Bodies:
Copyright Office:
Registers copyrights for literary works, software's, films and sound recording. Adjudicating copyright disputes, removing copyrights, e-filing of registrations are done by it.
It has jurisdiction over entire country.
It works under the Dept of Higher Education.Problem with the Copyright Act: Case study on Indian Music
Copyrights on the songs belong to the film producers and the music companies that pay the artists, composers and the lyricists to make them. However the music companies receive a lot of profit from the songs which became popular. The profit is paid to them by radio channels, TV channels and others who wish to play or use these songs.
This earnings are apart from the earnings from the sale of cassettes and CD’s. The Copyright Act was amended to create a corpus where a part of the earnings of the music producers and film producers shall go. From this corpus the other stakeholders of the song like Singers, lyricists, composers shall be paid.
Though this amendment brought the Copyright Act provisions in tune with international standards, its implementation has been stalled by the Music producers lobby and thus the Act has remained only on paper. The Government must ensure that this Act is implemented in letter and spirit.
The proposed legislation when passed by Parliament shall make the 20 IIM’s “Institute of National Importance” thus granting them the autonomy to grant degrees to their students. The 20 IIM’s currently offer PG diplomas and Fellows instead of MBA or PhD and the degree which is recognized as equivalent to MBA and PhD by the Association of Indian Universities. The IIM’s are currently registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act and as societies can’t grant degrees the IIM gave equivalent to PG Diploma and Fellowship.
The earlier version of the bill was highly criticized by the IIM’s as it sought to turn them into government departments with interference from the HRD ministry at every decision. But the proposed bill has now diluted these interfering clauses. The current bill states the Appointment of the Director and other positions shall be filled by the Institutions as per norms laid by institutions themselves. The IIM Coordination council shall have no post for the HRD Minister and all appointments shall be on basis of merit. The President who is a Visitor for the IIT and AIIMS council shall not be a Visitor for IIM council and so he shall have no say in appointments or administration. Audit and Quality control shall be done by the CAG and Third party independent assessors.
The two issues that are faced by IIM’s now is that there is no strict guidelines for reservations in them for students or faculty. The PGDM is also offered by other private institutes of management and they have also demanded that the HRD Ministry should allow them to grant degrees. The IIM’s shall now grant MBA and PhD which the private institutions can’t and so there is a demand from the private institutions to extend the privileges given to the IIM's to them too.
However as per norms only an Institution which is affiliated to a State or Deemed university can grant degrees.
Q.Regarding DigiLocker, sometimes seen in the news, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1 It is a digital locker system offered by the Government under Digital India Programme.
2. It allows you to access your e-documents irrespective of your physical location.
Select the correct answer using the code given below. (UPSC CSAT 2016)
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Ans . C
Q.Which of the following is/are the indicator/indicators used by IFPRI to compute the Global Hunger Index Report?
1. Undernourishment
2. Child stunting
3. Child mortality
Select the correct answer using the code given below. (UPSC CSAT 2016)
1 only
2 and 3 only
1 , 2 and 3
1 and 3 only
Ans . C
Score more than 80% marks and move ahead else stay back and read again!