Modi Victory! India wins support from US over Food Stockpiling scheme

[Guynextdoor2]

I dont think Modi can do away with India's stands as elections keep happening every year and anti-poor stand is something he can not dare to take. I am not aware of the real policies regarding this sector, But am confident that no anti-poor stand will be taken.

BTW MOS Finance is a very good guy. Almost as bright as Chiddambram ( if he was given a free hand). We can expect better budget this time.

Well he is diluting the pharma stand in practice. That is very dangerous. Even by corporate standards many of these US Pharma companies (mist are actually marketing with patent holding rather than R&D) are the worst of the lot. These are the same @$$holes who wanted to charge $15000 per year from AIDS patients- of course most of them are in Africa so let them die. Even for a person who understands/ has worked in marketing this is just pathetically abominable. They are the real force behind WTO TRIPS. UNlike the IMF (which is big government controlled), WTO is is big corporate controlled and designed to push their interests. We need not be too interested in it succeeding.

 

[jha]

Well he is diluting the pharma stand in practice. That is very dangerous. Even by corporate standards many of these US Pharma companies (mist are actually marketing with patent holding rather than R&D) are the worst of the lot. These are the same @$$holes who wanted to charge $15000 per year from AIDS patients- of course most of them are in Africa so let them die. Even for a person who understands/ has worked in marketing this is just pathetically abominable. They are the real force behind WTO TRIPS. UNlike the IMF (which is big government controlled), WTO is is big corporate controlled and designed to push their interests. We need not be too interested in it succeeding.

Hmmm.. I have no clue about how this works. If anything of this sort happens, BJP will get another vacation of 10 years.

 

[jaunty]

Why truth hurts??

Sonia/ Rahul sold rights of poor farmer to USA and WEST, only nationalist like BJP/Modi can think about people of India.

Let's not get carried away. The food security bill itself was introduced by congress and the WTO impasse also started during their tenure. So no, they did not sell rights of poor farmers to USA.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Hmmm.. I have no clue about how this works. If anything of this sort happens, BJP will get another vacation of 10 years.

You just have to compare the current drug prices in India with that of the US. Our generics keep prices low here while in the US the prices are through the roof (obamacare is a long delayed effort to provide some relief through the insurance route). What the pharma companies want to do is enforce their intellectual property rights over generics and charge their international rates. That is really, really dangerous- their pricing has nothing to do with how much R&D it costs (they do very little of it actually) and how much it costs to make- it's usually how much can be charged- if you are an aids patient about to die you'll pay $15000 a year because you wanna live, but, as Cipla has shown, those drugs can be made available at less than $1 a day.
This is a serious problem in cancer care. As WHO has indicated, the world is in an epidemic of cancer and 1 in 3 people are gonna get it. That's why cancer and AIDS generics are very crucial. If the government dials down instead of holding firm, there will be a really bad impact on our side. We should have just let WTO sink into the ocean, the world would have been better off.

 

[dray]

BS. He's been making concessions on Pharma front, he's screwed up big time on the BRICS bank (and made it look like he's actually won). His policies on trade don't seem to be coming out that well, seems like hes ready to give in so that the west will accept him more easily.

Post some articles on these, lemme check.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Post some articles on these, lemme check.

On the BRICS bank for instance, was it not presented as a 'victory' here some members that though the bank will be in China, the first President will be an Indian? guess what buddy- after his (I think 5 year term) ends, Chinese nationals will be presidents for the next TWENTY years. They never talked about that did they? In any case I think the BRICS Bank is a harebrained scheme. The Chinese want to set up a multilateral institution to counter the influence of the world bank (always headed by an American) and the IMF (always headed by a European). They aren't gonna succeed because they don't know how to do it. Like every newly rich moron they decided that just having some money and throwing it around should be enough to get influence. You can buy African dictators with it, but with the others, you need more 'finesse'. Like all crude rubber stamp organizations, this will eventually become a virtual 'department' of Chinese finance ministry and die a quiet death.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Government curbs power of regulator to cap HIV, cancer drug prices - The Times of India

@jha sahib @DRAY , the above was the move on Pharma. He did it within 3 days of being sworn in. The most direct evidence that they were lobbying him during campaigning.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

@Chinese-Dragon looks how I put down the BRICS bank. May your petty patriotism come to its rescue.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Like every newly rich moron they decided that just having some money and throwing it around should be enough to get influence.

You can buy African dictators with it, but with the others, you need more 'finesse'.

What about Modi?

How much did we pay him to back down on the latest "Chinese incursion"?

Would it cost more or less than an African dictator?

Or exactly the same?

