Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges after TRIPS waiver
The article highlights the challenges countries could face despite the patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccine.
TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 vaccine
- The United States has finally relented and declared its support for a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
- Hopefully, the U.S.’s decision would cause other holdouts like Canada and the European Union to give up their opposition.
- While the U.S.’s decision is to be welcomed, the devil would be in the details.
The challenges after waiver
1) Conditions of the waiver
- If the experience of negotiating such waivers, especially on TRIPS, were anything to go by, it would be too early to celebrate.
- In the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS crisis the WTO adopted a decision in 2003 waiving certain TRIPS obligations to increase the accessibility of medicines.
- However, this waiver (later incorporated as Article 31 bis in the TRIPS agreement) was subject to several stringent requirements such as the drugs so manufactured are to be exported to that nation only; the medicines should be easily identifiable through different colour.
- Given these cumbersome requirements, hardly any country, in the last 17 years, made effective use of this waiver.
2) Countries will protect the interest of pharma companies
- India and South Africa proposed a waiver not just on vaccines but also on medicines and other therapeutics and technologies related to the treatment of COVID-19.
- So, the U.S. has already narrowed down the scope of the waiver considerably by restricting it to vaccines.
- Medicines useful in treating COVID-19 and other therapeutics must be also included in the waiver.
- While the U.S. would not like to be seen as blocking the TRIPS waiver and attracting the ire of the global community, make no mistake that it would resolutely defend the interests of its pharmaceutical corporations.
3) Lack of access to technology
- The TRIPS waiver would lift the legal restrictions on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
- But it would not solve the problem of the lack of access to technological ‘know-how’ related to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
- Waiving IP protection does not impose a legal requirement on pharmaceutical companies to transfer or share technology.
- While individual countries may adopt coercive legal measures for a forced transfer of technology, it would be too draconian and counterproductive.
- Therefore, governments would have to be proactive in negotiating and cajoling pharmaceutical companies to transfer technology using various legal and policy tools including financial incentives.
4) Domestic IP regulation
- While a TRIPS waiver would enable countries to escape WTO obligations, it will not change the nature of domestic IP regulations.
- Therefore, countries should start working towards making suitable changes in their domestic legal framework to operationalise and enforce the TRIPS waiver.
- In this regard, the Indian government should immediately put in place a team of best IP lawyers who could study the various TRIPS waiver scenarios and accordingly recommend the changes to be made in the Indian legal framework.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the usefulness of the TRIPS waiver, it is not a magic pill. It would work well only if countries simultaneously address the non-IP bottlenecks.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Rise in power generation from renewable goes up
What the data from Central Electricity Authority says
- The total power generation from renewable energy sources including solar, wind, bagasse, biomass, small hydro and others stood at 147.25 billion units in FY21 compared with 138.34 billion units in FY20.
- This is an increase of six per cent, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority.
- All other key segments such as thermal, hydro and nuclear have reported a drop in power generation during FY21.
- This is despite a significant drop in new capacity addition in the renewables sector in Covid-battered 2020-21.
- The total power generation from renewable energy sources (including solar, wind, bagasse, biomass, small hydro and others) stood at 147.25 billion units in FY21 compared with 138.34 billion units in FY20.
- In FY21, total power generation from thermal, hydro, nuclear and renewables stood at 1372.9 billion units compared with 1383.33 billion units in FY20.
Factors responsible
- There are several factors working for an increase in generation by renewable sources.
- The first factor is the thrust given to renewable energy by the government.
- Second is the growing environmental awareness in the country, and the potential growth is driving more capacity creation here.
- Third, getting in investment, — both domestic and foreign, is easier as this is an attractive area for them.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BTIA
Mains level: Paper 2- Talks on India-EU trade agreement resumed
Resumption of FTA
- Prime Minister of India interacted virtually from Delhi with EU chiefs.
- India and the European Union agreed to relaunch free trade negotiations by resuming talks that were suspended in 2013 for the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).
- The talks had run into trouble over market access issues, and tariffs by India on products like wine, dairy and automotive parts, as well as EU resistance over visas for Indian professionals.
- In addition, Indian government’s decision to scrap all Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) in 2015 posed hurdles for new EU investments in India.
Connectivity Partnership document
- The EU-India leaders adopted a Connectivity Partnership document.
- The India-EU connectivity partnership committed the two sides to working together on digital, energy, transport, people to people connectivity.
- The partnership is seen as a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and comes as the EU’s negotiations with China on their Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) have run into trouble.
- The contract for the second tranche of $150 million from the EU for the Pune Metro rail project was also signed.
No EU support for Covid-19 vaccine waiver
- India failed to secure the support of the European leaders for patent waivers for Covid vaccine.
- The support of a major bloc like the EU is crucial to passing the resolution at the WTO by consensus.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- EAC allows Great Nicobar plan to advance
About the Great Nicobar plan
- The Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) – Infrastructure I of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has flagged serious concerns about NITI Aayog’s ambitious project for Great Nicobar Island.
- The EAC was responding to ‘pre-feasibility’ report, ‘Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island at Andaman and Nicobar Islands’.
- The report is prepared for the NITI Aayog by the Gurugram-based consulting agency.
- The proposal includes an international container transshipment terminal, a greenfield international airport, a power plant and a township complex spread over 166 sq. km. and is estimated to cost ₹75,000 crore.
- The committee has, however, removed the first hurdle faced by the project.
- It has recommended it “for grant of terms of reference (TOR)” for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies, which in the first instance will include baseline studies over three months.
What the EAC said
- The committee noted that the site selection for the port had been done mainly on technical and financial criteria, ignoring the environmental aspects.
- It has now asked for an independent study/ evaluation for the suitability of the proposed port site with specific focus on Leatherback Turtle, Nicobar Magapode and Dugong.
- It highlighted the need for an independent assessment of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, a study on the impact of dredging, reclamation and port operations, including oil spills.
- It has also highlighted the need for studies of alternative sites for the port with a focus on environmental and ecological impact, analysis of risk-handling capabilities, a seismic and tsunami hazard map, a disaster management plan, an assessment of the cumulative impact, and a hydro-geological study to assess impact on round and surface water regimes.
- The committee has also asked for details of the corporate environment policy of the implementing agency — whether the company has an environment policy, a prescribed standard operating procedure to deal with environmental and forest violations, and a compliance management system.
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