These terms and conditions are entered into between you, the user of the website www.citizenmatters.in (“Website”)(“User”) and Oorvani Foundation  (“Oorvani”, “we”, “us” or “our”). This agreement is effective from the date of you visiting our website.

By visiting, browsing and/or using Website, product(s), service(s), articles, contents, publications, illustrations, art, reports, stories therein (“website and services”) and/or submitting content created by You including articles, short stories, reports, comments on the content published by other authors, illustrations and artwork to be published on the website, or such other platform of Oorvani (“User’s Work”) you agree to the terms and conditions of use which are set forth herein.

Oorvani is the exclusive author, developer, proprietor and owner of the website and services. These Terms of Use along with the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between You and Oorvani with respect to the subject matter thereof and this supersedes all prior understanding or agreements whether oral or written regarding the said subject matter between You and Oorvani.

1. REPRESENTATIONS

(a) By using or accessing the website and services, you are hereby representing yourself to be 18 years or older and do not suffer from any health problems that render you legally incapable of entering into contractual relations (“contractual capacity”).

(b) We presume that in the event you do not possess contractual capacity, a legally authorised representative in the form of either a parent or a guardian or a court appointed guardian has consented to this policy on your behalf.

2. USAGE OF WEBSITE

(a) You are permitted to print or download extracts from these pages for non-commercial and / or personal use only. Any copies of these pages saved to disk or to any other storage medium may only be used for subsequent viewing purposes or to print extracts for non-commercial and / or personal use;  Nothing under these Terms and Conditions shall convey any rights, title or interest over the articles, publications, art, illustrations, materials, source code, algorithm or any other intellectual property which enables functioning of the website and services, or any other intellectual property that is owned and/or made available on the website and services by Oorvani.

(b) You agree not to use your comments on the website to advertise or to solicit anyone to buy or sell any products or services; Breach of this provision of the terms and conditions can result in legal actions being taken against you including denying you the access to the website and services.

(c) Irrespective of whether you are a citizen of India or of a foreign country, you will at all times respect and comply with all the laws existing in force in India and the country of your residence and all other concerned regulations.

3. DISCLAIMER

GENERAL

(a) All information on the website is provided on an ‘as is’ basis, without warranty or guarantee of any kind, express or implied.

(b) Oorvani reserves the right to change, alter, modify any of the terms of these Terms and Conditions, including extending, withdrawing or discontinuing the same without notice, without assigning any reason, at its sole discretion and without any liability. In Your interest, the said changes / alterations or modifications shall be posted on our website citizenmatters.in and You hereby undertake to follow up on such developments regularly and prudently. Such modifications / alterations/ changes shall automatically be incorporated into these terms and conditions and in the event You continue to use/browse/access the website and services or submit the User’s Work to Oorvani or fail to intimate Your disapproval of such modifications/ changes/ alterations, You shall automatically have consented to / agreed to be bound by the said modifications / alterations / changes.

(c) Under no circumstances will Oorvani be liable for any of the following losses or damage (whether such losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise): (a) loss of data; (b) loss of revenue or anticipated profits; (c) loss of business; (d) loss of opportunity; (e) loss of goodwill or injury to reputation; (f) losses suffered by third parties; or (g) any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of the website and services or infringement of your intellectual property right by third parties regardless of the form of action.

(d) Oorvani does not warrant that services/tools contained in the website will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that Oorvani or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs. Oorvani shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences/damages arising out of any software related errors.

(e) During the course of the use of the website and services, the User may come across various web links. The User undertakes to bear all the risk associated with clicking on the link and visiting the target thereof entirely on his own and Oorvani shall bear no responsibility or liability for such links appearing on the website.

(f) Oorvani is not responsible for any claims, advices and / or advertisements made by any person on the website and services and shall accept no liability for any damages incurred by the user as a result of the action/inaction of such third parties. In the event where the user does decide to proceed with such third party, then he / she agrees to bear the risk entirely on his / her own.

