A great saint and a remarkable poet, Muni Kshamasagar had such self-awareness and dedication that he analyzed his own spiritual journey in its minutest detail. Born in an affluent Jain family, and growing up to become a technologist, Virendra Kumar (Muni Kshamasagar’s birth name), decided to give up all worldly pleasures and material belongings, and became a renunciate at a relatively young age of only twenty-three! He attained sainthood with the blessings of his guru at the age of twenty-five. Exceptionally (...) well read and a deep thinker, he kept a strict disciplined approach in his own life, yet always expressed extreme care and compassion toward others. His knowledge, approachability, and kindness frequently brought people close to him. His speaking style was very simple and touching, and often left the audiences spellbound. His intellect with its logical approach helped bring science and religion together to make them complementary rather than contradictory. This approach is well reflected in the present book, which is a collection of his discourses. The aim of this book is to make people realize that their own actions (karmas) are the root cause of their suffering or happiness. To attain inner peace and have a blissful present and tomorrow, they need to act correctly, and if they want to know how to do this, this book is for them. (shrink)

This paper explores industry-level, collective stakeholder action. It argues that when industry stakeholders perceive change to be radically in conflict with their shared beliefs, this motivates them to act collectively at the industry level. The introduction of Cardhu pure malt in the Scotch whisky industry is used here as an illustrative example.

Firms have been relying on corporate political activity to achieve access and to affect public policy change for decades. Most research on CPA and public policy outcomes has implicitly assumed that access afforded by CPA results in an either- or policy outcome such as votes or election outcomes. Based on recent research on how CPA can be a strategic signal to government agencies, however, it is possible that CPA may in fact, have a linear association with public policy outcomes as (...) opposed to merely a dichotomous one, and we explore this relationship in the unique public policy context of government contract awards. We specifically analyze how higher levels of CPA impact the financial value of government contracts awarded to firms. Utilizing the S&P 1500 sample for 16 years we find that CPA has a one to one association with the value of contract awards, indicating that CPA and public policy outcomes can be linked in ways that motivate firms to continuously invest in CPA, to maximize their political rents. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding in light of extant research on CPA and its direct impact on public policy outcomes. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore the roles of religion and culture in how firm-stakeholder relationships evolve and are managed. It uses an ‘embeddedness’ framework (Granovetter, 1983; Uzzi, 1997, 2003) as its theoretical frame of reference to study how and why culture and religion can influence the varying types of ties that constitute firmstakeholder relationships.

Background: As there is little Indian data about severity, frequency and types of research related injuries, costs involved and policies regarding compensation, this study was conducted to review the present Indian scenario. Methods: The study was carried out in three parts; a questionnaire-based survey, in-depth interviews, and a review of informed consent and insurance documents of projects submitted to three ethics committees. Results: 47% of investigators were either unaware of, or had not understood, the legal requirements and depended on sponsors (...) to manage these issues, whereas 74% of ethics committee members were aware of the requirements. Although 40% of investigators, 30% of ethics committee members and all sponsors had policies to manage compensation issues, these were mainly to provide immediate free medical care or reimbursement of expenses incurred for the acute management of an adverse event. Compensation for loss of time/wages, death, physical disability or long term incapacitation was not included. A review of informed consent and insurance documents showed that compensation issues were inadequately discussed, with only insurance certificates submitted to ethics committees. Conclusion: In India, there are no uniform policies and investigators are largely unaware of their responsibilities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to draft national guidelines regarding compensation for research injuries of research participants and highlight the responsibilities of each stakeholder. Potential research injuries should be categorised based on risk assessment, severity and seriousness of the injury. Further, it would be necessary to have arbitration committees to determine the extent of compensation. Training and awareness workshops for those involved in clinical research, including research participants, is also needed. (shrink)

Sanskrit text with Hindi verse translation of Aṣṭāvakragītā, work on Vedanta philosophy.

Graphical AbstractBy combining phylogeography and zooarchaeology, the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics within species lineages can be reconstructed. Both approaches should be used with four rat species (black, Asian house, Pacific, and brown) to understand the minimum dates of commensalism, urbanization dynamics, and connections among human societies. More details can be found in article number 1900160 by Emily E. Puckett et al.

Phylogeography and zooarchaeology are largely separate disciplines, yet each interrogates relationships between humans and commensal species. Knowledge gained about human history from studies of four commensal rats (Rattus rattus, R. tanezumi, R. exulans, and R. norvegicus) is outlined, and open questions about their spread alongside humans are identified. Limitations of phylogeographic and zooarchaeological studies are highlighted, then how integration would increase understanding of species’ demographic histories and resultant inferences about human societies is discussed. How rat expansions have informed the understanding (...) of human migration, urban settlements, trade networks, and intra‐ and interspecific competition is reviewed. Since each rat species is associated with different human societies, they identify unique ecological and historical/cultural conditions that influenced their expansion. Finally, priority research areas including nuclear genome based phylogeographies are identified using archaeological evidence to understand R. norvegicus expansion across China, multi‐wave colonization of R. rattus across Europe, and competition between R. rattus and R. norvegicus. (shrink)

Much has been written about how Foucault's archaeology of the modern episteme, emerging from early 19th-century Europe, was curiously divorced from its context of colonialism. Media archaeology, as Foucault's legacy, has also remained rather geopolitically insular and race agnostic in its epistemological reverse engineering of media modernity. Using screenwriting history as a case study, this article demonstrates how bringing decolonial thinking and media archaeology together can challenge linear narratives of modernity/coloniality in media history. The article connects two seemingly disparate histories (...) of archival absence and human obsolescence to reveal the construction of an elusive screenwriting modernity that has historically obscured parallel scripting practices and pre-existing scribal traditions. (shrink)