Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has sought broad-ranging information about the association of its member institutions with foreign auditing firms.The move assumes significance following the accountancy fraud by the promoters of Satyam Computers that brought the role of auditors under scrutiny. The auditors concerned were associate firms of international auditing entity PricewaterHouseCoopers.
There are three Price Waterhouse firms and four Price Waterhouse & Co firms in PriceWaterhousCoopers' network of firms in India. Each firm is a separate partnership firm, with a maximum of 20 partners each, with head offices in the cities in which they are registered. Each of these is registered with ICAI. The Pricewater House registered in Bangalore had audited Satyam.
Although India is the second largest generator of environment-friendly projects, domestic firms, public and private, are shying away from maximising the monetary benefits derived from such carbon emission reductions. The country, which is second only to China in terms of generating of carbon credits through the introduction of low polluting technologies, ranks very low when it comes to encashing of these credits through carbon trading.
The government had removed all directors related to the Raju family from the board of Satyam before it was handed to the Mahindra group.
In a victory for Indian drug companies, patent protection has been refused to Tenofovir, an anti-AIDS medicine of the US-based Gilead Sciences. The decision was taken by the patent office in New Delhi.
No other state has issued a similar order banning new licences to medical shops.
The move signals that the ministry has begun to take a tough stand on environmental clearances in ecologically sensitive areas.
Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the representative body of US-based drug firms, has said it does not support the seizure of legitimate generic medicines meant for developing country destinations.
Carlos M Correa of Brazil, a patent expert of international repute whose views have been widely quoted by the Mashelkar committee to support its conclusions, has complained of 'misinterpretation' of some quotes from a published article titled 'Integrating Public Health Concerns into Patent Legislation in Developing Countries'.
The central government's decision to stockpile another 20 million capsules of generic Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) to strengthen its preparedness to fight the H1N1 epidemic has alerted domestic pharmaceutical companies.
Despite the best efforts of Indian vaccine makers to develop the H1N1(swine flu) vaccine, Swiss drug major Novartis and Australian vaccine maker CSL may be the first ones to bag the orders from the central government for its supply.
The change of mind among Indian experts is based on a recent decision of the UK high court.
When Indian Hotels Chairman Ratan Tata told shareholders at the annual general meeting earlier this week that the hotel chain, which operates the Taj group, continues to be impacted by the slowdown, he was merely echoing what P R S Oberoi, his counterpart at the East India Hotels (EIH), had said recently.
Pharma industry lauds idea, but suggests looser rules on ground
The government is planning to approach the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organization against frequent seizure of Indian medicines at various European ports.
Just for the record, the largest infrastructure project is the dedicated freight corridor project, where the last cost estimate is a whopping Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion). It is all set to breach its original completion date of 2017.
Officials say funds and land likely to be tied up by the end of this year.
What we need to know is what is being done to deliver results, what are the milestones that we should look out. That would be the real measure of any government's success, says Vandana Gombar.
The attack, worth over Rs 50,000 crore ($10 billion), has been in the works for quite some time but actually began in July last year, when the Revised Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme was approved by the Cabinet. Given the problems that were faced by the original APDRP programme, the focus this time around is on 'actual demonstrable performance in terms of sustained loss reduction'.
Indian drug companies, which have introduced copies of biotechnology drugs in the country, are bullish over the marketing prospects of 'biogenerics' after patents expire in developed markets. Experts say Indian companies may not repeat the success they achieved in selling generic medicines in biogenerics. The cost of clinical trials and the absence of substitutability will ensure that only those with deep pockets to launch such products globally will succeed, they feel.
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