(g) Any leakage of information from the website due to reasons beyond our control will make us immune from any and all claims for damages or from any kind of liability and you hereby agree to the same.

(h) You agree and assure that you are solely responsible for your conduct and for the information or data that you provide on the website.

(i) You agree that for posting articles or comments to the articles on the Website, you need to either provide your name and email address or sign up for a user account by providing all required information. You hereby agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted on the website or by the sign up process, as the case may be and maintain and promptly update the information provided on the website and during sign up to keep it true, accurate, current, and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete, or if Oorvani has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete, Oorvani may terminate your user account and/or refuse current or future use of the website and services.

(j) You hereby further assure and agree that you will not directly or indirectly be a part of or privy to any illegal or unauthorised use of the website and services.

Illustrations of such illegal or unauthorised use of the website include but are not limited to the following:

1. Using the Website to transmit any viruses, worms, defects, or other items of a destructive nature.
2. Modifying, adapting, translating or reverse engineering this website and services, extract, modify, copy or disassemble any or all of the source code and interfere with the network of Oorvani in the website. 
3. Removing any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in the Website or any part thereof.
4. Using any robot, spider, site search / retrieval application, or other device to retrieve or index any portion or the service(s) / product(s) offered on the Website.
5. Creating user accounts by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretences or use the service(s) and/or product(s) in a manner to avoid incurring fees.
6. Creating or transmitting unwanted electronic communications such as ‘spam’, or chain letters, phishing or unsolicited mass distribution of email to or otherwise interfering with other user’s enjoyment of the service by blocking.
7. Submitting materials or representing Yourself and such material as either sponsored or endorsed by this website.
8. Using this website and services and/or product(s) in any manner that infringes, or misappropriates or violates the intellectual property, publicity, privacy or other rights of any person including Oorvani.
9. Restrict any other User from using the website, product(s) and service(s).
10. Using this website and services to transmit any viruses, worms, defects, or other items of a destructive nature.
11. Use the website and the services on behalf of or for the benefit of a third party who is legally prohibited from using the website and services.
12. Providing false information, data, inputs and materials with the intention of misleading other users, third parties or Oorvani.
13. Publishing, disseminating or communicating any unlawful, defamatory, obscene, lewd, harassing, or otherwise objectionable subject matter. 
14. Publishing false news or information that encourages violence, communal riots or hatred towards any gender, race, caste, religion or sect of people.
15. Advertising or performing any commercial solicitation, including the solicitation of other users to subscribe to other online information services that are in competition with Oorvani.

(k) In the event such unauthorised / illegal use and / or abuse of the website and services is discovered by us independently or reported to us, then we reserve all our rights to pursue any action appropriate under the law (including but not limited to denying you the access to the website and services) against the user to whom such unauthorised / illegal use and / or abuse is attributable to.

(l) While all reasonable care and precaution has been taken to prevent such illegal and unauthorised conduct, Oorvani shall not be responsible for any damage or inconvenience you may be exposed to either due to misuse or blocking by other users or infringement of the copyright in the User’s Work submitted by You to Oorvani by other users and third parties and that you agree to use the website and services at your own risk.

(m) Oorvani shall not be responsible for any content published on the website including but not limited to false information or inaccurate data provided by other users or authors in their articles or comments, infringing of your intellectual property rights, misuse or falsely claiming ownership over ideas, innovation, defaming you or any other data and comments on the articles published on the website involving ideological or political affinity scandalising or offending you and you agree to use the website and services at your own risk.

