Dr. Debasish Nandy, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Kazi Nazrul University, West Bengal.
The pandemic COVID-19 has posed an immense challenge to South Asia. This chapter will deal with COVID-19 affected three Islamic republics of South Asia, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Maldives. This chapter intends to attempts to investigate the managerial techniques of state authorities in the handling of COVID-19. Whether the South Asian Islamic Republics have shown responsibilities in managing COVID-19 or not? In some cases, the bias attitudes of local administration have been shown in treating a particular community during the COVID-19. The COVID-19 has brought forward the vulnerability of public health of these states. This chapter will shed light on the affected economies of the respective Islamic republic of South Asia. Firstly, are the Islamic Republics of South Asia have duly fulfilled their responsibility equally in dealing with all sections of the society to combat COVID-19? Secondly, Is the state the only actor for rescuing its people in a pandemic? Thirdly, Are the financial and infrastructural factors crux of the COVID-19 challenges? The present study is based on two research methodologies— (1) content analysis, and (2) observation method. The present study is based on both primary and secondary sources. I have used the reports, books, journals, newspapers, and various websites to conduct the study.
Dr. Sujit Lahiry, Professor of Political Science, Panjab University (Regional Centre), Punjab.
The Covid-19 pandemic has unfolded as one of the most major and greatest humanitarian crises in the contemporary world. Though it started with China, it soon spread to US and Europe, and subsequently to Asian countries, like India. It brought in its wake major upheavals and trajectories of devastation for India, causing enormous infections, starting with 550 infections on March 23, 2020; and now, the coronavirus infections in India has crossed 1,05,12,835 and 1,51,783 deaths as on January 14, 2021. This paper critically analyses the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, US-China blame-mongering, and how the Indian state led by Modi has tackled this Covid-19 pandemic, and what are the social, political and economic implications of Covid-19 pandemic in India. It seems to this author that the Modi government has not been fully successful in saving both lives and livelihood of the citizens of India, and has aggravated the problems of poverty, especially for the migrant workers. This paper also offers some constructive suggestions for the Modi government to control the Covid-19 pandemic and maintain a balance between health security and economic security.
Raj Kishor Pradhan, Senior Statistical Officer, NSO (FOD), Ministry of Statistics & PI, Govt. of India, Sambalpur, Odisha and Rahul Kumar Si, Statistical Assistant, Tobacco Board, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
Indian economy is going through a challenging time. The dream period from 1991 to 2013 is now over. In between it has faced a lot of challenges like Global financial market crisis in 2008 and persistent slow down from 2017, which is aided by present COVID-19 pandemic. It has created havoc in our economy which has witnessed record negative growth of our GDP and also loss of employment. But in hindsight it has created huge opportunity for record growth as we have discussed earlier. The objective of the paper is to highlight, how it will become huge boon for our economy. This paper is explorative by nature and secondary sources have been used as the source of information.
Tanvi Yadav, UGC-Junior Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan and Prof. Nagendra Ambedkar Sole, Department of Public Policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan.
Covid-19 brought the health emergency along with the socio-economic crisis in the whole world. In India, the government gave attention to covid-19 by giving Indian citizens a surprise lockdown. The surprise immensely affects the lives of vulnerable groups of society. They face humiliation, hunger, and violence. The persisting inequalities become the cause of the deplorable condition of these groups. The government took action irresponsibly without any preparation for health care, shelter, and food. Numerous human rights violence against women, minorities, marginalized workers, and indigenous people occurred, primarily due to their socio-economic vulnerability. The paper discusses the problems faced by vulnerable groups and their human rights violations. Paper explores the government failures and judiciary role in lockdown.
Dr. Santhosh Mathew, Assistant Professor, Centre For South Asian Studies, Pondicherry University and Md Ruhul Amin, Doctoral Candidate, UMISARC/Centre For South Asian Studies, Pondicherry University.
No doubt China is a regional hegemony and becoming the key actor in world politics within the middle of the 21st century. China is swiftly spreading economic domain across the world, mostly in Asia and the South Asian region. President Xi- Jinping’s has announced the Belt and Road initiative, by providing financial assistance for infrastructure projects and strengthening trade and investment. Although the Chinese government declared the BRI is economic aid and financial assistance program but, western countries even India considers China`s BRI as a debt trap with political motives. This papers has entirely focused on China`s dream and strategic outlook, the BRI and geopolitical expansionism, Indian concern against BRI and alternative response of India, what kind of policy or strategy has been taken by India as a regional power?
