• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is preparing a proposal to create a centralised system of drug registration under Central Drugs Control Standard Organisation (CDSCO) to keep a close watch on drug quality.
• This plan comes in backdrop of string of scandals abroad over toxic Indian drugs like cough syrups causing children’s deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan etc.
• It involves repurposing CDSCO’s online portal Sugam which maintain quality checks on new drugs.

Drug regulation in India

• CDSCO, central drug authority under MoHFW, regulates quality, safety, and efficacy of drugs including vaccines under New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019, and Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• It also regulates market authorization of new drugs and clinical trials standards; supervises drug imports and approves licenses to manufacture.
• CDSCO along with state drug regulators are responsible for grant of licenses for certain specialized categories of critical Drugs such as blood, vaccines, etc.
• CDSCO is headed by Drug controller general of India (DCGI). DCGI acts as an appellate authority if there is any dispute with respect to drugs quality.

• The Uttarakhand government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth Rs. 167 crore for a ropeway to Yamunotri temple from Kharsali.
• It will reduce the travel time of the temple to 15 minutes from four hours that pilgrims trek to the holy shrine.

About Yamunotri temple

• It is lodged in a narrow gorge close to the source of River Yamuna (the second-most sacred Indian river after River Ganga) in Uttarkashi district and is dedicated to Goddess Yamuna.

Project Features

• Length of Ropeway: 3.38-km-long
• Mono cable detachable type.
• Capacity -500 passengers in an hour.
• Based on public private partnership (PPE) model.

Chardham Yatra

• The Char Dham is a set of four pilgrimage sites in India as defined by Adi Shankaracharya.
• The four Dhams are Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram.

Chota Char Dham(Uttarakhand)

• A smaller circuit in Uttarakhand of four pilgrimage sites-Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath is referred to as Chota Char Dham which is locally popular in North India.
• The high-altitude shrines remain shut for around six months every year, opening in summers (April or May) and closing with the onset of winter (October or November).

About Chardham project:

• The project involves developing and widening nearly 900-km of national highways connecting the holy Hindu pilgrimage sites of; Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri.

• This will bring total number of APMC mandis to 1,361 by March end and boost turnover of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform.
  • In the current fiscal, 260 mandis have joined the electronic platform, taking the total to 1,260

About e-NAM

• e-NAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
• Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) is implementing agency for e-NAM.
• Conditions for joining e-Nam requires three amendments in APMC acts of states-

1. Single trading license (Unified) to be valid across state.
2. Single point levy of market fees across state.
3. Provision for e-auction/ e-trading as a mode of price discovery.

• APMC is a statutory market committee constituted by State Government in respect of trade in certain notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products, under APMC Act 2003 issued by that state government.

Significance of integrating APMCs in e-NAM

• Creation of unified agricultural market transcending state boundaries.
• Increase in agricultural trade and market reach. Real time price discovery and stable price realization for producers. Better monitoring and regulation of traders and commission agents.

• Recently India’s Comptroller and Auditor General has been selected as External Auditor of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva for a four-year term from 2024 to 2027.

About CAG

• CAG is an independent authority under the Constitution of India.
• Articles 148 – 151 of the Constitution of India deal with the institution of the CAG of India.
• The CAG enjoys the same status as a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India in order of precedence.
• He is the head of the Indian audit & account department.
• It is the institution through which the accountability of the government and other public authorities to Parliament and State Legislatures is ensured.

About International Labour Organization (ILO)

• The International Labour Organization was established in 1919 under the League of Nations and was integrated into the United Nations as an exclusive agency in 1946.
• The ILO brings together governments, employers, and workers of 187 member States, to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men.
• The main aims of the ILO are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
• India has ratified about six out of the eight core/fundamental ILO conventions. They are:
  • Forced Labour Convention (No. 29)
  • Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No.105)
  • Equal Remuneration Convention (No.100)
  • Discrimination (Employment Occupation) Convention (No.111)
  • Minimum Age Convention (No.138)
  • Worst forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182)
• India still needs to ratify the two main core/fundamental conventions:
  • The protection of the Right and Freedom of Association to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
  • The Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)

• The G20 science and technology department meeting is proposed to be held at Dharamshala in Kangra district on April 19-20 in which about 70 delegates from across the world, including India, will participate.

• The government has appointed Anil Kapil as Adviser (Infrastructure) to Chief Minister on co-terminus basis.
• He will also advise the HP Infrastructure Development Board.
• Kapil has worked with 15 Finance Secretaries in the state in different capacities with the HRTC, the HPRIDC, the HPIDB, etc.
• He managed various infrastructure projects for the state as project and contract management expert.

• Mahendra Kumar Mishra, an Indian educator and social worker for the advancement of indigenous languages in Odisha, received the World Mother Language Award from PM Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Mishra has worked over three decades on the language, culture and education of the marginalised languages of Odisha.

• Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi has been appointed as the new Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). He will hold the position till Feb 28, 2025.
• Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi is a former Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission secretary-cum-scientific director.
• He will supersede Dr. PBN Prasad who is holding the position till 28th February 2023.

• The Seattle City Council passed an ordinance adding caste to the list of protected classes in the city’s municipal code, along with groups like race, religion, and gender identity.
• Seattle created history by becoming the first US city to pass an explicit ban on caste-based discrimination

• On February 21, also known as International Mother Language Day, the Kerala High Court published two of its most recent decisions in Malayalam, making it the first high court in the nation to do so.
• On the court’s website, the Malayalam decisions were posted right underneath the English version.