TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR ACCESS AND/OR USE OF DIGITAL IMPACT SQUARE (DISQ) WEBSITE (www.digitalimpactsquare.com) AND PARTICIPATION AT DISQ
By access and/or use of the DISQ website you (hereinafter “You” or “Participant”) agree to these terms & conditions. If you do not agree to the terms, kindly do not access and/or use DISQ website.
About DISQ
DISQ, a TCS Foundation (“TCSF”) initiative, is a platform for social innovation for enhancing and improving lives of citizens using digital technologies. DISQ fosters a culture of innovation through series of sustained innovation cycles and provides an opportunity to bring research and technology from academia and industry to life, and for talent/ideators (“You” or “Participant”) from across the country to solve pressing challenges in areas such as Health & Hygiene, Education & Skills, Financial & Personal Security, Energy, Water & Environment, Food & Agriculture, Housing & Transportation, and Citizen Empowerment & Transparency.
The sole purpose of this website is for You to learn about DISQ’s purpose, eligibility and process for participation, timelines, evaluation criteria, and the Challenges which are representative of citizens voice and that of the local administration. The DISQ website provides the ability for You to respond to one or more Challenges with a solution or to respond with an Idea under Think Beyond.
Access and/or Use of DISQ website
In general, You can visit DISQ website without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself only for Your personal and non-commercial use and not for any other purpose whatsoever. However, You acknowledge and agree that access to and/or use of certain sections of the DISQ website and the services / content thereon and/or participation in any DISQ challenge requires registration and authentication and may be granted at the sole discretion of TCSF, and is subject to Your (users) compliance with the terms and conditions set forth herein and all applicable laws. If you are registering and/or participating on behalf of an organization/entity (such as a start up), You are agreeing to these terms and conditions on behalf of Your organization/entity, and You represent and warrant that you have full authority to bind your organization/entity to these terms and conditions. In that case, \"You\", \"Your\" and “Participant” also refers to that organization/entity.
How to Participate in a DISQ Challenge
DISQ website may provide various features/means enabling You to interact, collaborate, post and/or submit (“Interactive Services”) Your idea, innovation, solution, and/or share content (“Your Content”). You may participate in various Challenges, by registering on DISQ website and, submit Your Content. Participation in DISQ Challenges is open to all adult legal residents of India who fulfill the eligibility criteria. If You are a legal entity, majority of partners/shareholders should be Indian resident nationals and fulfill the eligibility criteria. TCSF reserves the right to take steps to verify the eligibility of the participants and seek any documents to verify the same. Each Participant must ensure that his/her/its participation in any DISQ challenge is lawful in accordance with the laws of India. Neither TCSF nor any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, supporting organizations/entities and their respective employees, officers, directors and agents or suppliers, service providers or evaluation panel, jury members, advisors or mentors (“Related Parties”) shall be taken to make any representations, express or implied, as to the lawfulness of Your participation or as to any Challenge.
Your retain ownership of Your Content
TCSF does not claim ownership of Your Content that You may post, share, submit, upload or otherwise make available on or through the DISQ website. You acknowledge and agree that You shall have sole responsibility and liability for the accuracy, quality, integrity, legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, copyright and intellectual property ownership or right to use of Your Content. If You provide/submit/disclose any third party content/material or intellectual property as part of Your Content You shall ensure that the same is used under a valid and enforceable license from relevant third parties and who have given their consent to use of such third party content in accordance with these terms. By submitting/providing/disclosing Your Content, You grant TCSF a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, transferable and a sub-licensable license in and to any and all intellectual property rights in Your Content to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, digitally display and digitally perform, translate, create derivative works from, communicate, transmit and distribute such materials or incorporate such materials into any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed in connection with TCSF’s activities. You further represent and warrant that You own and control any and all rights to Your Content including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for granting the permissions specified hereunder and You release, discharge and hold harmless TCSF and its Related Parties from any and all claims, demands or causes of action (including any copyright and other intellectual property claims) that You may have against TCSF and its Related Parties regarding any use of Your Content pursuant to permissions granted hereunder. TCSF will have no liability to You for receipt, review, use or disclosure of any and all information disclosed or submitted by You. You should have not licensed or disposed of or otherwise assigned, or encumbered any rights in Your Content submitted that would conflict with these terms, including without limitation, any rights granted to TCSF in or to the same and shall not assign, license or encumber any rights in Your Content submitted without the prior written consent of TCSF.