Dr. K. S. Pavithran, Former Professor and Head, Department of Political Science University of Calicut.
Nuclear weapons are the most crucial factor which influenced the course of international politics and diplomacy in the last few decades. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, they have become a symbol of power and prestige among the nations of the world. Nuclear power gives the nation that has it, prestige in world politics and psychological leverage in dealing with both friends and foes. However, India’s attitude to nuclear weapons has been marked by ambivalence. There was a gap of 24 years in between India’s first test of nuclear weapons at Pokhran in 1974 and the second set of tests in 1998. Pakistan also conducted nuclear detonations in 1998. The nuclear capabilities of both India and Pakistan are factors of importance in determining the regional security in South Asia. India faces a very challenging strategic environment in South Asia, with its immediate opponents possessing significant military and nuclear capabilities that are modernizing rapidly. The challenge facing New Delhi has been how to leverage its conventional advantages in the shadow of nuclear weapons. The proliferation dynamics in South Asia are driven by a need to establish some measure of relative parity against their principal adversaries - India against China and Pakistan against India. The regional nuclear development was also influenced by the continued global hegemonic nuclear order and the flawed non-proliferation regimes. Therefore, India must decide by this decade what her role in South Asia must be, if nuclear weapons are to be accommodated. At the foreign policy level, the possibilities of the signature of ‘no first use’ pledge between India and Pakistan or the codification of a peaceful intent may be considered as one of the options that is with their merits and demerits. At the international level, India must project the view that the only alternative to nuclear proliferation is that, there should be international safeguards in all countries to ensure that nuclear power is used only for peaceful purpose. National security demands restraint from all the stake holders in the region. In this context, the U.S. must realize that India cannot be a party to any multilateral arrangement, unless it includes all states which have South Asia within their nuclear reach. This includes Israel and Kazakhistan, apart from Big Five. In this respect, India’s call for global abolition of nuclear weapons and non-discriminatory interim steps are quite relevant.
Dr. D. Purushothaman, Associate Professor and Head, Centre for South Asian Studies, Pondicherry University.
The Indo- Pacific, as understood by India, encompasses all of the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific including Japan and is envisioned to be a secured and developed region working on cooperative and collaborative rule based order. While the importance of the QUAD and ASEAN is undeniable, India also needs to look a little beyond the horizon and strengthen its commitment to the FIPIC. The forum brought together by the PM of India in 2014 can be considered a sleeping success if the cooperation can be sustained. Ranging from trade and economic partnerships to more strategic engagement of military and maritime security to soft power approaches in the form of health care and medical emergency support, combating climate change, educational exchanges etc., India’s engagement with the South Pacific nations (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Samoa, Kiribati etc.) can churn long term benefits for the rising South Asian power Earning trust and cooperation from these small nations may not seem at par with pairings amongst the giants like US, Japan, ASEAN, but their geographic location on the Pacific Ocean earns them a soft corner. Rightly kept as trusty partners may help India to extend its Naval or maritime presence in the Pacific can be taken as a buffer economic zone for India acting on a symbiotic relationship (Blue Economy). On the lines of India’s Act East Policy, these tiny nations can help India secure its sea lines of communication and as outsourced centers for trade and information technology. As already included in FIPIC’s agenda, space administration can be strengthened with ISRO’s bases in the Pacific acting both for intelligence and disaster relief. All this for a comparatively little investment from India into their developments. Through this work, an attempt will be made to understand how strengthening a relatively low-key cooperative arrangement like FIPIC can bear long-term benefits to India and the south pacific nations, especially with the soft power diplomacy. It would further analyse the various factors that could be taken into consideration for building a healthy arrangement between the nations. Also profuse challenges that could arise whilst building the strategic engagements will be explored for their limiting nature.
