Regulator going to charge pharma companies with over-pricing
India’s pharma giants are famous for producing many low cost drugs for the developing world (an example is the provision of the life-saving anti-HIV cocktail of drugs that can increase the life expectancy of AIDS afflicted patients; the cocktail was pretty expensive, but when manufactured by Cipla, the cost had been drastically reduced making it affordable to larger sections of a poor country). At the same time, big pharma (whether it be domestic or foreign companies) are always on the lookout for making a fast buck. Some of the past practices over the world include extending the life of a patent by a very minor change, or by charging a higher price for the product if this was a monopoly. In India, the regulator has started threatening the pharma companies that have been involved in charging excessively for their drugs:
Pharma majors like Cipla, Ranbaxy and US Vitamin (India) may have to cough up over Rs 1,563 crore for overcharging customers on price-controlled medicines. Through a nation-wide survey done over a year, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has found that pharma companies were overcharging or selling without price approval more than 530 items used for various ailments including cancer and asthma. Several antibiotics and pain-killers are part of the list of medicines listed out by the survey which found overcharging in case of 350 products and sale without price approval in case of the remaining 180. The findings of the survey were based on 850 samples collected from 19 cities.
Categories: Fraud, Governance, Health, Medical, Punishment Tags:
Consumer Forum orders fine against ICICI
ICICI Bank is the largest private banks in India, and caters to a large number of people in terms of banking accounts, loans, etc. However, there have been many cases in the past where the bank has been penalized for harassing a person (do a search in Google and you will find many such cases); and it is not only ICICI, but many other banks who have been fined for such behavior. Such harassment by banks has started attracting the attention of the RBI and courts (more so, the various consumer forums), who have started fining the banks and using harsh language against the banks. Refer the details of this case (delivered in end-April 2008):
LUCKNOW: In a major judgement, the district consumer forum (DCF) here has directed the ICICI Bank to pay Rs 5 lakh as “exemplary compensation” to Dr AS Pradhan, a city-based doctor, for subjecting him to severe mental torture by forcing him to repay a loan which was never disbursed to him. Pradhan had applied for a Rs three lakh loan in the ICICI Bank in November 2003 for purchasing a second hand car.
He was asked to pay margin money of Rs 10,000 and complete the formalities with a promise that the loan would be sanctioned in a month. But as the sanctioning of loan got delayed, the person from whom Pradhan was supposed to purchase the car sold it off to another party.
Categories: Banks, Compensation, Consumer, Court, Finance, Punishment, Uttar Pradesh Tags:
Upgrading military hardware at what cost ?
For the last several years, there has been an ongoing political discussion about whether the United States is following the correct policies with regard to getting rid of terrorism emanating from the region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, rated by many as the most likely place to generate the next big terrorist attack in the Western World. Part of that discussion is whether the United States has relied too much on Pakistan, and not pushed it hard enough to get rid of the entire support structure for terrorism in the tribal border regions. Implicit in this discussion is that Pakistan is not really doing all it can to get rid of terrorism in the region, to take on the vast support for the Taleban and terrorist elements in the wild ungoverned regions. Now, Pakistan has always claimed that this was a difficult task, that these regions have historically had a reputation for resisting any attempts to enforce a central governance; and that periodic pushes by the Army and border guards have only met fierce resistance and let to further embittering of the population in these regions, thus leading to a further support for the so-called resistance fighters.
At some point it is difficult to blame only Pakistan for this. The US has had a huge amount of analysis that claims that there is a lack of governance, civil reconstruction, and enough boots on the ground in Afghanistan. What was required that there be a push to strengthen the regional paramilitary forces, combined with an active and huge construction program in these regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is when the affected population see only a military push, and the same old bad conditions with no scope for improvement that they tend to move further towards the extremist position. And in Pakistan, the Bush Administration seems to have had a blinkered vision with taking the actions of President Musharraf at face value, not applying the pressure that might have made things much better. For example, there has never been much pressure to improve the condition and training of the regional paramilitary force that might be able to help turn the tide.
Categories: Accountable, Pakistan, Politics, Responsibility, US Tags:
