Child Abuse & Neglect (CAN) is a worldwide public and social health problem, which exerts a multitude of long term and short term effects on children. The result of children’s exposure to child maltreatment includes elevated levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, mental as well as health concerns, like anxiety, depression, etc. A well outlined epidemiologic, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study revealed: “a high chance of heart disease in adult survivors of children, after correcting for the race, age, smoking & diabetes and education.”[1] Several developed countries of the world have well-evolved child protection systems, primarily focused on mandatory identification, reporting and investigations of affected children, and often taking coercive action. Notifications have posed a burden on families and the system. In these contexts, the problems of child abuse and Neglect in India need severe and more extensive consideration, particularly among the underprivileged rural and urban communities, where child protection systems are not developed—or do not reach. The motive of the present article is to provide an outline of child abuse and neglect from a medical assessment to a socio-legal outlook in India, to ensure a comprehensive and prompt multidisciplinary response to victims of child neglect and abuse. In the course of their busy clinical practice, medical professionals can also make use of the telephone helpline (CHILDLINE telephone 1098) to refer to cases of child abuse, thus connecting them to socio-legal services.

[1] Narendra Saini, Child Abuse and Neglect in India: Time to act 8.

“Intellectual property (I.P.) laws are generally territorial, but trade secret protection varies according to jurisdiction. Trade secret law protects technological and commercial information not generally known in the trade and prevents unauthorized commercial use by others. The policy behind trade secret protection is to encourage research and development by protecting the originator of business information and maintain proper standards of business ethics. A trade secret is common ‘any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in one’s business, and which gives the human opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors.’ There are three factors common to all definitions of a trade secret: (i) it is information not generally known to the public, (ii) it confers economic benefit by maintaining secrecy and confidentiality and (iii) is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Trade secrets act as an incentive to incremental innovation in technology, not meeting the non-obviousness standard of patent law and copyrights. The inventions protected as a utility model, trademarks, industrial designs, artistic or literary works are often maintained as trade secrets until used or published during the process of registration or grant of the relevant I.P.R. A substantial part of economically meaningful technology, particularly new and cutting edge technology are prone to reverse engineering, such as biotechnology, computer program microchips, computer-aided designs and hence preserved as trade secrets. The exclusivity of the protection allows the innovation, invention and reproduction, by offering the owner an opportunity to discourage free riders and to recoup his investment. Trade secrets play a pivotal role in protecting innovations and establishing rights to use new technology. Trade secret protection extends to formula, patterns, plans, designs, physical devices, processes, software and know-how. The author in this article talks about the need for Trade Secret laws in India and their importance.”