17.12.2008 | permalink
India’s parliament will soon be scrutinizing a bill intended to help publicly funded institutes and universities commercialize their research. India’s science minister, Kapil Sibal, is confident that the bill will become law and will help Indian universities ”make millions through patents”. But the bill has been pushed through without an open debate and is not publicly available, prompting concern. ”In a democracy you cannot bulldoze a bill like this,” says Pushpa Bhargava, former vice-chair of the National Knowledge Commission.