(n) You hereby agree that You are solely responsible for Your conduct and any information and User Work submitted by You to Oorvani. You further agree that any User’s Work submitted by You, should not plagiarize or imitate the work of any third party and should not be published prior to its submission to Oorvani. In the event of the User’s Work being previously published by you elsewhere, you shall promptly inform all the details pertaining to such publication including the name of the website, book or the medium of publication and the date of publication prior to submitting such work to Oorvani. You further agree to provide such other details  as may be sought by Oorvani from time to time regarding such prior publication. Oorvani reserves all rights to deny publication of such User’s Work on any grounds as it deems fit. Furthermore, in the event of the submission being jointly authored by more than one person, You will disclose the full details of all the joint authors and each such joint author shall individually and separately accept these Terms and Conditions.

(o) You agree to immediately inform Oorvani of any suspicion regarding unauthorized or illegal usage of the website and services or the personal or sensitive personal information or data, information provided by You on the website.

(p) You agree that you will not sell, assign, sub license or create any third party rights in the rights available to You and the service(s) and/or product(s) provided to You under the website and services and you will provide accurate, complete, current and valid information sought for on the website and services.

(q) You will inform Oorvani immediately if there is any change in the information provided by You for using the website and services.

(r) You will use an authorized internet network to access and use the website and services.

(s) You will use Your own electronic device while accessing and using the website and ensure that no third party accesses it without Your consent. You shall however be liable for any activity performed by You or any third party while using our website and services from Your electronic device (with or without Your consent)

(t) You shall solely bear responsibility for ensuring that You access the correct version of the website and services on Your electronic device(s).

(u) You agree that you are solely responsible for maintaining confidentiality of all the sensitive and personal information/ personally identifiable information shared by You on the website. 

(v) Oorvani further reserves the right to suspend the services available under this website including denying you the access to the website and services, without providing any prior notice if you violate any of the provisions under these terms and conditions.  

(w) On selection of newsletter service or email service, you agree and grant non-exclusive permission and irrevocable right to use your email address, for the purpose of sending emails / publications/ news / newsletters or for any other purpose by way of messages or any other formats from time to time in a manner that we see fit. Your consent for the manner in which we send out such alerts or any changes in the same is presumed at all times.

CONTENT

(x) In addition to the articles, content and reports published by users including you if any on the website, Articles and reports are published by Oorvani on the website which are authored by a team of journalists, experts, government officials and academicians in addition to the employees/Editors of Oorvani. Although Oorvani makes reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy and veracity of sources, Oorvani shall bear no liability for damages incurred by the user for inaccuracy of data or information specified in such articles or reports or acting on the advice / opinion provided by such third parties and the user agrees to undertake to follow such opinion at his/her own risk.

(y) Citizen Journalism: Oorvani also welcomes and accepts User’s Work including articles, reports and content from users of the website who have detailed information about specific concerns and matters, by virtue of their participation, association, or independent observation. These reports are assumed to be witnessed and understood by the authors/users themselves. Oorvani does not accept responsibility for any such content, information, data or materials submitted by the users of the website. Users of the website shall adhere to the highest principles of ethics, including fairness, accuracy, thoroughness, independence and transparency while contributing to the content of the website. You hereby certify that all the information provided by you including the User’s work are true, correct, accurate, current, complete and written with honest and genuine intentions.

(z) You the User agree and assure that you will not use the website or provide any content therein which is illegal or unlawful including defamatory or accusatory in nature . Please read our commenting policy before proceeding. If you have evidence implicating an individual or group, follow the instructions in our commenting policy and send such comments to us. You can publish such comments only after procuring our approval.

(aa) You agree that You will expressly in writing disclose if User’s Work submitted by You is fictional or based on true events. Under no circumstances will You create, share with Oorvani or publish false news on the website. You further agree not to create any content that encourages violence, communal riots or hatred towards any gender, race, caste, religion or sect of people. You agree that Oorvani may, at its sole discretion, reject/not publish or remove the User’s Work and content submitted by You or prevent you from using the website or parts thereof if it believes the User’ Work and content to be obscene, provocative, offensive or questionable.

