-Ekta) and taking out a procession towards Parliament, were stopped at the Parliament Street by a heavy posse of the police where they held a rally accusing the UPA government of allowing multinational companies to “plunder” the farming sector in the name of supplying high quality seeds at the exorbitant rates.

They were carrying placards and banners with slogans inscribed “India should withdraw from WTO’, “Do not leave farm sector open up to MNC plunder” and “Rein money lenders, banks from recovering high compound interest on farmer loan”.

BKU(U) president Pishora Singh Sidhupur told them that Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the WTO would throw open Indian and other poor countries’ markets to highly subsidised and cheaper produce from the USA and other developed countries, which rendered the domestic crops go abegging.

Moreover, since the signing of AoA in 1995, it had been proved that developing countries had lost their edge on the export of agri-produce to the USA and other rich countries rather these countries had been receiving more agri-imports, particularly the processed items from the developed countries.

BKU-Ekta general secretary Balkar Singh and vice-president Ruldu Singh said the share of agriculture in the GDP was continuously on the decline touching 21 per cent now while the rural sector had still been sustaining at least 65 per cent of the population.

Later, Mr Sudhupur, accompanied by a delegation of farmer leaders from Haryana and Rajasthan, submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister demanding a ban on privatisation of natural resources and strengthening of the crop insurance.

Meanwhile, members in the Rajya Sabha, cutting across party line, today expressed concern over the growing suicides of farmers and asked the government to focus on eradication of sufferings of farmers, who were in a “state of siege”, by improving agro-credit to marginal farmers, writing off loans of distressed and helpless farmers and increasing allocation for agro research.

Congress MP from Punjab, Dr M S Gill, was critical of the poor allocation to agro-credit and agro-research and regretted that even now 70 per cent of the farmers had to borrow from private money lenders.

Stating that a majority of the farmers in India had small holdings, Dr Gill said they were facing problem of “negative return”, with soaring input cost, absence of new technologies and bank credit. “On top of this you have the WTO. I don’t know how even farmers in Punjab, who were instrumental in bringing about Green Revolution in the country in the 1970s, will compete.”