 

[Indrani]

Medicine price rise – Truth behind the hoax

Prices of medicines have not been raised, say Pharmacists. File photo PTI

India’s drug price regulator scrapped a May guideline giving itself sweeping powers to set the price of non-essential medicines. This was a report by Live Mint on September 23. The report went on to say that –

NPPA’s July order to cap prices of new diabetes and heart disease drugs had invited strong protests and legal challenges from the drug industry…. The key drugs which were brought under control include diabetes therapies Gliclazide, Glimepiride, Sitagliptin and Voglibose; high blood pressure medications Amlodipine and Telmisartan and cholestrol treatment Rosuvastatin. The withdrawal of the guideline is on a prospective basis, so the NPPA cannot enforce similar price caps in future. But the already revised order may remain.

On October 1, a DNA report Cancer drug prices go up from Rs 8000 to 1.08 lakh said –

The Union Government(’s) decision to decontrol prices of 108 drugs — used to treat tuberculosis, AIDS, diabetes and heart ailments — has jacked up their prices. In some cases, prices have seen an unbelievable rise. The price of Glivec, an anti-cancer tablet, for example, has risen from Rs 8,500 to Rs 1.08 lakh. Plavix, used to treat blood pressure and heart ailments, will cost Rs 1,615, against the earlier Rs 147. An anti-rabi injection, Kamrab, priced at Rs 2,670, will now cost Rs 7,000. In a circular issued before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, the government asked the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), an autonomous body, to withdraw its May 2014 guidelines on drug price control.

It even gives a tabulated list of medicines with earlier prices and what it claims to be the present prices. DNA is not the only one.

The ground realities are however different. A Chauthi Duniya account says that not only the prices remain as they were, there also has been no notification of possibilities of future rise of prices. The video reveals a number of media houses who have been carrying this news.

Chauthi Duniya had sent its reporters to Dharamshila Cancer Hospital, which is the second largest cancer treating hospital in Delhi and the pharmacist there said that there has been no such notification yet. In fact the present pricing and the reported pricing difference reveals it all.

Brand Name of drug (Company)

Molecule

Earlier Price as pernewspaper(Rs.)

Current Price as pernewspaper(Rs.)

Price verified by NPPA from Delhi Market

Remarks

Geftinat

(M/s Natco Pharma)

Geftinib 250mg

5,900

11,500

Rs. 5,900 for 30 tabs,

batch no. 700805, mfg dt- 08/2014, exp. dt.– 07/2016,

Non-scheduled medicine

No change in price

Glivec 400mg

(M/s Novartis)

Imatinib

8,500

1,08,000

Rs. 8452.38for 30 tabs as per Form- V dt. 10.06.2014

Scheduled medicines under DPCO, 2013,

No change in price

Cardace 5mg

(M/s Sanofi)

Ramipril

92

128

Rs.92.10 for 10 tabs

batch no. 2914016, mfg. dt. 08/2014,exp. dt 07/2017

Non-scheduled medicine,Actually price has been brought down to Rs. 92.10 /for 10 tab on 10.07.2014 by NPPA from Rs 128 .80 in April 2014

Plavix 75 mg

(M/s Sanofi)

Clopidogrel

147

1,615

Rs. 147.44 for 14 tabs, batch no. 4A580, mfg. dt, 03/2014, exp. dt., 02/2017

Scheduled medicine

No change in price

Moxicip 400

(M/s Cipla)

Moxifloxacin

250

399

Rs.250.00 for 10 tabs, batch no. A41437, mfg dt. 07/2014, exp. dt. 06/2017

Non-scheduled medicine

No change in price

Tarivid 200

(M/s Sanofi)

Ofloxacin 200 mg

34

173

Rs. 27.20 for 5 tabs, batch no. 0214503, mfg. dt., 08/2014, exp. dt., 07/2017

Scheduled medicine

No change in price

Storvas 10 Tab

(M/s Ranbaxy)

Atorvastin 10mg

62

97

Rs.62.06 for 10 tabs, batch no. 2593309, mfg. dt- 02/2014, exp. dt- 01/2016

Scheduled medicine

No change in price

In fact these allegations are factually incorrect because the price notifications of anti-diabetic and cardio-vascular therapies issued by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on July 10, 2014, have not been withdrawn. Till May 2014, NPPA had fixed ceiling prices of 440 scheduled drugs. Since then, ceiling prices have been fixed for additional 49 scheduled drugs. Thus the total number of scheduled drugs with fixed prices have increased from 440 to 489, ever since the Narendra Modi-led Government assumed Office. This is expected to provide financial relief to consumers by more than Rs 70 crore a year.