(bb) Consumer complaints: You as a user are allowed to provide vendor experience narratives through publishing articles or comments under other articles on the website. Such articles or comments may be published after we provide our approval. You shall ensure that such content provided by you is true,  accurate, current, complete and not defamatory, scandalising or obscene and is in compliance with the applicable laws and these terms and conditions. Oorvani shall not bear any responsibility for such content written or published by you on the website. Oorvani shall at its own discretion determine whether or not to assist you in addressing your grievances, if any. Oorvani further reserves the right to not publish, modify or delete such content at its own discretion without providing you prior notice.

(cc) Opinion sections are the views of their authors, and do not necessarily represent the policies or positions of the organisations they work for. Opinions on these pages are also not the views of the editors/employees of Oorvani/Citizen Matters; our own views are published as ‘editorials’; the employees/editors of Oorvani may also write and publish content on the website under their individual names. Oorvani shall not be responsible for any content published on the website by the individuals not employed by Oorvani or the employees/editors of Oorvani writing in their personal capacity.

(dd) We welcome alternate opinions. If you are a writer with expertise in an area and should you have opinions contrary to the material we publish, you may send such opinions to us. Such alternative opinion shall be published at the sole discretion of Oorvani, with such modifications as deemed necessary by Oorvani without procuring Your consent.

(ee) Oorvani does not liaison with government agencies on behalf of citizens. Work and Content of Oorvani is independent and the integrity of Oorvani’s work and content is uninfluenced by its Sponsors or partners.

4. INFORMATION COLLECTED

1. We automatically collect limited information about your computer’s connection to the internet (IP address) when you visit our website. In order to provide you the access to our website and services, Oorvani might also collect additional data from You, including your name, email address, contact number, search terms, etc. You hereby agree that Oorvani may use and retain this data to provide and improve our website and services subject to the privacy policy.

2. The privacy policy related to this is separately published and you will be required to read through the same and provide consent for the policy before you commence usage of the website or services.

3. By submitting information / data / content/ articles/ reports/ inputs/ comments to us, You the user are assigning all Your rights over such information / data/  content/ articles/ reports/ inputs/ comments so supplied and we reserve absolute and unqualified rights over such information / data / content so submitted.

4. You agree that, 
   i. The information collected will be stored by us for a better experience in the future and also to enable better operation of the website and services for You.
   ii. In certain instances the products(s) or service(s) in the website which You have opted for may involve interaction with either staff from our support centre or third party professionals and in such cases Your implied authorization including to declassify the data / information You have provided is presumed.
   iii. The information You provide may be used to notify You of new products / services of Oorvani, its affiliates or other companies. Oorvani and its affiliates shall not be responsible or liable in any manner for liability arising out of the use of the products and services of other users or companies/ individuals/ entities.
   iv. If You do not wish to receive promotional e-mail from us, an email will have to be sent to us at edit@citizenmatters.in
   v. While using the services and products under the website You agree that you will not share any personally identifiable information of any person.

5. COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARKS

1. The website and services, content, articles and all such materials made available by Oorvani unless otherwise stated are protected by the Indian copyright laws and other applicable laws and Oorvani (its parent/ affiliates/ associates) is the absolute owner of all such materials irrespective of whether they are capable of protection / registration under the relevant statute or not.

2. Oorvani is the absolute owner of logos, trademarks, data, content, materials, publications, articles, opinions, and Intellectual Property in all information, techniques, Know-how, software and materials, and User’s Work whether subject to statutory protection or not, made available on the Website and services.

3. You are granted a non-exclusive, limited and non-transferable right to access and use only the website and services and the content, articles and publications made available therein, in compliance with this agreement and the privacy policy. You shall not infringe any of the intellectual property belonging to Oorvani or third parties including trademarks and copyrights made available on the website and services.