Evaluation and Selection
Mere participation in any DISQ challenge and/or sending/submitting the entries/Your Content does not entitle the participants to get selected. Your Content will be evaluated by TCS and its Related Parties, and may interact with You on one to one basis. You may also be required to make brief presentations to evaluation panel, jury and an audience. The evaluation/selection parameters/process may vary from challenge to challenge and shall be as per the TCS’ sole discretion and will be posted on the DISQ website and/or otherwise brought to Your notice in interaction during evaluation of Your Content. The participants or any third party shall have no right to question the parameters/process of evaluation/selection. TCS and Related Parties may determine the correctness, quality and validity of the entries/submission in its sole discretion. While every effort will be made to preserve the confidentiality of each submission, it is suggested that highly sensitive material be either excluded from the entry and/or appropriate prior intellectual property protection taken if You are concerned about the confidentiality or protection of such material. Protection of any such rights is solely Your responsibility. You may also be able to access the submissions of other participants. Similarly, other participants may be able to access Your submissions/Content. You agree to maintain the confidentiality of the submissions of other participants or other confidential information of TCSF and its Related Parties to which You may have/gain access. You agree that you will not and not permit to divulge, disclose or use or make copies of any Confidential Information that You have/gain access, without the prior written consent of TCSF.
If selected, the participants will be communicated, using the details provided by the participant, to participate at DISQ, Nashik in subsequent phases of the innovation cycle as mentioned on the DISQ website. Your participation in such subsequent phases of the innovation cycle will be subject to a separate written agreement with TCSF and/or other relevant stake holders, including without limitation, Related Parties and government departments, entities or organizations. If the participant declines or unduly delays the execution of the agreement or the selected participant cannot be contacted within 7 days after declaration of the selection result using details provided by the participant or does not timely respond to communications, TCS will be entitled to select another entry/participant at its sole discretion.
Changes
TCSF reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to extend, shorten, discontinue, prematurely withdraw, change, alter, modify, cancel or terminate any DISQ challenge or any part thereof or these terms including the eligibility criteria, evaluation/selection parameters/ process at any time it deems fit and proper without prior notice, during its validity or as may be required in view of business exigencies and/or changes by regulatory authority and/or statutory changes and the same shall be binding on the participants. No claims or representations shall be entertained in this regard, including without limitation, inability to provide advance intimation. TCSF reserves the absolute right to disqualify the participant, if it considers that participant has used improper means to participate; any information provided by participant is found to be incorrect, inaccurate, false, misleading in any manner; or due to any other valid reason that may nullify participant’s participation in the challenge. TCSF reserves the right to verify eligibility and to adjudicate on any dispute at any time. You acknowledge and agree TCSF and Related Parties will be the sole authority to decide the selection of the challenge entries and/or participants and decision of TCSF will be final and binding on all the participants. Participants agree that no liability shall attach to TCSF or any Related Parties as a result thereof and that the exercise of such discretion shall not result in any compensation being payable or paid to any participant or other person.