M.R.B. Anantha Padmanabha, Deputy Editor, South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies, and Prof. Dr. M. R. Biju, Dean, School of Legal Studies and Head, Department of Public Administration and Policy Studies, Central University of Kerala, Kasargode – Kerala.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) won the assembly election with an impressive tally of 99 out of 140 seats, which matches the victory of A.K. Antony led UDF in 2001 and V.S. Achuthanandan led LDF in 2006. In 2001 A.K. Antony emerged winner by bagging 99 seats and in 2006 V.S. Achuthanandan won by bagging 98 seats. Yet another example too can be traced back from the political history of Kerala. In 1977 the United Front led by the Congress, CPI and the Muslim League returned to power by capturing 111 out of 146. Further the state of Kerala has a unique political record of alternating between the two Fronts in every five years. This record of four decades has been broken now and the LDF government has been voted to power with a two-third majority. It becomes a landmark as it is prior as it is rare for an incumbent government to retain power by capturing more seats than the previous time. A mix of policies in which development and welfare measures were added in the right proportion and executed over the last 60 months paved the way for the spectacular victory of the LDF. It is a new experience in the state politics after 1977. In other words the present victory of the LDF can be described as a well thought out political strategy coupled with political pragmatism and social engineering which helped the LDF to capture power. Certainly the entry of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) and Kerala Congress (Mani), the formal induction of Indian National League (INL), the popularity of Pinarayi Vijayan in handling the governance in times of crisis and calamities and the goodwill generated through social security measures especially welfare pension scheme, distribution of food kits through ration shops have helped the Left in an enormous way. Further right from the implementation of Nava Kerala Mission projects to bring remarkable changes in the education and health sectors and to provide housing for the poor under Life Mission Project which also paid rich dividends for the Left over and above Pinarayi also made some daring moves in social engineering.
Dr. G. Palanithurai, Former Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Department of Political Science and Development Administration, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindugal.
A constitution is an approved document created by a human group living in a defined territory in the Modern State system to regulate, modernize and develop the society through a process of governance by the state apparatus. It works in accordance with it’s capacity to cope up with the requirements and expectations of the society. To handle the constitution, the state machinery and its operators should have the needed capacity and thereby the expected outcome could be achieved. In the same way the people or the citizens should have capacity to get best advantage of the constitution. Health of the constitution is determined based on its longevity. Constitution is a dynamic document responding to the needs of the society through the governance instrument called ‘government’. Impact of the constitution could be gauged through a process of utilization of the document by the people living in the defined territory of a country. Thus enabling the people or citizens of the country to make use of the constitution for the betterment of the society is a fundamental task to be performed by the Government and other political agencies who are in constant interaction with the government and the people. Thus a variety of factors are responsible for increasing the longevity of a constitution and in the same way the impact of the constitution in a society.
Nayakara Veeresha, Doctoral Candidate & Guest Faculty, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Nagarabhavi, Bangalore University.
Insurrections are consequences, but not the causes. The causes of the insurrection are multi-dimensional. Among all the causative factors democracy and governance are critical though other aspects play an influential role in bringing the historical moments of insurrection. Indian democracy is facing the insurrection popularly known as Left Wing Extremism or Maoism. The failure of parliamentary politics and the Indian State have laid the platform for insurrections in Central India. With the help of electoral data on voter participation in three-tiers of governance of Konta Tahsil in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh State, this paper finds that although there is an electoral legitimacy at State and national levels; it has not been able to transform the ideals of democracy at grass roots politics. The resilience of Indian democracy has the potential to accommodate the insurrection of Central India within the ambit of the legitimate demands of rights and justice of her own citizens in particularly the adivasis.
Swati Pathak, Doctoral Candidate, GLS University, Ahmedabad, Dr. Hitesh Solanki, Professor, Department of Botany, Gujarat University, and Shefali Dani, Director, GLSBBA, GLS University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Rice, a highly water intensive crop not only contributes large to India’s GDP in terms of export revenue, but about 8% of total water for agricultural irrigation is used to produce rice. Therefore, this is an emerging concern to understand and conduct in-depth analysis about the sustainability of rice production and export from India within the constraints of climate change and acute water crisis in India. Climate change impact various sectors, the most vulnerable sectors being water bodies and agriculture in India. This study is an attempt to analyze the causal relationship between water usage for export of rice and climate factors and available water resources in India. The study is based on government reports, websites and peered reviewed journal articles. Compilation of time series data for a period of thirty-two years (1986-2018) was done on climate parameters namely temperature, rainfall, special events, economic variables, quantity of export in India, domestic production, yield and irrigated area for rice and hydrological variables, water availability, water needed for irrigations and water usage for export of rice. Our analytical findings indicate: First, average surface temperature is increasing over the years combined with declining trend of rainfall and more frequent natural calamities such as floods, droughts etc. Second, water availability rate is significantly low compared to water needed for agricultural irrigation. Third, substantial exploitation of ground water triggers depletion of water tables which in turn causes huge financial burden on farmers in terms of irrigation cost. Fourth, significant causal relationship exists between water availability and water used for producing exportable amount with climate parameters. While an expected revenue loss may occur as a result of decision to reduce trade in water intensive crops, an integrated climate-water-trade policy is the need of the hour. This will help secure sustainable production and export of rice without putting much pressure on water resources in India.
