PRAGOTI

Newsclick Production, May 22, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Satyajit Rath from the National Institute of Immunology the issue of Gene Patenting, in the background of Angelina Jolie’s mastectomy. The patenting of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes by Myriad Genetics is a classic case of a discovery permitted to be patented. Rath says allowing a company to own genetic information, is under no circumstances healthy. The Myriad Genetics patents restrict public interests unreasonably. The patents effectively mean privatising the results of public funded research.

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Newsclick Production, May 21, 2013

Elections in Pakistan are over. Though the mandate is regional, as no party has shown a nation wide presence, PML-N has attained a majority in Pakistan’s national assembly after 18 independent candidates joined the party. D. Raghunandan of Newsclick.in discusses the factors governing the present political environment of Pakistan with the senior journalist Seema Mustafa.

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Newsclick Production, May 20, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Deepak Nayyar, eminent Economist, India's External Credit Balance Crisis. Nayyar says the situation is serious and we have the seeds of a macro-economic crisis in the external sector. The Current Account Deficit is at a level which is unsustainable. Financing it in the short term is no solution. He says unless there is a beginning to address the fundamentals in the external sector, the situation cannot be remedied. Talking about the export sector, Nayyar says, “ We have killed auto parts exports by entering into Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN and there are serious concerns on the FTA with the European Union.”

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Newsclick Production, May 17, 2013

Who is more civilized ? India or pakistan? The debate is at its peak after the deaths of Sarabjit and Sanaullah but nobody is talking about the conditions of prisons and prisoners' rights. Prabir Purkayastha of Newsclick discusses the ignored reasons behind the deaths of Indian and Pakistani prisoners with two human rights lawyers, N.D. Pancholi and Nandita Haksar.

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Newsclick Production, May 15, 2013

Newsclick commemorates Nakba Day by paying tribute to two farmers in the Occupied West Bank who have been fighting for their right to their fields, homes and livelihood.

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Newsclick Production, May 14, 2013

Ever since Delhi University administration decided to implement the "Four Year Undergraduate Program" or the FYUP, the university has been caught in a quagmire. The FYUP will replace the existing 3 year under-graduate courses of Delhi University. This decision has led to protests from several teachers, students and senior academicians who have strongly rejected this course for several reasons. But, DU's Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh still insists on going ahead with the proposed FYUP. All this is happening under the backdrop of several other disturbing trends in the University, where teachers and students alike rue the systematic death of all democratic spaces in Delhi University accusing the DU administration and Dinesh Singh of functioning in an autocratic manner.

Newslick speaks to several students and teachers of the University and tries to gauge why the new proposed course has been mired in controversy and whether this proposed "reform" is part of a larger design.

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Newsclick Production

As Newsclick turns four, we look back at the various videos we have done on several topics. We bring you snippets from a selection of our videos on "International Affairs". From Syria, to Libya to Palestine to the Red Shirt Rebellion in Thailand to Chavez's death, we have tried to get experts, from India and abroad, to give us an insight on all the major developments across the world.

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Newsclick Production, May 07, 2013

The Parliamentary Committee report on health tabled in the Parliament last month shockingly exposes the reckless attitude and the complicity of the Health Ministry, Drug Controller General of India's office and the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation in helping Multinational pharmaceutical companies in conducting clinical trials on poor patients in India leading to 2644 deaths during clinical trials since 2005. Neha Dixit interviews Amulya Nidhi, co-convenor of Swasthya Adhikar Manch, the organisation that filed the much needed petition on Clinical trials in the Supreme Court of India which opened a pandora's box on the issue and helped hold the Union of India accountable.

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Newsclick Production, April 29, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Sukumar Muralidharan, senior journalist, the closure report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was appointed by the Supreme Court to look into Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role in the Gujarat Pogrom of 2002. The Report gave a clean chit to Modi. Muralidharan says there was clear evidence of incitement from high levels of political hierarchy, but the SIT chose not to take it into consideration. Post Godhra, Narendra Modi swore revenge. But the SIT went soft on him and did not consider his remarks as an act of incitement. There is substantial circumstantial evidence to nail the culprits, but it has not been considered. It has to be ensured that acts of incitement get no political dividends, he says.

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Newsclick Production, April 29, 2013

Newsclick discusses the 2G Scam and the JPC Report, rather Chacko's Report with Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, eminent journalist and Prabir Purkayastha from Delhi Science Forum. One wonders how the Report gave a clean chit to the Prime Minister by saying that he was mis-led, when it is very clear from what is available in the public domain that Mr. Raja had, at every step, told the PM what he was going to do. A scarce and finite resource like spectrum, which belongs to the people of this country has been bartered away favouring a priviledged few and causing immense loss to the people at large, by subverting the rules and regulations. The UPA Government has failed to perform its duty as a fair and transparent custodian of these resources which are the property of the nation.