A September 19 Reuters report, which supports the above mentioned information, states –

India has capped the prices of 36 drugs, including those used to treat infections and diabetes, in its latest move to make essential medicines more affordable, a senior official of the country’s drug pricing authority told Reuters on Friday.

Additionally, as opposed to the DNA report, the prices of 108 non-scheduled drugs for treatment of cardio vascular and diabetes were fixed by NPPA and the action taken by the body with respect to price formulations of anti- diabetic and cardio vascular therapies is expected to provide financial relief to the tune of around Rs350 crore to the consumers annually.

What is equally interesting is that Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken has written a detailed blog on this titled – Note on How Indian Cancer/TB/AIDS and Heart Patients to bear the cost of Modi’s American Jamboree.

This is probably indicative of certain behind the curtain manipulations to malign the Narendra Modi-led Government. The way various media houses have gone about carrying this news without cross-checking the facts may not be accidental. Congress and other opposition parties jumping the fray in maligning the Government may also not be so coincidental. With Assembly Elections round the corner, it may not be wrong to believe that this was a concerted effort.

Medicine price rise – Truth behind the hoax | India News Analysis Opinions on Niti Central

 

[enquencher]

India and the United States have resolved their differences on public stockholding of food. (Reuters)

Moving to end the deadlock at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the signing of a landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), India and the US on Thursday announced they had "successfully resolved" their differences on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes.

India had clubbed the adoption of the TFA - a global pact aimed at simplification of Customs procedures to minimise delays in clearance of goods at ports - with a "permanent solution" that safeguards its food security programmes.

Nirmala Sitharaman.
The WTO's Ministerial Conference at Bali last December had provided for only a four-year "peace clause" during which no member country would be legally barred from implementing food security programmes even if the farm subsidies resulting from it breached the caps imposed by the original Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).

India had, however, rejected the temporary peace clause and insisted on its right to provide unlimited subsidies until a "permanent solution" to the issue was found. This stance attracted strong criticism, especially from industrialised countries.

But now, in a seeming climbdown, the US has agreed to a mechanism under which members will not challenge food security programmes under the WTO's dispute settlement procedures. Such a mechanism "will remain in place until a permanent solution regarding this issue has been agreed and adopted", the bilateral agreement entered between the two countries ahead of a G20 leaders' summit later this week has said.

The proposal agreed upon will now have to be taken up by the General Council, the WTO's highest decision-making body, next month.
"We are extremely happy that India and the US have successfully resolved their differences. in a manner that addresses our concerns.

This will end the impasse at the WTO and also open the way for implementation of the TFA. We are confident that the (member countries) will take the matter forward in the WTO in a constructive spirit," Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.

The WTO's AoA currently limits the value of farm subsidies by members at 10 per cent of the total value of their crop production. The subsidies, in turn, are computed in relation to global "reference prices". A farmer producing say, wheat, is deemed as receiving a subsidy if the procurement price paid to him is above the world price. But since the latter has been fixed at 1986-87 levels - when global wheat prices were $ 130-$ 140 a tonne - India has been demanding a revision in the subsidy calculation methodology to reflect current prices, which are in the $ 225-$ 230/tonne range.

Sitharaman attributed the latest bilateral breakthrough to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "successful" US visit in September.

 

[Sahasranama]

Let's not get carried away. The food security bill itself was introduced by congress and the WTO impasse also started during their tenure. So no, they did not sell rights of poor farmers to USA.

LOL. I agree, let not get carried away.

People cannot eat bils, they need food.

What use is a "food security bill" when the congress signs away the right of the Indian state to stockpile food for the poor ?

We have "right to education" too ...... what good is it when there are no schools available ? or when schools have no teachers ?

If making "bills" is the way to go, CONgress has provided the best govt. in the world. What a shame foolish Indians voted them out of power.

 

[Sahasranama]

Good Job Modi-sarkaar... Such victories should keep coming.. After all we have seen so much inactivity in last 10 dreadful years.

Its very good job.

From taking a hard stand at WTO and alienating the world just because the Congress did not fight for our poor, Modi has done an exceptional job in wining back the US and gaining their support. Its diplomacy at its finest. No wonder Obama greeted him with "you are a man of action".

 

[dray]

What about Modi?

How much did we pay him to back down on the latest "Chinese incursion"?

Would it cost more or less than an African dictator?

Or exactly the same?

Frustration of a failed bully; China.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Frustration of a failed bully; China.

Modi is actually a lot weaker on the Sino-Indian border than Manmohan Singh was.

I can't even believe that is possible. But it's not only possible, it is happening.