TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Terms And Condition/Disclaimer

This Portal is designed, developed by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and hosted at National Informatics Centre Services Inc. (NICSI) Cloud Server.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the Indian Laws. Any dispute arising under these terms and conditions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of New Delhi, India.

Though all efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and currency of the content on this Portal, the same should not be construed as a statement of law or used for any legal purposes. BIRAC accepts no responsibility in relation to the accuracy, completeness, usefulness or otherwise, of the contents. Users are advised to verify/check any information with the relevant Government department(s) and/or other source(s), and to obtain any appropriate professional advice before acting on the information provided in the Portal.

In no event will the BIRAC and/or the Government of India be liable for any expense, loss or damage including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any expense, loss or damage whatsoever arising from use, or loss of use, of data, arising out of or in connection with the use of this Portal.

The information posted on this website could include hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by non-Government/private organisations. BIRAC is providing these links and pointers solely for your information and convenience. When you select a link to an outside website, you are leaving the ‘Guidelines for Indian Government Websites’ site and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website.

2. Copyright Policy

Contents of this website may not be reproduced partially or fully, without due permission from BIRAC. Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged. However, the permission to reproduce this material shall not extend to any material which is identified as being copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the concerned departments/copyright holders.

3. Privacy Policy

If this Portal requests you to provide personal information, you will be informed for the particular purposes for which the information is gathered and adequate security measures will be taken to protect your personal information.

We do not collect personal information for any purpose other than to respond to you (for example, to respond to your queries). If you choose to provide us with personal information like filling out an application form/ contact us form with an e-mail address or postal address, and submitting it to us through the website, we use that information to respond to your message, and to help you get the information you have requested.

Our website never collects information or creates individual profiles for commercial marketing. While you must provide an e-mail address for a localised response to any incoming questions or comments to us, we recommend that you do NOT include any other personal information unless until specifically asked for.

4. Hyper Linking Policy

Links to external websites/portals

At many places in this Portal, you shall find links to other websites/portals. This links have been placed for your convenience. BIRAC is not responsible for the contents and reliability of the linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in them. Mere presence of the link or its listing on this Portal should not be assumed as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over availability of linked pages. These links will take you to a page outside the (https://birac.nic.in/). For any query regarding the contents of the linked page, please contact the webmaster of the concerned website.

Links to BIRAC Portal by other websites

We do not object you linking directly to the information that is hosted on this Portal and no prior permission is required for the same. However, we would like you to inform us about any links provided to this Portal so that you can be informed of any changes or updations therein. Also, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on your site. The pages belonging to this Portal must load into a newly opened browser window of the User.

5. Content Contribution, Moderation and Approval Policy (CMAP)

Following this policy, BIRAC provides a role-based Content Management system (CMS). This CMS helps the IT team in giving role specific access of administrator panel to different Users. The Web administrator will also be able to manage information specifically meant for internal use, which will be viewable to all members after the successful login. Admin can create the users by assigning him a particular role and Module to which functions of a particular user are limited.

These roles are:

• Creator: These are the Content creators. Their responsibilities are to add/edit/delete respective content on the website after proper approval.
• Moderator: Their responsibilities are to approve the content coming from the creator's.
• Publisher: A publisher could Edit and review the content. He is responsible for publishing the content on the website.

These personnel would be appointed by the Web Administrator and would be responsible for overall quality and quantity of information on the Website. The Web Administrator will be responsible for overall supervision to ensure that authentic and updated information are available on the website.

CMAP policy ensures the following Activities on the Website:

• All information about the department, useful for the citizen and other stakeholders, is present in the "About Us" section and mechanism is in place to keep the information up to date.
• The validity of the scheme has been mentioned.
• Website is free from offensive/discriminatory language.
• Content is compiled and packaged with citizen orientation.
• Clear and simple language has been used throughout the website.
• The language is free from spelling and grammatical errors.
• All information, which is of direct importance to the citizen, is accessible from the Homepage.
• Text is readable both in electronic and print format and the page prints correctly on an A4 size paper.
• There is adequate contrast between text and background color.
• Alternate text is provided for non-text elements (e.g. images).
• There is adequate contrast between text and background color.
• Web pages do not contain any content that flashes for more than three times in a second.
• There is a mechanism to control scrolling, blinking content. To address this, We have provided Manual Start and Stop wherever required.
• Website ranks in the first five results on major search engines when searched with relevant keywords.
• It has been ensured that all stationery of the department as well as advertisements/public messages issued by the concerned Department prominently display the URL of the web site.

6. Web Content Review Policy (CRP)

The web Administrator and the assigned Personnel's will have the responsibility for periodically reviewing the content of the website in respect of their respective domains and keep the information Up to Date. A proper workflow should be followed before final updation of content on the website.

7. Content Archival Policy (CAP)

Content Archival Mechanism is in place to ensure that all outdated announcements are removed from the website or moved to archive. This will help website team in ensuring that the expired contents are removed from the main website. The Archival System available on the Website will transfer the expired content in archives section as soon as it reaches expiry date. Archived Data will be available with search option to search data between two given dates.

Note: It is the Responsibility of Web Manager to put the Expiry date while contributing the Content wherever Applicable.

8. Website Security Policy

Website requires security clearance certificate before hosting any website in its data centre. The new website has been audited by Cert-in empanelled auditor and all the vulnerabilities have been fixed. Upon completion, security clearance certificate of cert-in empanelled auditor has been received.

“Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council” website contains information which is freely accessible, and may be viewed by any visitor. Accumulated data logs will be scheduled for regular deletion. The Website Privacy Policy details our position regarding the use of personal information provided by visitors.

Note: A periodic check on the requirement of security certificate is recommended to the web information manager in case there are changes in the functionality or any other environmental changes.

9. Website Monitoring Policy

“Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council” has a Website Monitoring Policy in place and the website is monitored periodically to address and fix the quality and compatibility issues around the following parameters:

• Performance: Site download time is optimized for a variety of network connections
• Functionality: All modules of the website are tested for their functionality. The interactive components of the site such as, feedback forms are working smoothly.
• Broken Links: The website is thoroughly reviewed to rule out the presence of any broken links or errors.
• Traffic Analysis: The site traffic is regularly monitored to analyze the usage patterns as well as visitors’ profile and preferences.
• Feedback: Feedback from by the visitors is the best way to judge a website’s performance and make necessary improvements. A proper mechanism for feedback is in place to carry out the changes and enhancements as suggested by the visitors.

10. Contingency Management

The presence of the website on the Internet and very importantly the site is fully functional all the times. It is expected of the Government websites to deliver information and services on a 24X7 basis. Hence, all efforts should be made from User Department/ Web Information Manager to minimize the downtime of the website as far as possible.

In case of any defacement and data corruption, quick action needs to be taken by the respective authorized personnel for the same.