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Newsclick Production, April 20, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Biswajit Dhar, Director General of Research and Information System for Developing Countries, the India – EU Free Trade Agreement and its fall-outs.

Dhar says the agriculture sector is going to be particularly affected by the dumping of highly subsidised agricultural products from the EU. Several sections like the automobile industry and the milk co-operative, Amul, have expressed concerns over the FTA. The entire negotiating process has been non-transparent. Even the Parliament of our country has not been taken into confidence. Addressing concerns like the Current Account Deficit actually get defeated by agreements like these FTAs. Dhar feels such policies will make India more import-dependent.

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Newsclick Production, April 18, 2013

In an interview with Newsclick, Sahar Francis from Addameer discusses administrative detention, deportation, human rights violations and the role of the 2012 hunger strikes in garnering global attention and support for the Palestinian Prisoner's Movement among other related issues.

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Newsclick Production, April 13, 2013

Dr. Amit Sengupta shares with Newsclick the crucial local context behind the success of the recently concluded Tunis World Social Forum. He also discusses how the Tunis chapter went on to become a forum of resistance and how it changed many minds doubting the utility of the World Social Forum.

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Newsclick Production, April 13, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Dr. Amit Sengupta the impact of the recent Supreme Court judgement in the Novartis case on the Indian pharmaceutical sector, the Public Health Policy in the country and the R&D policies of foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers.

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Newsclick Production, April 12, 2013

Nirmala Rajasingam, founder of the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum and who is based in the United Kingdom speaks to Newsclick about the challenges faced by the civil society and democracy activists in Sri Lanka. She appeals to the Tamil speaking people in India, the international civil society and the Left in India, to be cognisant of the new challenges faced in post-civil war Sri Lanka, where militarisation, military triumphalism, neoliberalism and Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism have created new discontents apart from the still un-rehabilitated and traumatised Tamil populations - both in the North and the East and in the plantations and the hill country.

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Newsclick Production, April 12, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Aijaz Ahmad the rising tensions concerning North Korea. Aijaz Ahmad says there have been provocative war games taking place every year involving South Korea, the United States and Australia to simulate an attack on North Korea. But, of late, there is a distinct escalation at the level at which the United States is posing this threat. It is in the interests of the US to whip up a war hysteria in order to create a popular demand for the return of its tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea which were withdrawn in 1991 as part of a bilateral agreement with North Korea. These moves are also aimed at building a new cold war against China. The only guarantee that North Korea has for its security is its nuclear power.
 

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Newsclick Production, April 9, 2013

Newsclick discusses with Vijay Prashad the current developments on Syrian crisis. Arms supplies by the Western powers to the rebels have gone up and their allies are taking up more aggressive positions on Syria. There are attempts being made by the Western media to create an environment which would find a justification for a military intervention in Syria.

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Newsclick Production, April 6, 2013

Newsclick discusses with D Raghunandan the repurcussions of the proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Gorakhpur in Haryana. There are many problems with this proposed plant, specially relating to siting and sources of water. The only possible source of water for the NPP is the Bhakra canal. Apart from this, the site has a high density of population around. Raghunandan feels there is a political commitment to go ahead with nuclear technology, regardless of costs. He says all sources of energy should be evaluated dispassionately, clearly taking into account the costs, risks, potential benefits, and then the more suitable one should be opted. He thinks such an analysis would put nuclear energy at the bottom of this.

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Newsclick Production, April 3, 3013

On March 30, 1976, Palestinians protested against Israel's plans to occupy thousands of acres of Palestinian land in Galilee. Six Palestinians were gunned down by the Israeli army and police, and hundreds wounded in the confrontation. Since 1976, every year, Palestinians around the world commemorate March 30th as "Land Day" - a day to announce to the world their ever-lasting ties with the land that Israel expropriated. For the new generation of Palestinians, the day also signifies a call for an effort to emancipate themselves from Israel's domination and its discriminatory policies towards them. It is a call for land, freedom and equality.

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Pavan Nagasampaggi, Rohit Pandita and Zainab Saiyeed, AJK MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia University, April 2, 2013

Newsclick hosts selected news features of students from AJK MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia University.

With the government adopting traditional akharas and equipping them with modern techniques, wrestling in India hits a new high report Pavan Nagasampaggi, Rohit Pandita and Zainab Saiyeed.

The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.

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