4. Oorvani allows You to submit original content created by you including articles, short stories, reports, comments on the content published by other authors, illustrations and artwork (“User’s Work”) to be published on the website or such other platforms of Oorvani. You agree that, in consideration for publishing the User’s Work on the website or such other platform of Oorvani and being recognised as the author or joint author, as the case may be of such User’s Work, you hereby surrender and assign, to the fullest extent allowed under the applicable laws, all of Your rights, title and interest in any and all such User’s Work including but not limited to words, stories, art, illustrations and drawings, therein in favour of Oorvani. 

5. The rights specified under sub clause (d) above also include all rights of paternity, integrity, disclosure, withdrawal, and any other rights that may be known as or referred to as moral rights, artist’s rights, droit moral or the like in the User’s Work (together referred to as “Moral Rights”). To the extent that You retain any such Moral Rights under applicable law, You hereby ratify and consent to any action that may be taken with respect to such Moral Rights by or persons authorized by Oorvani and You agree not to assert any Moral Rights with respect thereto. You hereby confirm to provide any such ratification, consent or agreement from time to time as requested by Oorvani.

6. You further agree to assist Oorvani to record and perfect such assignment and obtain, maintain, enforce and defend any rights specified to be so owned or assigned. You hereby irrevocably designate and appoint Oorvani as Your agent and attorney-in-fact to act for and on Your behalf to execute and file any document and to do all other lawfully permitted acts to further the purposes of the foregoing with the same legal force and effect as if executed by the You.

7. Oorvani further reserves the right to and you hereby consent to Oorvani modifying the User’s Work in such manner as it deems fit without procuring Your consent. Oorvani further reserves the right to remove any of the User’s work and content already published on the website or such other Platform of Oorvani without procuring Your consent. You agree that, you shall have no right to demand Oorvani to not publish or remove User’s work or comment  submitted or published on the website or such other platform subsequent to User’s work being submitted to Oorvani. 
   
8. You hereby unconditionally authorize Oorvani to use, share, store, copy, archive, display, transmit, disseminate, translate, transfer, modify, distribute, reproduce, publicly perform and/or publish the User’s work in any manner and on any platform as it deems fit, without procuring prior permission from You and for no additional consideration.
   
9. Oorvani will put in reasonable efforts at crediting You for the User’s Work created by you.

6. INDEMNIFICATION

You hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless Oorvani, its officers, directors, employees, suppliers, and affiliates, from and against any losses, damages, fines and expenses (including attorney’s fees and costs) arising out of or relating to any claims on the ground that you have used the website or the content therein or wrote/published content therein in violation of another party’s rights, in violation of any law including through infringement of intellectual property rights of third parties and Oorvani,  in violations of any provisions of the Terms and Conditions, or any other claim related to your use of the website, except where such use is expressly authorized by Oorvani in writing.    

7. ADVERTISING AND THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS

1. The criteria by which we select and display advertisements from other organisations are internal to our organisation. We reserve the right to reject any messages or advertisements to be published on the website without providing any prior notice or reasons. 

2. Communications may be sent from Oorvani such as service announcements, administrative messages and newsletters. You understand that these communications shall be considered as part of You using the website. As part of our policy to provide you privacy, we also provide you the option of opting out from receiving newsletters from us. However, you will not be able to opt-out from receiving service announcements and administrative messages. 

3. The Website may provide links and hyperlinks solely for the purpose of your convenience and in no way does the inclusion of any such link on the website imply our affiliation or endorsement of the linked site unless expressly mentioned by us. 

4. You will indemnify and keep indemnified Oorvani against any and all liability arising out of or in connection with violation of the policies and terms of use of any third party websites or services that may be available on the website and services. 
   The responsibility in respect of statutory compliance and/or compliance with any other regulation along with other matters for advertisements or promotions listed out on the website lies solely with the person making such advertisement or promotion.  Oorvani accepts no responsibility and bears no liability for any such advertisement or promotion made on the website.

8. APPLICABLE LAW

These terms and conditions shall be governed by the Laws of India. The Courts of Law at Bangalore shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising under this agreement.

