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Summary The role of industry associations in shaping policy through various lobbying activities is well established. In most cases, while such activities are deemed essential from an industry perspective, they also carry negative connotations connected to narrow rent-seeking and the pursuit of elites’ interests which run counter to the public good and discourage competition and subsequent innovation. As such, industry associations have long been excluded from discussions regarding the relational dynamics and evolution of innovation systems. In contrast, this paper builds upon more recent work that places industry associations as key intermediary actors that facilitate knowledge exchange and institutional capacity building, particularly in the context of developing countries where limited institutional capacities and substantial knowledge gaps can limit both innovation and development. Employing a qualitative cross-national comparison, this paper examines the changing roles and activities of biopharmaceutical industry associations in the development of the South African and Indian pharmaceutical industries, with a particular focus on government–industry relations. For doing so, the paper captures developments during three main periods through which both the South African and Indian biopharmaceutical industries have similarly evolved, although within different national contexts: (1) pre-liberalization, (2) expanding pluralism, and (3) increasing partnership. We argue that in South Africa and India, particular historical trajectories and lack of institutional capacities are shifting industry associations away from ineffective lobbying to a new political approach that emphasizes partnering with government in the pursuit of not only narrow industry objectives, but also broader development aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Geographical Indications (GIs) are increasingly conceived as a development tool. However there are insufficient empirical and conceptual grounds to fine tune their institutionalization. This paper investigates the need for and the role of State intervention in GIs using comparative analysis of the trajectories of Basmati rice and Rooibos tea, emblematic products respectively from India and South Africa. The social relevance of GIs depends on the State’s conception and examination of the link to the origin embodied in the GI. Institutionalization should consider GI as a hybrid between a public quality standard and a specific IPR to protect a heritage-based reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents international co-inventor networks as both a predictor variable of countries' ability to produce and disseminate internationally green inventions, and an alternative mechanism to support development of relevant programmes and policies in that regard. It includes cases from three developing countries with limited resources for clean technology development, Brazil, India and South Africa, which have shown successes owing to the potentials of co-inventor networks. It contributes the extent literature on this topic, which predominantly emphasizes firms' responses to conventional governments' interventions (subsidies, market price, standards, and interagency cooperation) to achieve cleaner production plans and particularly the Targets 17.6; 17.7 and 17.8 of the sustainable development goals. Broadly, such targets aim at enhancing countries' technological capabilities through partnership. The paper finds various correlations between co-inventor networks and growth of patents in solar energy, air pollution management and biofuels in the sample countries. Correlations are linear in India, followed by Brazil owing to the larger sizes of co-inventor networks but nonlinear in South Africa, which has smaller networks. The paper argues that co-inventor networks accelerate transnational exchanges of core human capital, and are fitting predictors of production and flows of green inventions. They are worth adopting in national and transnational industrial and innovation cluster policies globally to support sustainable production plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The paper estimates the effects of the 2008–09 trade contraction on employment in India and South Africa, using social accounting matrices (SAMs) in a Leontief multiplier model. Employment results are presented at aggregate and industry levels and examine gender and skills biases. The most notable finding is that India and South Africa experienced substantial employment declines as a result of trade contraction with the European Union and the United States. A large share of these declines occurred in the non-tradable sector and resulted from income-induced effects, illustrating how a shock originating in the tradable goods sector had strong ripple effects throughout these economies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Need of biofuel in lieu of fossil fuel has been justified. • Evolution of biofuel policies in Brazil and Russia were described. • Bioethanol and biodiesel policy of India, China and South Africa were addressed. • Blending mandate and Legal challenges of biofuel in BRICS were presented. Biofuels share a meagre fraction in the total fuel consumption, and their usage is speculated to upsurge steadily in the years to come. One of the key drivers for the development of biofuel production industries and simultaneous dilution of biofuels in the energy market is the country's policy. Hence, this critical review focuses on the evolution of biofuel policies in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations and successful implementation of the policies by the respective countries. In detail, this paper provides legal framework and policies prompted the expansion of biofuel research and industries across the BRICS nations. It extensively presents key laws, blending targets, current regulation, national action plan, government support mechanism (subsidies), output targets, and major hurdles and scope in biofuel policies of BRICS nations for efficient penetration of biofuel to the energy market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]