Shyam Sharma and Dr. Sanchita Bhattacharya, Deputy Director, National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD), Delhi
The agricultural sector of the country although contributes 16 .1 percent of India’s GDP (as of 2017), it employs 43.9 percent of the workers. The sector suffers from a number of problems like crop failures, non-remunerative prices for crops and poor returns on yield. Further due to COVID-19 they are facing labour problems as well as marketing problems. Although the Union Cabinet in its meeting on June 1, 2020 approved some economic support measures which are given below for farmers and agricultural worker to reduce the effect of COVID-19 but these are not sufficient. The paper enumerates several social security schemes to provide protection to farmers and agricultural labourers. It also depicts the precarious condition of agricultural community. It is needless to mention here that some protections have been given to this agricultural population through framing and implementation of a number of schemes and enactment of certain laws. It needs more proactive role and participation from all stakeholders-the Government, Non-Government Organizations and the beneficiaries. Awareness needs to be generated among this most vulnerable section of the society regarding their rights and the existence of schemes/laws for their protection against various types of insecurities. A comprehensive approach should be followed for providing basic securities like food, housing, education, health and income/employment securities and other contingency securities to agricultural population of our country.
Naviya Antony K., Ph.D Scholar, Dept. of Social Work, Social Sciences and International Studies, Pondicherry University, and Dr. A. Shahin Sultana, Professor, Dept. of Social Work, Pondicherry University.
The psychological well- being (PWB) and Perceived Social Support (PSS) of 219 (male= 102, female= 117) young adults (age between 20 and 28) were examined. Young adults completed the Ryff’s scale of Psychological well- being (Ryff, 1989,1995) and the Multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support ((Zimet et al., 1988). The relationship between the study variables and their domains were also investigated using Pearson’s Co-relation. The Independent t-test has been used to see the gender differences in the domains of Psychological well- being and Perceived social support. To test the moderation effect of gender on the relationship between the dependent variable PWB and the independent variable PSS, hierarchical regression analysis has been used by forming the product term gender× perceived social support. The independent t-test showed significant mean difference in the domain of Environmental mastery (PWB) and perceived social support from friends (PSS). Moderation analysis showed significant moderation effect of gender on the relationship between PSS and PWB.
Dr. Beena Antony Reji, Associate Professor, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, University of Delhi.
School is the second home for students. School education is a platform where the individual grows from a little child to an adult. In this phase of life, the foundations of intellect, cognition, physical growth, personality, values of integrity, equality and humanity are laid in the young minds of the student. Examination is just a component in the learning process, but in the Indian education system to much of emphasis is given to examination. This causes undue stress on the students. This examination stress lowers the students’ performance and adversely affects the purpose of learning and education. This article is an investigation into the phenomena of examination stress in the Indian context.
Dr. D. Pulla Rao, Senior Professor, Department of Economics, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.
After independence, the importance of literacy and education has been well recognised by all the segments of the society. The literacy rates are also showing increasing trend among males and females and also in urban and rural areas. The overall literacy rate from 1951 to 2011 has shown a steady increase in every successive decade and has raised from 18.53 percent in 1951 to 74 per cent by 2011. Rural literacy, on the other had progressed from 12.10 per cent in 1951 to 66.7 per cent by 2011. The urban character of the former British administration was partly responsible for creating a wide gap between urban and rural literacy rates. Among scheduled tribe population the urban-rural differential in female population has registered most impressive progress. The literacy rate was lower in rural India for ‘Islam’ compared to other religions. The literacy rate in Christians is the highest in rural and also in Urban areas. India has recorded a significant development in the field of literacy and education. Total eradication of illiteracy is an elusive goal in India. Much still remains to the done. Rural women need to wake up and actively participate in the movement for universalisation of literacy.
Dr. Ashalekshmi. B.S, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy Studies, Central University of Kerala, Kasargod.