9. SUSPENSION OF USAGE

1. Oorvani reserves the right to immediately suspend Your use and deny access to the websites, services, and/ or product(s) or information / publications/ articles/ content available on the website if there is an emergency security threat or there is a requirement to suspend such use to comply with applicable law.
2. If Oorvani suspects that You are infringing its intellectual property or that of a third party, Oorvani may decide to suspend Your usage and prevent access to the website and services. You hereby provide your express consent to Oorvani for obtaining and using any data that may be provided by you to or available with Oorvani during your usage of the website and services failing which Oorvani at its sole discretion might prevent you from accessing the website and services or portions thereof. 
3. Nothing contained under this agreement shall compel Oorvani to provide any services offered in the website and services.

10. VALIDATION AND FEEDBACK

The feedback provided by the User, if any on the website and services may be used by Oorvani in any manner it deems fit and the User irrevocably assigns all non- exclusive license, right and interest in such Feedback and Validation report.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

1. Oorvani does not accept responsibility for the accuracy and correctness of any content, information, article, materials, publication, reviews, or any other content made available on the website or services.
2. You expressly understand and agree that Oorvani shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of property, profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from the use or the inability to use the website and services. 
3. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Oorvani shall not be held liable under these Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy for more than the amount paid by the User to Oorvani under these Terms of Use during 6 months before the event giving rise to liability.
4. Oorvani accepts no liability towards any losses or damages that may be incurred by You as a result of disclosure or infringement of any of your confidential information or Intellectual Property Right by a third party.
5. Oorvani accepts no responsibility for any content published on the website and services including  news or news articles involving ideological or political affinity, scandalising, defaming or offending you and you agree to use the website at your own risk.

12. TERM AND TERMINATION

These Terms and Conditions shall remain in force from the effective date until terminated. Oorvani may terminate the Terms and Conditions if You breach the provisions of this agreement. Oorvani further at its sole discretion, reserves the right to suspend or prevent your usage of the website and services including submission or publication of User’s Work  if You fail to cure such breach of Terms and Conditions, within 30 days of intimation of such breach.

13. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions shall be resolved through mediation. If such mediation fails, the dispute shall be referred to a sole arbitrator in the Bangalore Arbitration Centre, Khanija Bhavan, Bangalore. The language of the arbitration as well as award shall be English.

14. ASSIGNMENT

In the event where  Oorvani is acquired by another legal entity, then the terms and conditions set forth in this agreement shall continue to stand valid and the user undertakes to be bound by these terms and conditions notwithstanding the assignment of this agreement to another entity. The user shall not assign the terms of this agreement to any third party without the express written consent of Oorvani.

15. FORCE MAJEURE

Oorvani shall have no liability when there is cessation, interruption or delay in the performance of  Oorvani’s  obligations due to any reasons beyond its controls including among other things breakdown of concerned servers, interruptions in communication channels, earthquakes, volcanoes or such acts of God, labour controversy, civil disturbance, economic recession, internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, fires, floods, storms, epidemics, pandemics including Covid – 19, order or domestic or foreign courts, war or the inability to obtain services from other third party service providers, transportation, or other essential commodity or service required in the conduct of its business, or any change in or the adoption of any law, regulation, judgement or decree.

16. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

These terms and conditions along with the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and  Oorvani  with respect to the subject matter thereof and this supersedes / replaces / revokes all prior understanding or agreements whether oral or written regarding the said subject matter between you and Oorvani.

17. MISCELLANEOUS

If any term or clause of these Terms of Use are declared to be invalid, void or unenforceable, the rest of the agreement will remain effective. Non-exercise or delay in exercise of rights under these terms and conditions or the applicable laws shall not be construed as waiver of such rights. All notices under this Terms of Use shall be in writing and sent to Oorvani at its email address foundation@oorvani.in. In addition to the reliefs and remedies available under the Terms and Conditions, Oorvani shall be entitled to any other equitable relief available under the law.

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