Symposium Alert: XIV Annual NLSIR-Samvād Partners Symposium on Strategising a Healthcare Framework for India: Headways, Dilemmas, and the Way Forward

 [Announcement of NLSIR Symposium as received from NLSIR is posted below]

About NLSIR

The National Law School of India Review (NLSIR) is the flagship journal of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU). For over 30 years now, NLSIR has constantly sought to encourage legal scholarship on issues of relevance to legal practitioners. In 2009, we became the first Indian student-run journal to be cited by the Supreme Court of India in its decision in Action Committee, Unaided Private Schools v. Director of Education. Notably, we have also been cited recently in the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment, Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, which established the Right to Privacy in India.

About the Symposium

In furtherance of our mandate to encourage legal scholarship and push the boundaries of law and policy, we are organising the XIV Annual NLSIR-Samvād Partners Symposium on Strategising a Healthcare Framework for India: Headways, Dilemmas, and the Way Forward. The Symposium will be held virtually on May 9, 2021 and is completely free to attend. The Symposium is divided into three sessions, the outlines of which are available in the attached Concept Note. Each panel will be followed by a Q&A session, where attendees will have the opportunity to interact with the panellists.

 This year, Justice Ravindra Bhat, Supreme Court of India, will be delivering the Inaugural Address and Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, will be delivering the Introductory Address to the Symposium.

Sessions

 

Session I is titled 'Assessing India's Clinical Trial Rules: Developments and Some Festering Concerns for the Healthcare System'. In this session, we seek to engage in a discussion on India's clinical trial regime and its particular complications with regard to scientific and traditional medicines. 

 

Keynote Speaker: Mr. Murali Neelakantan - Principal Lawyer, Amicus and former Global General Counsel, Cipla Limited

The panellists for Session I are:

1.     Mr. Milind Antani - Lead, Pharma, Life Science, and Healthcare Practice, Nishith Desai Associates

2.     Prof. Padmavati Manchikanti - Professor, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property, IIT Kharagpur

3.     Mr. Dinesh Thakur - Public Health Activist and Expert in Pharmaceutical, Biomedical Product Development, and Drug Regulation

4.     Ms. Nivedita Saksena - Digital Health Policy Fellow, India Digital Health Network

Session II, titled 'The Ecosystem of Healthcare: Patent and Trade', will consider two competing interests - incentives for research and development on the one hand, and accessibility of vital drugs on the other hand - and their implications amidst the Covid-19 crisis. 

 Keynote Speaker: Justice Prabha Sridevan - Retired Judge, Madras High Court and Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal from 2011 to 2013

The panellists for Session II are:

1.     Prof. Jayashree Watal - Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University and Counsellor, Intellectual Property Division of the WTO from 2001 to 2019

2.     Mr. Rohan K George - Partner, Samvād: Partners

3.     Prof. Padmashree Gehl-Sampath - Fellow and Senior Advisor of the Global Access in Action Program at the Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University

4.     Mr. Prashant Reddy - Lawyer and Expert on Intellectual Property Law and Drug Regulations

5.     Ms. Neha Srivastava - Partner Designate, Remfry & Sagar

Session III is titled 'The Law and Model Framework to Provide Universal Right to Health and Healthcare Infrastructure'. In this session, we will explore the existing public healthcare system in India, its varied actors and stakeholders, and endeavour to conceptualise a universal right to healthcare in India. 

 Keynote Speaker: Mr. Anand Grover - Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

The panellists for this session are:

1.     Prof. S.V. Joga Rao - Visiting Professor, NLSIU and Healthcare Consultant at Legalexcel

2.     Ms. Arkaja Singh - Fellow, Centre for Policy Research

3.     Mr. Akshat Agarwal - Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

4.     Mr. Varun Jhaveri - Officer on Special Duty at the National Health Authority, Government of India

Registration

Please use the following link to register for the Symposium: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsouhY1bifv355PKzNzNGkqmKyoTiVAmAs-379bcJC7yrEEg/viewform. Since slots are limited, we urge you to register as soon as possible. We hope to see you at the Symposium and would love to have you engage with the discussions on this pertinent theme.

Please feel free to contact the undersigned in case you have any queries. You can also mail us at nlsir@nls.ac.in.

Regards,

Viraj Ananth (+91 81979 98480) and Kashish Makkar (+91 96369 41027),

Editors-in-Chief, National Law School of India Review '20-'21