Source: Times of India
NEW DELHI: The man who has been appointed the chief economic adviser to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, was until recently urging the US to initiate disputes against India before the World Trade Organization.
He also sought changes in provisions within Indian patent law aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharmaceutical companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations.
Subramanian was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the Center for Global Development. As recently as March this year, in a written testimony submitted during the process of review by the US of intellectual property (IP) protection of various countries including India, Subramanian wrote, “If India does not address the problems created by Section 3(d) of the patent legislation or by compulsory licensing for nonworking, the United States should consider initiating WTO disputes against India.”
