Industry welcomes proposed UCMDMP for medical device

• It also aims at giving the industry an identity, apart from influencing the marketing dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry.
• Medical devices are characteristically different from pharmaceuticals and therefore a separate code for medical devices was much needed to accurately capture the ethical marketing practice requirements for the medical device sector.
• The implementation of the UCMDMP will be a big step towards furthering patient interest and “will restrain the unethical element and restore competitiveness and esteem for the compliant players.”

Militant groups in Kashmir now have Iridium satellite phones, Wi-Fi-enabled thermal imagery tools

• Bodies such as the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and the Defence Intelligence Agencies (DIA) have been tasked with finding and giving out real-time information about the presence of these satellite phones in the Kashmir Valley.
• In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) first restricted the use of Iridium and Thuraya satellite phones and infrastructure, and in 2012 completely banned them the under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act.
• Iridium Communications Inc. is a publicly traded American company headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
• Iridium operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 66 active satellites used for worldwide voice and data communication from hand-held satellite phones and other transceiver units.

Twitter board adopts ‘poison pill’ after Musk’s $43 billion bid to buy company

• This defense mechanism was developed in the 1980s as company leaders, facing corporate raiders and hostile acquisitions, tried to defend their businesses from being acquired by another enterprise, person or group.
• A poison pill is a maneuver that typically makes a company less palatable to a potential acquirer by making it more expensive for the acquirer to buy shares of the target company above a certain threshold.
• The strategy also gives a company more time to evaluate an offer and can give the board leverage in trying to force a direct negotiation with the potential acquirer.
• A poison pill is officially known as a shareholder rights plan, and it can appear in a company’s charter or bylaws or exist as a contract among shareholders.
• There are different types of poison pills, but usually, they allow certain shareholders to buy additional stock at a discounted price.

Telangana’s paddy protest and the controversy over parboiled rice

• parboiled rice refers to rice that has been partially boiled at the paddy stage, before milling.
• Parboiling of rice is not a new practice, and has been followed in India since ancient times.
• there are several processes for parboiling rice. The Paddy Processing Research Centre (PPRC), Thanjavur follows a method known as the chromate soaking process.
• All processes generally involve three stages—soaking, steaming and drying. After passing through these stages, the paddy goes for milling.
• Parboiling makes rice tougher. This reduces the chances of the rice kernel breaking during milling.
• Parboiling also increases the nutrient value of the rice.
• Third, parboiled rice has a higher resistance to insects and fungi.
• The rice becomes darker and may smell unpleasant due to prolonged soaking.
• Besides, setting up a parboiling rice milling unit requires a higher investment than a raw rice milling unit.

Vagsheer, the last of six submarines under Project 75, launched

• The Scorpene class submarine is a diesel-electric attack submarine built by Mumbai’s Mazgaon Dock ship builders with French collaboration.
• The state-of-the-art technology used in Scorpene-class has superior stealth features such as advanced acoustic silencing techniques, low radiated noise levels and ability to launch crippling attacks with precision-guided weapons on board.
• This submarine can attack through launching the torpedoes and anti-ship missiles while underwater or on the surface. This will enhance Indian Navy’s capacity to address the threats both above and under water.
• Four submarines of scorpene class- INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj and INS Vela have already been commissioned while the fifth submarine Vagir is still undergoing sea trials.
• The first two submarines - INS Kalvari and INS Khanderi - were commissioned on September 21, 2017 and September 19, 2019.
• INS Karanj and INS Vela were commissioned in one calendar year in 2021 in the month of February and November respectively.

National Data and Analytics Platform launched by NITI Aayog

• Conceived in 2020, the platform aims to standardise data across government sources and provide flexible analytics that make it easy for users to analyse information using multiple datasets.
• The portal will help policymakers, academics and researchers to easily analyse data without having to process it. The portal will have 200 datasets from more than 46 ministries at the time of the launch.
• New datasets will be added up to the village level in the future.
• Presently, many government departments have public dashboards with options to download data, some are available as image files while others are in PDF format, making it difficult to compile information. Experts say this will be addressed in NDAP.

Extreme poverty in India declined by 12 percentage points between 2011-2019: World Bank

• The poverty headcount rate has declined from 22.5 percent in 2011 to 10.2 percent in 2019.
• Poverty reduction was higher in rural areas as compared to urban India.
• Rural poverty dropped by 14.7 percent while urban poverty declined by 7.9 percentage points during 2011 to 2019.
• Farmers with small landholding sizes have experienced higher income growth.
• Real incomes for farmers with the smallest landholdings have grown by 10 percent in annualized terms between the two survey rounds in 2013 and 2019 compared to a 2 percent growth for farmers with the largest landholding.

Railways to run Vande Bharat Express trains between Khajuraho and Delhi

• He said that two rake points have been approved at Chhatarpur and Khajuraho. He also informed about the redevelopment of Khajuraho station to make it a world class station.
• The Khajuraho Group of Monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The temples are famous for their nagara-style architectural symbolism and their erotic sculptures.
• Most Khajuraho temples were built between 885 AD and 1050 AD by the Chandela dynasty
• Of the surviving temples, the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple is decorated with a profusion of sculptures with intricate details.