A Publication of the Embassy of India, Washington, D.C. September 1, 2013 I India RevieI w Vol. 9 Issue 9 www.indianembassy.org President Pranab Mukherjee paying homage at the Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate, on the occasion of 67 th Independence Day, in New Delhi on August 15. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inspecting the Guard of Honor at Red Fort, on the occasion of India’s 67 th Independence Day, in Delhi on August 15. India celebrates 67 th Independence Day n National security n Dr. Raghuram Rajan n Nobel Laureate advisors of India, takes over as 23 rd Dr. Norman Borlaug’s US review bilateral Governor of Reserve first India visit partnership Bank of India remembered in U.S. Ambassador’s PAGE India honors — not dishonors — patent laws The Patents Act of 1970, amended in 1999, 2002 and 2005, is considered a model in the developing world. Critics who say otherwise are simply wrong ndia has experienced transfor - icines affordable for the 300 million We have also worked hard to bal - mational economic growth over Indians who live below the poverty ance the rights of patent holders with the past two decades. Thanks in line, was strictly TRIPS-compliant. our civic imperative to protect public Ilarge measure to reforms that India’s rigorous patent laws and health. Compulsory licensing has been opened India’s markets to global adherence to international trade an integral part of the patent regime of commerce, its Gross Domestic treaties are helping its 1.2 billion peo - many countries for years. Fifteen Product has zoomed from $189 bil - ple deal with many challenges. We countries, both developed and develop - lion in 1980 to $1.84 trillion in 2012. understand that economic growth ing countries alike, have issued more Innovation and entrepreneurship and job creation are irrevocably than 35 compulsory licenses. have been fostered by vigorous linked to the rule of law. India is In more than six decades, India enforcement of trade agreements and proud to be a prodigious incubator of has issued only one compulsory patent laws. innovation and to have gained the license on a compound pharmaceuti - Intellectual property laws passed confidence of foreign investors. cal. This is hardly evidence of a cli - over forty years have extensively pro - Direct equity investments from the mate hostile to either innovation or tected patents, designs and trade - U.S. to India have continued to flow, U.S.-based companies. The provi - marks. The Patents Act of 1970, ranging between $1 billion and $2 sions for compulsory licensing are amended in 1999, 2002 and 2005, is billion a year over the last five years. not meant to hamper the process of considered a model in the developing These investments have been across innovation, but to ensure a fair bal - world. Critics who say otherwise are multiple sectors, including pharma - ance between the interests of innova - simply wrong. ceutical research. The Indian Patent tors and the urgent need for Indeed, the most prominently cited Office treats the nationals of other improved health care. example of alleged patent “infringe - countries the same way it treats India is proud to be the world’s ment” is actually a case study in Indian companies. From 2005 to largest producer of generic drugs patent protection. The Indian 2011, more than 4,000 patents for with a 25 percent global market Supreme Court, in a landmark judg - pharmaceutical inventions were share, which has earned the country ment in April, turned down a request issued by the Patent Office. Of those the name of “the pharmacy of the by the pharmaceutical company granted, substantial numbers — 20- world”. India’s production of high- Novartis to retain the patent on a 30 percent — were awarded to quality antiretroviral therapies is esti - cancer drug because it judged the U.S.-based companies each year, and mated to have cut the cost of treat - drug to be an extension of existing more than 85 percent were owned by ments for HIV/AIDS by 99 percent, medications, not a groundbreaking foreign companies in India. from $10,000-$15,000 per patient advancement. In other words, the At the same time, India like many per year to less than $100 — a cost court reinforced the premium that developing nations struggles with saving that has improved the lives of 2 should rightly be placed on truly valid poverty, inequality and shortcomings millions of people and provided them patents, strengthening, not weaken - in health care. We have worked hard hope for their future. ing, their sanctity. to combat challenges to inclusive In their Strategic Partnership, the India makes a priority of comply - growth and development. U.S. and India cooperate on many ing with international treaties such as International treaties permit coun - fronts, with health care, disease con - the Trade Related Intellectual tries to make affordable, life-saving trol and prevention near the top of the Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement drugs available to people most in list. India is dedicated to enhancing of the World Trade Organization. In need at affordable prices. India has that partnership through its careful March, an Indian patent appeals done so in a way that is both legal and backing of patent law. court ruled that the so-called compul - sensitive to the principle of patent Published in The Hill on sory license law that helps make med - protection. August 14 September 2013 India Review Cover STORY India one of the fastest growing nations in the world: President Reforms that have enabled the country to come this far have to be pursued at all levels of governance, says President Pranab Mukherjee 3 President Pranab Mukherjee addressing the nation on the eve of India’s 67 th Independence Day, in New Delhi on August 14. ddressing the nation on the 18.45 million ton of pulses this year Drawing attention to the role of eve of India’s 67 th augurs well for our march towards education in bringing about a re- Independence Day on self-sufficiency in pulses. This was ordering of the society, President AAugust 14, President unthinkable just a few years ago. This Mukherjee said India needs to regain Pranab Mukherjee said that India lit momentum has to be sustained,” he its “space” as an education power so the lamp of modernity and equitable said. that it becomes a “magnet for the economic growth at the dawn of its He said that as India is a “people- finest minds”. Independence and over the last driven nation”, there is a direct rela - Mukherjee said: “History records decade, the country has emerged as tionship between its success as a that we were the cynosure of the one of the fastest growing nations in democracy with the performance of world once.” the world. the economy. “People serve their “Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikrama- “During this period, our economy interests best when they participate in shila, Valabhi, Somapura and grew annually at an average rate of decision-making at the level of pan - Odantapuri comprised the ancient 7.9 percent. We are today self-suffi - chayat and other forms of local gov - university system that dominated the cient in food grains production. We ernment. We have to rapidly empow - world for eighteen hundred years are the largest exporter of rice and er the local bodies with functions, beginning Sixth Century BC.” second largest exporter of wheat in functionaries and finances to improve “They were a magnet for the finest the world. The record production of their performance,” he said. minds and scholars in the world. We September 2013 India Review Cover STORY must seek to regain that space,” he said. “A university is the banyan tree whose roots lie in basic education, in a vast network of schools that build the intellectual prowess of our com - munities; we have to invest in every part of this knowledge tree, from seed, root and branch to the highest leaf,” he added. Excerpts from the President’s address to the nation on the eve of India’s 67th Independence Day: “On the eve of the 66th anniversary of our Independence, I extend warm greetings to you and to all Indians around the world. President Pranab Mukherjee greets Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, during the ‘At Home’ function, My thoughts turn first towards the organized on the occasion of 67 th Independence Day, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on August 15. Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who shaped our liberation There is a direct relationship mechanisms to make these legisla - struggle and the martyrs who made between a successful democracy and tions work. New benchmarks of effi - supreme sacrifice for the freedom of a successful economy, for we are a cient public service delivery and our country and great patriots whose people-driven nation. People serve accountability have to be established. relentless struggle liberated our their interests best when they partici - The Direct Benefits Transfer Scheme, motherland from the colonial rule of pate in decision- making at the level launched earlier this year, will bring nearly two hundred years. Our of panchayat and other forms of local in greater transparency, enhance effi - founding fathers created the first government. ciency and eliminate wastage of pre - oasis in the desert of a colonized The last decade has seen India cious resources. world nourished by democracy. emerge as one of the fastest growing We have seen in the recent past Democracy is much more than the nations in the world. During this grave challenges to our security, right to vote every five years; its period, our economy grew annually internal as well as external.