Tuesday 21 June 2016

International Yoga Day Celebrated Worldwide on June 21

June 21, 2016 marks the second International Yoga Day, two years after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully convinced the UN to declare an international day for Yoga. The declaration was made on December 10, 2014, and India celebrated the inaugural Yoga day with full fervor on June 21, 2015, as covered in Vol. VII, Issue No. 25 of our e-newsletter “IP ©onnect”, dated June 22, 2015,  available here.

The celebrations did not simmer down for the second edition of the Yoga day, as over 30,000 people performed yoga, led by PM Modi during the event held at the Capitol Complex in the city of Chandigarh, Punjab. President Pranab Mukherjee also led about 1,000 people at a Yoga event held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The logo of International Day of Yoga is the folding of both hands. It symbolizes ‘Yoga’ that is the union, which reflects the union of individual consciousness with that of universal consciousness, a perfect harmony between mind and body, man and nature – a holistic approach to health and well-being.


Photo Courtesy: The Hindu, an Indian daily

During his speech in the U.S. Congress on June 8, 2016, Prime Minister Modi jocularly remarked that “it is estimated that more Americans bend for Yoga than to throw a curve ball. And no, Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga.” This comment raises interesting questions about the protectability of Yoga as an intellectual property. Our research team analyzed this aspect last year, which can be found at the aforementioned link.

Mr. Vikrant Rana, Managing Partner of S.S. Rana & Co., participated in the Croatian celebration of International Yoga Day in Hrvatska on June 19, 2016 organized by the Embassy of India, Zagreb.


Second International Yoga Day in numbers:
  • 135 plus nations participating.
  • Estimated 40-50 crore yoga day participants from across the world.
  • Over one lakh yoga programmes across India.
  • 35,000 people, led by the PM, participated in the event in Chandigarh, Punjab.
  • 57 ministers led yoga programmes in various parts of India.
  • 10,000 participants simultaneously performed yoga at various locations in Delhi.
  • $80 billion: the estimated evaluation of the yoga industry worldwide. 

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