Blinken and Indian leaders on Wednesday will discuss a plethora of pressing issues such as the fluid situation in Afghanistan, regional security concerns, COVID-19 response and ways to boost Indo-Pacific engagement, people familiar with the agenda of talks said.
6 locations in New Delhi and 2 in Mumbai were raided.
'I do not want every Tom, Dick and Harry to collect money. Is there any state control over this collection of funds via crowdfunding?'
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Moving quickly towards ending a retrospective tax dispute with a firm that gave India its largest oilfield, the government has accepted Cairn Energy PLC's undertakings which would allow for the refund of taxes, sources said. Meeting the requirements of the new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company had earlier this month given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government has now accepted this and issued Cairn a so-called Form-II, committing to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.
The US president said that he has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.
The industry feels two factors have played a role in improving the offtake and reducing trade inventory - one is that the supply chain in pharmaceuticals has more or less stabilised, and secondly, with lockdown curbs easing and OPDs opening, some demand has grown at the consumer end as well.
Describing state and district officials as 'field commanders' in the fight against COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said localised containment zones, aggressive testing and sharing correct and complete information with people are weapons to defeat the pandemic.
Ties between India and the United States have been strained in recent years because of trade policies and patent disputes.
The appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared Bhalla's appointment as OSD in the ministry with immediate effect.
In the aviation sector, 100 per cent FDI is allowed under automatic route for MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul), ground handling, and aircraft purchase.
Recently, Supreme Court asked the government not to alter the existing pricing mechanism for essential medicines.
The UK government has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine once it is ready for rollout and the doses are being manufactured before it has been shown to be successful in order to save time once it clears all the regulatory stages.
On October 2, a legislature committee wrote letters to the 14 companies, initiating an investigation and seeking details about recent price increases in several generic products available in the American market.
On a tip-off from intelligence agencies, the Crime Branch team apprehended Ajit Pal Singh and Rajender Singh on Thursday evening, said a senior police officer.
Perched in the hills of Darjeeling, the factory was set up in 1874, but has remained shut since 2001. Efforts to reopen the colonial era establishment are now on a war footing.
The vaccine arrives at a critical moment for the US. Hospitalisations due to COVID-19 hit record highs for the seventh day in a row on Saturday.
Pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Labortaories on Wednesday said it remained confident that its products were safe and effective as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) withdrew a legal motion against it that charged fraudlent practice.
A government committee that is looking into the possibility of pre-marketing price negotiation for patented medicines is likely to recommend a lenient view on such medicines, it is learnt. A government committee that is looking into the possibility of pre-marketing price negotiation for patented medicines is likely to recommend a lenient view on such medicines, it is learnt.
Currently, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in brownfield pharma firms through clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
Representatives from four states including Maharashtra and Karnataka will also be members of the panel.
This will boost availability of these items as well as make them cheaper, it said, adding that Modi also directed the revenue department to ensure seamless and quick custom clearance of such equipment.
One Chinese source informed ANI that 10 million new infections are probably occurring daily in China.
Move is the first in a series of steps to help pharma industry.
The western world had largely considered India to be a production hub, and also, a good potential geography for clinical trials, and a big market. But in Covid-19 research, Indian companies and government researchers are also researching new drug candidates and potential vaccines, says Prosenjit Datta.
While the manufacturers want higher Customs duty to make imports costlier and encourage the domestic industry, the department has called for a reduction in the duty to bring down the cost of imported devices.
The average expenditure of pharmaceutical companies on research and development has increased four times in the last five years.
Though the government has been pushing for exports of high-value manufactured goods across major markets in place of raw materials and input goods, India's top exports to China remain in the raw materials category.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has named Dr Poonam Alaigh, director, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, New Jersey, as the commissioner of the state Health and Senior Services Department, a cabinet post.Alaigh, 45, has a multifaceted background in health-care administration and delivery, including clinical practice, hospital practice, hospital administration, managed care, pharmaceutical medicine, and health-care policy.
The impact from NELM on the Indian pharmaceutical sector is estimated to be around Rs 6,000 crore.
Over the last four days, the Indian arm of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech have applied to the Drugs Controller General of India seeking emergency use authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccines.
The panel of representatives from various ministries and chaired by B K Singh, director, department of pharmaceuticals, has suggested the government negotiate prices of patented medicines based on reference prices of such drugs in other countries such as Britain, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand.
The trust some people in India had that the Biden-Harris administration would be friendly to India has been eroded already, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The company has set an affordable ceiling price of USD 3 (around Rs 225) per dose, it added.
TV visuals showed the giant crane falling on the ground with a loud thud.
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The move is expected to delay the introduction of low-priced medicines in the market.
Less than three months after roaring into us market with generic for cholesterol-reducing Lipitor, Dept of Justice files for permanent injunction against Ranbaxy.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in its draft Cabinet has proposed to further tighten the rules for foreign direct investment in brownfield pharmaceutical sector.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Wednesday said it has agreed to drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the UK as it has accepted the Indian government's offer to settle tax dispute relating to the levy of taxes retrospectively. Meeting the requirements of new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company has given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government now has to accept this and issue Cairn a so-called Form-II, that will commit it to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand.
