Stung by charges of plagiarism, the R A Mashelkar committee, which had recommended drastic widening of the scope of patentability in India, has taken the unusual step of withdrawing its controversial report. In a letter dated February 19, Mashelkar, former head of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, requested the commerce ministry to allow the committee to ”withdraw the report, re-examine it and resubmit a report, which meets with the requirements of the highest standards.” This followed an article in TOI on February 12 exposing the fact that key excerpts of the Mashelkar committee report submitted in December were reproduced almost verbatim (although without acknowledgement) from a paper published by UK-based, industry-friendly think tank.