Murali's Writeups...

1. Can Foreign Offices be more transparent when they address the problems of their local population groups? 1. Recently, the British Appellate Courts had reversed the finding of the Magistrate Courts order refusing the Extradition of Louis Assange to the United States for facing a Criminal Trial for Espionage and violation of the Official Secrets Act. Edward Snowden, who is now somewhere in Russia must be quite happy that he does not face such prospects. I must record that even after the British Appellate Court ordered the extradition of Louis Assange to the USA, I am fairly sure that this is less likely to happen. We also read reports that one of the famous detenus in Tihar Jail had written to Boris Johnson, the British PM, asking him to impose economic and political sanctions against India. The point is, increased Globalisation had maximised opportunities for non-citizens’ interaction with Foreign Governments. Recently, we saw that 2 Canadian nationals were held in Chinese prison

1. In many ways the above order is path-breaking. If I am not mistaken, this is the first revocation of Plant Breeders Rights, that too owned by a market leader MNC in respect of a very popular potato snack. Around the world, the Pepsi Group of Companies is perceived to be a “ generation next ” Beverages/fast food company that sought to introduce the concept of wellness in their promotion of the health drinks market. The Plant Variety registration sought by one of the group companies of the Multinational PepsiCo was available in the Indian market way back in 1990. Originally, the applicant sought to obtain protection of this variety as a “ New Variety ”. Only when it is a ‘ new variety ’, would it have Monopoly Protection. Actually, during the prosecution of the application, apparently, because of their inability to establish ‘ Novelty ’, they converted the Application for Registration to Registration of “ Extant Variety ”, which would not have had monopoly rights protection. This w