Prohibited Actions
Unless expressly permitted under these terms, You represent and warrant that You shall not and neither permit others to:
- copy, modify, publish, download, store, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the DISQ website, transmitting, distributing, selling, displaying, communicating, licensing or reproducing any content including text, images, opinions, analysis, statistics, information or photographs, its service / contents or any part thereof;
- intentionally interfere with or damage operation of the DISQ website or any users’ enjoyment of the DISQ website, by any means, including but not limited to uploading or otherwise disseminating viruses, adware, spyware, worms, or other malicious code;
- use any robot, spider, other automatic device/process, or manual process to access, monitor or copy the DISQ website or its services / contents or do any penetration/security testing;
- share the authentication details with any other user or circumvent, bypass, delete or remove any form of protection, or usage, functionality or technical restrictions/limitation, or to enable functionality disabled by TCSF;
- gain unauthorized access to the DISQ website or misuse the DISQ website and its services / content in any manner whatsoever or use the DISQ website for any illegal, unauthorized, fraudulent or otherwise improper purpose or effect;
- harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including Personal Data;
- access or use the DISQ website and/or its services / content with a false identity;
- assign any rights, obligations or privileges without prior consent of TCSF;
- participate in DISQ if You are part of the jury, evaluation/selection panel, advisors, or mentors;
- use, upload, post, transmit, distribute, or otherwise publish through the DISQ website or any Interactive Service provided hereunder any materials / content which
- are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, offensive, pornographic, profane, sexually explicit, indecent or otherwise objectionable;
- constitute or encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate law;
- violate, plagiarize or infringe the rights of any third party including, without limitation copyright, trademark, patent, rights of privacy or publicity, confidentiality, trade secret or any other right of any third party;
- contain any information advertising of any kind;
- constitute or contain false or misleading indications of origin or statements of fact;
Indemnity
Participant hereby agrees to defend and hold harmless TCSF and its Related Parties against any action, claim, or proceeding arising out of or in connection with any or all actions, claims, or proceedings, that may be brought or threatened against TCSF and/or its Related Parties by any third party in connection with Your Content, and/or Your participation in any DISQ challenge which is inconsistent with any of the obligations of the participant and/or information provided by participant hereunder; due breach of these terms and conditions; due to breach of any third party rights including intellectual property rights or confidential information; due to any willful misconduct, fraud or malfeasance; and shall indemnify TCSF and its Related Parties for any such loss, costs, expense, damage or liability (including reasonable attorney and legal costs and expense) to which said indemnity applies.
TCSF is the sole and exclusive owner of the DISQ website
All intellectual property rights in the DISQ website and its services / content, including but not limited to copyright, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and design of the DISQ and its services / content is owned by TCSF and/or its licensors/TP Content (as hereinafter defined) providers. You agree that You shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the DISQ and its service / content. Any use of the DISQ and its services / contents, including copying, publishing, distributing, downloading, transmitting, storing, archiving whether in whole or part, other than for permitted use is prohibited without the express consent of TCSF.
Through DISQ, you may acquire/gain knowledge about TCSF and its Related Parties activities, products, services and/or technical expertise which we regard as confidential (“Confidential Information”). You agree that you will not and not permit to divulge, disclose or use or make copies of any Confidential Information that You have/gain access, without the prior written consent of TCSF.
Interactive Services
Interactive Services and its contents are provided on ‘AS IS’ and ‘AS AVAILABLE’ basis without any representations or warranties whatsoever. TCSF and its Related Parties expressly exclude their liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any Interactive Service by You or any other person, whether the service is moderated or not. By accessing or using DISQ and its services / content, You expressly consent that TCSF may monitor Your access and/or use of DISQ website, and in its sole discretion (but without any obligation) to moderate, edit, delete, remove, un-publish, refuse to post/publish or use any and all of Your Content, without any further permissions or approval from You, and You covenant that this will not violate your privacy, moral or any other rights and waive any such rights in favor of TCSF. Additional terms may apply to such Interactive Services. Where additional terms apply to an Interactive Service, these will be accessible for You to read either within, or through the use of, that Interactive Service or at the time of registration. Where such Interactive Services are provided by or through a third party website/service, You agree to abide by the terms and conditions of such third party service/ platform/website including their privacy policies. You agree and acknowledge that as a registered user of the DISQ and/or its services, You may be visible to jury, evaluation/selection panel, advisors, mentors and other participants at DISQ by such using Interactive Services. Please be careful about what information, including personal information, You disclose in this way. TCSF and its Related Parties shall not be responsible for use of personal or confidential information by any third party which You may make available.
