Legal context: The copyright laws in India are set to be amended with the introduction of the provisions for anti-circumvention and Rights Management Information in the Indian copyright regime although India is under no obligation to introduce these changes as it is not a signatory to WCT or WPPT.

Two powerful players in India’s outsourcing industry are drafting a data protection law designed to quell growing privacy concerns from their offshore clients. India’s Ministry of Information Technology and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) in New Delhi expect the legislation to be in place early next year. It would provide legal safeguards to ensure data privacy protection in India, according to Nasscom President Kiran Karnik.

A group of Indian botanists say that the country's stringent biodiversity laws are stifling research.

In an article in the latest issue of Current Science (25 January), published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, the scientists say India's "draconian" rules on free exchange of biological samples could "totally isolate Indian biodiversity researchers and is akin to a self-imposed siege on scientists in the country".

The Indian government is considering enacting legislation to outlaw quacks following the multi-state racket where unqualified doctors conducted hundreds of illegal kidney transplants for huge profits.

No one seems to know, however, just how many quacks - people who act like doctors and even do surgeries without valid medical qualification - are there all over India. One estimate puts the number at a staggering one million.

Shreyas Viswanath is a young architect who has been deputed to Europe for a year on his first overseas assignment. He wonders how he would manage his affairs in India during his stay abroad, especially his property matters, bank accounts, securities portfolio et al. Shreyas is told that he could execute a power of attorney (POA) in favour of any person and go abroad in peace.

Its Prime Minister’s look east policy - In Arunachal Pradesh alone, over a 100 dams are planned, including India’s highest dam - the Dibang Project. But a big question emerging now, did the Prime Minister’s Office subvert the environment law of the country? Even as Dr Manmohan Singh laid the Foundation of India’s highest dam in Arunachal Pradesh, CNN-IBN has found that the Project’s Environment Impact Assessment is not complete.

Holding the rank of a premier institute in the country is no small task and for the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), it means constantly improving the quality of education for lawyers and leading the way for contemporary schools.

According to NLSIU vice-chancellor A Jayagovind, the university did this by boosting efforts to induce practical education in the 60 courses that it offered. “One of the complaints about Indian education is that there is a lack of practical side to our classroom education. We have been constantly working towards bridging this gap.”

All South Asians must be shocked at the ghoulish kidney transplantation racket unearthed near Delhi, with ramifications across several nations. Dr Amit Kumar alias Santosh Raut’s operation involved 3 hospitals, 5 diagnostic centres and 10 laboratories, and more than 50 accomplices, including doctors and nurses, “spotters” and touts who would lure potential donors with the promise of jobs, and thugs who would force them to part with their kidneys.

The 600-odd recipients included nationals of half-a-dozen countries

For Gurdial Singh and his wife Surjeet Kaur, a Sikh couple from France, life was wonderful in their adopted country till the French government decided to ban the wearing of turbans in schools.

That was in 2004, and the Sikh couple from Bobigny near Paris was forced to withdraw their 14-year-old son Jasbir Singh from the Louis Mission school.

Since then, the couple and others from their community have been fighting for lifting the ban, something that ''does not go well with French ethos and values''. They are part of United Sikhs, an organisation mobilising public opinion on the issue.