YUVASANSKRITI

  As the pandemic rages on, vaccine and inoculation seem to be the only fix. The question of vaccine equity is a rising concern with narratives of ‘vaccine nationalism’ dominating global geopolitics. At this juncture it is important to analyse how the patent waiver proposal of India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will pan out in addressing this issue at hand. The proposal at the WTO On 2nd October, 2020 India and South Africa  submitted  a joint proposal at the WTO titled  “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19.”  The proposal requests that a waiver be granted to members of the WTO so that the member states do not have to enforce intellectual property requirements under several sections pertaining to copyrights and related rights, industrial design, patents, and protection of undisclosed information under Part Two of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Propert...

  PURUSHAARTHAS : THE GOALS OF LIFE While we study the discourse of Vedanta, one of the Shadarshanas, it is very important for one to inculcate the concepts associated with this school of thought. Hence Adi Shankaracharya Bhagavatapada’s treatise , Tattvabodha itself is a very good introductory text to understand the basic paradigms of Vedanata during one’s adhyaya of other seminal texts of the Prasanthatrayi namely the Bhagavad Githa , Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Hence in the  series of many articles we will be exploring the basic terminologies associated with the text in specific and Santhana Dharma in general and the first term we will be looking at is Purushaarthas ETYMOLOGY The word “Purushaartha” means the goals of human life (both male and female inclusive) and hence can be interchanged with the term Manushyaartha too. However , the word Artha has many different connotations in the Sanskrit Language. It could mean wealth or meaning of a word etc however in t...

  The Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill, 2020 was introduced by Nithyanand Rai, Minister of State, Home Affairs on the floor of the Lok Sabha on 21st September which was subsequently passed by both houses of Parliament. This bill does make very distinctive changes to the 2010 version introduced by the then UPA government which primarily defines the role of the government in regulating the acceptance or utilization of foreign funds by individuals and organizations. Although these amendments may just appear as another routine legal update exercise it will surely have ground impact affecting the nexus between foreign donors and organizations in India, having vested interests against the country. . The amendments There were 10 amendments moved against the current legislation. Here are some pertinent and important ones: Firstly, under this amendment NGOs can only spend 20% of the foreign funds received for administrative expenses of the organizations. Previously, this upper...

  In Part III of the Indian Constitution, which is known as its Magna Carta, are enshrined the fundamental rights of every citizen of India. It is the State’s duty to protect these rights and in case of a failure on its part, the aggrieved citizen can claim their right by filing a writ petition under   Article 32   or   226 , thereby warranting a judicial remedy. This brings us to a fundamental question – as per  Article 12 , does the judiciary come under the gamut of the definition of ‘State’? Although this question is under considerable debate, the Supreme Court at various instances has held that courts are not the ‘State’ while discharging their judicial functions, but may be considered so while exercising ‘non-judicial’ or administrative functions. It is thus necessary to examine various facets of the argument. The Article 12 conundrum According to  Article 12  of the Constitution of India, the ‘State’ includes the Central and State Governments, Pa...

  On August 5 th , the Prime Minister performed the bhoomi poojan   in Ayodhya thereby laying the foundation for constructing a mandir for Ram Lalla . This event not only has religious and cultural connotations but also is a change in the civilizational landscape of Bharat. It is in fact a green-shoot indicating the revival of the Indian Grand Narrative.   RAMAYANA: A TEXT WHICH DEFINES THE CIVILIZATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF BHARAT

                                                                  A two-judge bench comprising of Justice UU Lalit and Justice Indu Malhotra pronounced a historical verdict a week ago. This 218-page judgement put rest to the famous yet controversial Sri Padhmanabha Swamy Temple case which was pending in the court since 2011. The court in its judgement decided to return the shebaitship of the moorti and the right to manage and administer the temple to the titular head of the Travancore Royal Family. What this judgement addresses is not only upholding an age-old custom pertaining to one of the most famous devalayas but is also an achievement in the revival of Bharat’s dharmic identity. A BRIEF HISTORY….. The origin of the temple can be associated with many references in the MahaPuranas and well as the Mahabharata and hence is...