Privacy
You acknowledge and agree that for enabling Your access to and/or use of the DISQ and/or participation in any DISQ challenge TCSF may need Your information such as Your name, phone number, email id, profession, qualification or such other information as TCSF may reasonably request (“Personal Data”) to enable authentication for access and/or use of the DISQ and its services / content and/or participate in the DISQ challenges. You undertake to provide true and correct information for requesting access to and/or use of the DISQ and keep the same updated. You agree and consent to use of Your Personal Data by TCSF for the purpose or otherwise contacting You and/or identifying You as an participant and/or user of DISQ and/or contributor/author of Your Content. You acknowledge and agree that Your Personal Information may be shared by TCSF with Related Parties participating and/or assisting TCSF and that any Personal Data may be stored and/or processed by TCSF on your behalf You shall be the data controller and TCSF shall be a data processor and in any such case:
- You acknowledge and agree that the Personal Data may be transferred and/or stored and/or processed outside the country where You are located in order to carry out the DISQ related services;
- You shall ensure that You are entitled to transfer the relevant Personal Data to TCSF so that TCSF may lawfully use, process and transfer the Personal Data on Your behalf;
- You shall ensure that the relevant third parties have been informed of, and have given their consent to, such use, processing, and transfer as required by all applicable data protection legislation;
- TCSF shall process and/or transfer and/or provide and/or disclose to third parties, including but not limited to Government agencies mandated under the law to obtain information including Personal Data for the purpose of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, prosecution, and punishment of offences, the Personal Data;
- TCSF may share Your Personal Data to complete any transaction or any service provided to you, with TCSF and its Related Parties; with vendors/service providers working on our behalf; to protect our customers; to protect lives; to maintain the security of our services; and to protect the rights or property of TCSF.
- You acknowledge and agree that TCSF may use the data for member authentication, role authorization, permissions, record keeping, statistical analysis, analytics, publishing reports, improvement purposes and also contact you using the Personal Data provided by you.
Disclaimer
The DISQ website and its services / content is provided on “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis without any warranty or representation of any kind. TCSF and any other parties involved in the creation, production, maintenance or delivery of the DISQ website and/or its services / content, expressly disclaim any and all warranties, express and implied, including but not limited to any warranties of accuracy, reliability, availability, title, merchantability, non-infringement, fitness for a particular purpose, or that the DISQ website and its services / content will meet your requirement, or will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, accurate, complete, virus-free or error-free.
Limitation of Liability
In no event shall TCSF or any of its Related Parties be liable for any direct or indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential damages or any damages whatsoever including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profits, confidentiality, arising out of or in any way connected with, the use or performance of DISQ website and its services / content, the delay or inability to use this DISQ website and its services / content or related services, the provision of or failure to provide content / services, or for any information, products, services and material, or any issues with participation in or through DISQ, or otherwise arising out of the use of DISQ website and its services / content, whether based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, even if TCSF or any of its Related Parties has been advised of the possibility of damages. If You are dissatisfied with any portion of DISQ website and its services / content, or with any of these terms of use, Your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using DISQ website and its services / content. Your decision to access and/or use any information, services or products made available by or through DISQ website, or to take any action or refrain from taking any action as a result of Your use of DISQ website and its services / content will be Your discretion and decision alone, based solely on Your own evaluation.
Flagging Issues / Reporting Violations
In case of any suggestions, complaints, grievances including for any violation of intellectual property rights, You may report the same to TCSF through the Contact Us page on the website. Reporting of violations should be accompanied by a statement stating that the claim made by You is under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and have acted in lawful manner with respect to the complained matter or disputed issue; and as an owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf in case of violation of intellectual property rights. Upon receiving of the report, TCSF shall evaluate the details provided details, facts and evidences to take further action if required which is appropriate in its sole discretion. You covenant to provide any further information or documents which TCSF may reasonably request in order to address the reported issue/matter.
For Take-Down Notices relating to Storage of Transient or Incidental Copies of Work Under Indian Copyright Act and Rules: Under the Indian Copyright Rules, 2013 (Rule 75), TCSF will accept the notice in writing under section 52(1)(c) in the format as prescribed in Rule 75 sub rule 2. On receipt of the written complaint, TCSF if satisfied with the details provided in the complaint shall take measures to refrain from facilitating access for a period of twenty-one days or till TCSF receives an order from the competent court refraining the access, whichever is earlier. In the event no such order is received before the expiry of twenty-one days, TCSF may restore access to such content or matter.
Termination
If You breach these terms and conditions, and/or additional terms (if any) applicable for participation in any DISQ challenge or violate any law, rule or regulation of India or any other country, Your access and use of the DISQ website is automatically terminated and any subsequent access and use is unauthorized. TCSF and all its Related Parties described hereinabove stand indemnified and held harmless by You from and against all liabilities, costs or consequences arising out of proceedings or matters arising thereto resulting from Your access and use of the DISQ and its services / content and/or Your content, including without limitation, breach by You of these terms and conditions and any representations and warranties made hereunder.