Information technology has changed the world in a significant manner. Irrespective of geographic barriers, people can come under the umbrella of Information Technology. But the inequalities in the real world seem to be the barriers of digital world also. Digital inclusion incorporates approaches to reduce the divide between ‘information rich and information poor’. One recent study identified the underlying components necessary for digital inclusion as adequate funding for technology, sufficient physical and technological infrastructure to support the technology, adequate bandwidth, and sufficient training in using the technology. Different thinkers point out varied dimensions of digital inclusion. Digital inclusion should examine the extent to which initiatives enhance interactions and possibilities of the marginalized people to participate and actively engage in current socio technical dynamics. Therefore, it is not just a terminological or semantic discussion about the term “digital inclusion” but a social reading combined with the analysis of political interfaces between the actors involved, seizing their critical and constructive senses. Hence, digital inclusion policies and appropriation of technology should afford new social realities for those who have been marginalized from (information) society.
Dr. Swapna S. Prabhu, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Utkal University, Odisha.
The Government of Odisha has introduced various child-centric strategies and schemes since 1975 emphasising mainly on expectant and nursing mothers, maternal mortality rate, and women nutritional deficiency, however, ignoring the aspect of ‘assess to child care’ for women workers. This deprives the nursing mothers and their children of their basic right to good health and nutrition. By analysing the existing social security measures introduced by the State towards childcare, the paper argues that in order to promote the health and welfare of mothers and children, strong legislations are needed that treat maternity and child care services as one, besides generating awareness amongst the people about the rights of the child to family environment and maternal care.
Prof. D. Rajasenan, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, CUSAT, Ms. Surabhi Ghai, Researcher, CSSEIP, CUSAT and Dr. Rajeev. B, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, CUSAT, Kerala.
Issues of juvenile delinquency are all pervasive with some variations in various parts of the globe. To juggle with this problem several acts and legal frameworks have been made and altered from time to time by various countries. In spite of everything, the problem remains unabated. In this background the government of Kerala initiated a special scheme in the name of ‘Kaval Project’ to mitigate the problems of juvenile delinquents in the state with a group of psychology and psychiatric personnel’s with prolific technical help from a premier mental health institution in south India. Though it started as a pilot project in Kerala by including three districts, now it is thinking to extend all the fourteen districts. The article is visualized to address the issue in an ex-ante and ex-post framework regarding the attitudinal changes and satisfaction levels of the sample respondents. The study is based on survey method and as a result of the difficulty in getting adequate samples the study uses only 62 respondents. The article delves into the Kaval project objectives with statistical methods like Factor Analysis. The empirical result of the study with the aid of Factor Analysis shows the inference that Kaval project has achieved its goal in rehabilitating the juvenile delinquents in a satisfactory level.
Dr. Midatala Rani, Director, UGC - HRD and Professor of Political Science, University of Mysore, Mysuru.
Health and disease are relative terms. They are universal and variable in their nature. Health is human kind’s natural pre-requisite which arises out of social livings linked with the natural laws relating to the body, mind and environment. In recent times several issues relating to public health have come into sharp focus with the outbreak of COVID-19 whose impact has been felt all across the globe. The pandemic has made people and governments all over the world to rethink about public health and nutrition of the people in a much more rigorous way. Fulfillment of human needs and aspirations is possible only with health as a basic requirement. The Preamble of the Charter of World Health Organization has defined the term Health, “as a state of complete physical, mental and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity”. In functional terms this definition does not merely refer to medical care but also covers the overall integrated development of human beings in a society. In recent times we have acquired new philosophy of health. Today health is a fundamental human right. It is inter sectoral and is an integral part of culture and development. It is central to the concept of quality of life and involves individuals, state and international responsibility. Health is the essence of productive life and not the result of ever increasing expenditure on medical care. Health and its maintenance is a major social investment. Health is multidimensional.
Dr. Bijith George Abraham, Associate Professor, Marian International Institute of Management (MIIM), Idukki, Kerala, Prof. Glen T. Hvenegaard, Professor, University of Alberta, Augustana Campus, Camrose, Alberta, Canada, Dr. Varghese Manaloor, Associate Professor, University of Alberta, Canada and Hugo Narumiya, Summer Research Intern, University of Alberta, Canada.
