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Provisions in the Act can be used to provide for compulsory licensing. This will allow the centre, without the permission of the patentee, to use a vaccine for a national emergency at affordable prices.

Modi’s belated recognition of the spread of the scourge into rural India which until now had appeared to escape the surges of the epidemic was a better late than never phenomenon. But will it lead to the Herculean cleansing of the Augean Stables that is needed to set the country on a course of relentless nation-building under the guidance of good governance?

The recent resuscitation move by the Reserve Bank of India may not be enough to help small businesses stay afloat. A petition filed in the Supreme Court wants a fresh moratorium on interest on bank loans.

With the second wave of Covid-19 putting further stress on the economy, the Reserve Bank of India has launched measures to enhance fund flow for the healthcare sector and inject more liquidity into the system. Will they help?

I shared a warm and cordial friendship with this votary for human rights and multi-faceted personality. He not only protected the freedom to dissent but practised remarkable hospitality to public criticism.

Now that she is back as chief minster once again, Mamata Banerjee must put an end to the post-poll violence, shore up facilities to save lives hit by the raging pandemic and restore the economic health of the state.

While law is a noble profession, it is a long and winding road. A new entrant would do well to read good books or browse through a lawyer’s personal library to keep his mind from getting stale.

In several cases, the SC has observed that the governor or lieutenant governor cannot override the chief minister in parliamentary democracy but the Delhi lieutenant governor has now become the master of the chief minister who will have to plead before him for getting approval of his policies and decisions.

Rather like the passports of today, these would function as verifiable, credible, digitised records of inoculation that will be accepted across countries and enable one to bypass quarantine requirements.

Just as High Courts set the pace for opposition to Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, so too has the Madras High Court established the tone and tenor for holding the government accountable for the spread of the killer pandemic through allowing stretched out election schedules and mammoth rallies.