On the road to Liberty

Barun Mitra, co-author of Climate change and sustainable development (released 29 November 2004), writes "Not surprisingly, Kyoto does not sound convincing to the world's poor. For what this present debate over climate change has done is to divert attention from the core issue of mankind ó poverty." Mitra discusses a salient economic lesson from history ó "increased consumption stimulates efforts at improving efficiency, which in turn contributes to conservation, economic and environmental... The Kyoto protocol seeks to reverse this relationship by focusing on reducing consumption through punitive taxes and so on, which will not ultimately help conservation goals." My article titled Save the planet and the third world will pay was published In Sunday Times on December 5 2004. The Kyoto protocol was finally ratified a few weeks ago. It seeks to promote energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuels, and insists on reductions in the emission of greenhouse gas...

The nation spends 37,000 Rs every minute for the parliament to function properly. There is an increase of 3400 percentage in the cost per MP in the last twenty years. The members of Parliament even collect allowances when they boycott the Parliament. They are entitled to several other allowances too. My article titled " The easy guide to how much money you spend on Parliament " was published in The Indian Express on October 27th 2004. At RS 437 crore in 2003-04, it costs the nation Rs 37,000 per minute to keep Parliament functioning. The 400 hours estimated to have been lost in the last two sessions of Parliament in June, July and August 2004 have meant a financial loss to the exchequer ranging from Rs 88 crore to 207 crore. The time parliamentarians spend discussing budgetary issues has declined from 23 per cent in 1970s to a mere 10 per cent today. And in 2004, the Finance Bill had to be passed without any debate at all. The cost per MP (790 MPs, combining both houses) has...

My IPN press release titled Biosafety Protocol Will Harm Poor Farmers and Undermines WTO was published on International Policy Network on 11 September 2004. 11 September, Cancun – Today, the Biosafety Protocol goes into effect worldwide. The Global Freedom to Trade Campaign, a coalition of pro-globalization NGOs at the Cancun WTO Ministerial, believes that the Biosafety Protocol will harm poor farmers by preventing them from accessing farming technologies which would help them to generate income and escape poverty. Agricultural expert Barun Mitra, Director of the Liberty Institute in New Delhi, India (a member of the SDN), commented: “Farmers everywhere should have the freedom to choose the technologies they use. But the Biosafety Protocol will only aggravate the trade barriers they already face. Poor farmers will be subjected to arbitrary restrictions on trade in agricultural products, especially from the European Union. Thus, it will only prolong poor farmers’ escape from poverty.”...

THE World Trade Organization dispute between the EU and the US, Canada and Argentina over the EU's longstanding moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops ñ due to be decided this week ñ is not about winners and losers. It is about the so-called precautionary principle, which has theoretically allowed the EU to close its borders to a large portion of the world's agricultural produce. The result of this case could have ramifications throughout the world, particularly for other innovative industry sectors. My article titled Why precautionary principle can damage wealth and health was published in European Voice on June 10 2004 THE World Trade Organization dispute between the EU and the US, Canada and Argentina over the EU's longstanding moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops - due to be decided this week - is not about winners and losers. It is about the so-called precautionary principle, which has theoretically allowed the EU to close its borders to a large portio...

The present debate over the Indian patent law has done a disservice to the poor patients by shifting the focus away from the more sickness that afflicts the health care system in India. Its not patents but the government hold on the health care sector that is preventing the poor from gaining access to medicines. A version of this article titled "Patients, not Patents, need to be at heart of the health care debate" has appeared in The Indian Express , January 28, 2004 The present debate over the Indian patent law, despite the passion, is underscored by the desire to score political points. Consequently, most of the arguments have been disconnected from reality. India has been a proving ground for those who oppose patents on pharmaceutical products. We scrapped all product patents in 1972. As a result, India is now home to over 20,000 pharmaceutical companies producing copies of drugs developed and patented elsewhere. However, access to medicines remains poor suggesting that p...