Brazilian ecotourism industry is often connected with conservation and sustainability discussions. Though the web-based tourism providers are significant in promoting the tourism network of the country, one of the challenges pertained in the industry focuses on sustainable development practices. The purpose of the study is to highlight the role of certification, conservation goals and sustainable practices amongst the service providers. The study considered 110 web-based ecotourism operators in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The content analysis approach is used in the service provider’s website to maintain texts as units. Factor analysis is used to identify the underlying factors that nurture the ecotourism goals and a logistic regression model is applied to ascertain the certification criteria of the ecotourism operator’s. The study proves that the sustainability of the ecotourism activities offered by service providers is affected by certification. Preserving the environment is the leading goal of the service providers, followed by socio-cultural impacts, conduct and ethics, economic contributions, and education. The study designed a model for certification criteria that gives more importance to the sustainability of ecotourism rather than profit from the industry. The paper unveils the sustainable ecotourism development practices of the service providers and the importance of ecotourism certification.
Dr. Nilanjan Sengupta, Professor, HRM & OB, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore and Dr. Mousumi Sengupta, Professor, HRM & OB, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unmatched influence on people’s mobility. Consequently, leisure tourism faces a multidimensional challenge since, people’s willingness to travel, concerns during the leisure travels, and resultant leisure travel decisions, have been drastically changed. On investigating certain issues in the context of leisure travel decision, prevailing among the residents of cities of Bangalore and Mysore, in India, the present study revealed that, the respondents’ willingness for taking decision to go on leisure travel would be changed significantly, in case improvement in the Covid-19 situation. The respondents’ agreement level in leisure travel decision varied significantly only for the health-related and work-related issues, and not for the other issues, such as social, economic, and psychological. The study also revealed that respondents’ leisure travel decision was significantly different, based on their level of education, and not on their age, gender, income, and occupation.
Dr. Shan Eugene Palakkal, Assistant Professor, Department of History and Tourism, Stella Maris College (Autonomous), Chennai.
An invisible foe has swept the globe, catching countries by surprise with its deadly virulence. Travellers who spent time in countries where the novel Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was present, unwittingly took it with them far and wide. Many countries, some faster than others, threw a shield around their travel points when the transmission of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease became clear. The U.S., most European countries, Canada and Japan, among others, imposed various levels of curbs on the entry of foreigners and non-essential travel. The frantic effort was to halt the virus on its tracks. As the virus rages on, the challenge of containing the pandemic within national borders looms. Public places are sanitized and people are stopped from gathering in large numbers. Cities everywhere are powerhouses of the economy, but they have become the focus points of risk overnight. Already some global outcomes have started to emerge. Among the sectors worst affected by the prevailing situation is the Tourism and Hospitality industry. It is in this context that the paper examines how pandemics affect the global economy, global lifestyle, and global tourism. The paper will give a brief overview of the history of pandemics and the effects of COVID-19 on tourism and economy on a global context and with special reference to Kerala too. Diseases don’t care for race or class. But whenever there is a pandemic, deep-rooted social prejudices resurface. The paper will also discuss how to manage such situations and ways to explore the world without leaving home and how countries can learn lessons from the past.
Dr. Athira P. S., Assistant Professor, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, India.
Globally, biotechnology is counted as a field that delivers modern-day miracles50. As a lucrative and productive area of technology-based industry, it demands that a solid grounding be provided so that an entrepreneur can predictably determine the outcomes of his/her investment in a particular branch of technology within a particular jurisdiction through patents. For the most part, intellectual property law has been argued to be teleological in nature; the results of the system justify its existence- the grant of monopoly to the inventor is justified by the larger interests of the society that is served because of the disclosure effected by him. From this disclosure, the society receives its quid pro quo in the form of the invention, to be made available as a product in the market, as well as access to the best method of working it while the inventor emerges as a sole right holder with the capacity of restricting third parties from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the patented products or processes within the territory of the country which granted such patent. The next step in the chain of innovation should be that the present set of patents serve as a rung in the evolution of even more advanced and beneficial technologies and products- ideally, such monopolies should not inhibit further research or development in their respective domains of operation, but must promote even more progressive advancements. Thus, the success of any patent system requires judicious balancing; one must weigh the granting of incentives or rewards as patents to inventor against costs imposed on the rest of the society.
Also, interjection of multifaceted objections and legal concerns at the starting phases of emerging innovations may impede the very progress envisioned in the objectives of patent systems all over the world. Particularly in the context of emerging technologies such as those involving stem cells or other innovations such as CRISPR Cas-9 gene editing as well as other new age techniques, the need of the hour seems to be in finding a via media between under-protection and over-protection through astute grant of patents so that free exchange of information occurs unimpeded while simultaneously the researchers feel that their investment is justified.