You agree that termination shall in no manner: obligate TCSF to remove or delete or unpublished Your Content and Personal Data which is already published/displayed/distributed in or on the DISQ website; or, have any affect on, (i) right and licenses or other permissions granted to TCSF under this agreement (including under additional terms for participation in any DISQ challenge), (ii) TCSF and Related Parties limitation of liability hereunder, or (iii) Your indemnification obligations, all of which shall survive any termination of this Agreement.
Your Personal Data shall not be retained for longer than it is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used or is otherwise required under any law for the time being in force or in relation to any pending or anticipated action, claim or dispute. Subject to the foregoing, upon termination, if You intend that Your account identifier / Personal Data be deleted, You can also send an email to digital.impactsquare@tcs.com requesting deletion of Your Personal Data. TCSF will take at least thirty (30) business days from the date of receipt of request with complete details to delete the Personal Data. However, already published content, reports, shared information, including without limitation, via blogs, chats, communities, participation in any DISQ challenge, etc and analytical collated data also having or requiring user’s details will not be deleted.
Jurisdiction and Applicable Law
These Terms of Use and Additional Terms for participation in DISQ challenges shall, without reference to conflict of law rules, be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India and parties irrevocably agree that the courts in Mumbai shall have the exclusive jurisdiction over any matters arising out of, or in relation to, the DISQ or Your use of the DISQ.
Dispute Resolution
Any dispute or difference arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions, additional terms (if any), including any question regarding its existence, operation, termination, validity or breach thereof shall be referred to and finally resolved by Arbitration in accordance with the Rules of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, which rules, as modified from time to time, are deemed to be incorporated by reference into this clause by an arbitration panel comprising of a sole arbitrator appointed by TCSF in accordance with the Rules. The venue for arbitration shall be Mumbai and the language for the proceedings shall be English. The Parties agree that the award passed by the such an arbitrator shall be final and binding upon the Parties, and that the Parties shall not be entitled to commence or maintain any action in any court of law in respect of any matter in dispute arising from or in relation to the Agreement, except for the enforcement of an arbitral award passed by an arbitration panel pursuant to this clause. The prevailing party in any suit, action, counterclaim, or arbitration arising out of this Agreement shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees, litigation expenses, collection costs, and the cost of arbitration in addition to court costs.
Nothing herein shall prohibit TCSF from seeking a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction or other provisional relief in any court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction if, in its judgment, such action is necessary to avoid irreparable damage, to preserve the status quo or to prevent or stop the violation or continued breach of these term and conditions (including any additional terms for participation in DISQ challenges), breach of confidentiality obligations and/or infringement of intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights of TCSF, its affiliates and/or their respective licensors.
General TermsForce Majeure : Neither Party shall be in breach of this agreement nor liable for delay in performing, or failure to perform, any of its obligations under this agreement if such delay or failure result from force majeure or events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control.
Entire Agreement : These terms and conditions and additional terms, if any, form a legally binding agreement between You and TCSF and are the entire agreement between the user and TCSF regarding access and use of the DISQ website and participation in any DISQ challenge and supersede any prior or contemporaneous, conflicting or additional understandings or agreements or communications (written or oral). If there is any contradiction between these Terms of Use and any additional terms in relation to participation in any DISQ challenge, then the additional terms shall take precedence in relation to that DISQ challenge. Please proceed only if you accept all the conditions enumerated herein above, out of your free will and consent.
No assignment : Participant shall not assign any rights, obligations or privileges (by operation of law or otherwise) hereunder without the prior written consent of TCSF. TCSF may assign its rights or obligations to any of its Related Parties. Except as otherwise set forth herein, any attempt by Participant to assign any of the rights, duties or obligations hereunder without TCSF's prior written consent will be null and void. Subject to the foregoing, these terms and conditions shall be fully binding upon, inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the Parties and their respective successors and assigns.
Waiver : Failure to exercise or delay in exercising any right or remedy under these terms and conditions or law by TCSF will not constitute a waiver of rights or remedy nor shall it prevent exercising that right or remedy in whole or in part in future.
Severability : If any provision of these terms and conditions or part thereof is held by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal, the other provisions shall remain unaffected and shall remain in force.
Headings : The clause headings are for the purposes of convenience/ease of reference and are not to be used in interpretation of these Terms.
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