Railways planning major restructuring

• Established in 2016, the SRESTHA directorate, part of the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), was tasked with the role of taking up long-term railway research projects requiring technological advancement.
• As part of the restructuring plan, the Railways also decided to merge 32 directorates of the RDSO and brought them under seven verticals — administration, infrastructure, rolling stock, traction and power supply, signal and telecommunication, resource and testing and traffic and psychology.
• Another notification is that the Geotech Engineering Directorate will be merged with the Track and Bridges & Structures Directorate.
• The Railways also proposed to create new posts in the rank of Executive Director, Design, to be posted at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala and Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli, under the Railway Board’s Rolling Stock Directorate.
• The restructuring plan of the Indian Railways is in line with the recommendations for rationalisation of government bodies made by Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal.

Narendra Modi embarks on first foreign visit of 2022

• Germany India and Germany have a ‘Strategic Partnership’ since May 2000, and it has been strengthened with the launch of the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) in 2011 at the level of heads of government.
• Denmark Bilateral relations were elevated to the level of a “Green Strategic Partnership” during the Virtual Summit held in September 2020 between Modi and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen.
• France The visit to France has been planned after President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected in a tough election. India and France entered into a Strategic Partnership, with defence & security cooperation, space cooperation and civil nuclear cooperation being its pillars.

India-Nordic summit

• The first India-Nordic Summit took place in April 2018 to explore new areas of cooperation.
• This format is special; the only other country with which the Nordic countries — Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland — have this kind of engagement is with the US.

Police bust fake body supplements racket

• Anabolic steroids are essentially lab-made versions of the male hormone testosterone and have a similar effect of increasing muscle mass as the natural hormone does.
• It also increases male characteristics in a person, such as facial hair and a deeper voice.
• The anabolic steroids have a very limited medical role and are mainly used by doctors to help patients gain weight after a severe illness or injury. It could also be prescribed in small doses to the elderly to build muscle mass and in some cases also helps to treat anaemia.
• More than being a drug prescribed by doctors, anabolic steroids are usually used by bodybuilders. The anabolic steroids are misused mainly by those who want to bulk up as it helps increase one’s muscle mass.
• Use of anabolic steroids in the short-term can cause acne and hairfall. Extended misuse of the substance can also lead to gynaecomastia (growth of breasts in men) and erectile dysfunction.
• In women, it can lead to growth of facial hair. It may also cause extreme anger, paranoia, and impaired judgement.

A portable device that turns seawater into drinking water, without using filters

• The unit relies on a technique called ion concentration polarisation.
• Rather than filtering water, the process applies an electrical field that causes positively or negatively charged particles — including salt molecules, bacteria, viruses — to be repelled as they flow past.
• The charged particles are funnelled into a second stream of water that is eventually discharged. The process removes solids, allowing clean water to pass through the channel.
• The suitcase-sized device requires less power to operate than a cell phone charger. It can also be driven by a small, portable solar panel, which can be purchased online for around $50.
• The device automatically generates drinking water that exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) quality standards. The device runs with the push of one button.
• Eliminating the need for replacement filters greatly reduces the long-term maintenance requirements.
• This could enable the unit to be deployed in remote and severely resource-limited areas. It could also be used to aid refugees fleeing natural disasters or by soldiers carrying out long-term military operations.

Charak Shapath instead of Hippocratic Oath Row

• The controversy began after the National Medical Commission (NMC), the regulator for medical education and practices (which replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020) suggested to medical colleges on February 7 that the Hippocratic Oath should be replaced by a “Charak Shapath”.
• On March 31, the NMC issued a circular on “Implementation of new Competency Based Medical Education for Undergraduate Course Curriculum”, in which it said: “Modified ‘Maharshi Charak Shapath’ is recommended when a candidate is introduced to medical education”.

Hippocratic Oath

• The Hippocratic Oath is attributed to Hippocrates of the island of Kos, a Greek physician of the classical period (4th-5th centuries BC), broadly corresponding to the period from the death of the Buddha (486 BC) to the rise of the Mauryas (321 BC) in India.
• The Oath is a charter of ethical principles that physicians over the ages have sworn to uphold in the practice of their profession.

Charak Samhita

• The Charak Samhita is a medical pharmacopoeia and collection of commentaries and discussions on medical practices that is historically dated to the 1st-2nd centuries AD.
• Along with the compendium of Susruta (c. 4th century AD), which is about surgery, the Charak Samhita is considered the foundational text of ancient Indian medicine, which was an evolved system of understanding and treating disease that was in several ways ahead of the Greeks.

NCTE Invites Applications For 4-Year Integrated Teacher Education Programme

• ITEP, as notified on 22nd October 2021, is a dual-major holistic bachelor’s degree offering B.A. B.Ed./ B. Sc. B. Ed. and B.Com. B.Ed.
• It is one of the major mandates of the National Education Policy 2020 related to Teacher Education. It will be offered in pilot mode initially in multidisciplinary Central/State Government Universities/Institutions across the country.
• Admission for the same will be carried out by the National Testing Agency (NTA) through the National Common Entrance Test (NCET).
• NCTE under Ministry of Education has devised the curriculum for this course as per NEP 2020 in such a way that it enables a student-teacher to get a degree in education as well as a specialized discipline such as history, mathematics, science, arts, economics, or commerce.
• The 4 Year ITEP will be available for all students who choose teaching as a profession after secondary, by choice.
• This integrated course will benefit students since they will save one year by finishing it in four years rather than the customary five years required by the present B.Ed. plan.

India''s pharma exports rise to Rs 1.83 lakh crore

• The exports achieved in 2021-22 is the Pharma Sector’ best export performance ever.
• It is a remarkable growth with exports growing by almost USD 10 billion in 8 years.
• The pharma exports in 2021-22 sustained a positive growth despite the global trade disruptions and drop in demand for COVID related medicines. The trade balance continues to be in India’s favour, with a surplus of USD 15175.81 Million.
• 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines and 20% of generic medicines coming from India.
• India ranks 3rd worldwide for production by volume and 14th by value.
• Behind India’s pharma success story is our world class manufacturing excellence, robust infrastructure, cost-competitiveness, trained human capital and innovation.
• The current market size of the Indian pharmaceutical industry is around USD 50 billion.
• The share of pharmaceutical and drugs in our global exports is 5.92%. Formulations and biologicals continue to account for a major share of 73.31% in our total exports, followed by Bulk drugs and drug intermediates with exports of USD 4437.64 million.
• India’s top 5 pharma export destinations are USA, UK, South Africa, Russia and Nigeria.

India-Uae Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Comes Into Force

• Overall, India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 % of its tariff lines which account for 99% of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms particularly from labour-intensive sectors such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear etc.
• As regards trade in services, Indian service providers will have enhanced access to around 111 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors.
• CEPA is expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over US$100 billion and trade in services to over US$ 15 billion within five years.