• CAQM held a review meeting to take stock of the status of commissioning of gas infrastructure/ PNG/ CNG connectivity in the NCR.
• Considering the compelling necessity to fight air pollution arising out of industrial activities and vehicles, CAQM has directed expeditious commissioning of gas infrastructure in the entire NCR well before the next winter season.
• According to the CAQM, about 74 per cent of industrial areas of NCR have gas connectivity like PNG which is cleaner and emits less pollutants as compared to the conventional fuel like coal or diesel.
• The panel directed the 11 city gas distributors to ensure that the gas infrastructure covers the entire NCR.
• The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) was established under Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act,2021.

• Prime Minister will inaugurate the first phase of Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple Extension project at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh on October 11.
• Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling in Ujjain is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas located in the country.
• The Mahakal temple complex expansion project was planned in the year 2017.
• The 800 crore Rs works of this expansion project are being conducted in two phases.
• In the first phase, works worth Rs 351 crore have been completed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate these works of the first phase on October 11.
• The second Phase will be completed in 2023-24. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan requested people to witness this moment.
• The corridor built in the Mahakal temple complex has been named Shri Mahakal Lok. In the first phase, Mahakal Plaza, Mahakal Corridor, and Mahakal Theme Park have been developed and constructed.
• A 200-meter-long walkway has been made for walking in the Mahakal corridor.  It has a mural wall 25 feet high and 500 meters long.
• The 108 Shiva pillars with different postures of Shiva are also the center of attraction for the devotees.

• Colonel Prem Chand (Retd) (87), who scaled the country’s highest peak Kangchenjunga in May 1977, has passed away. He had been ill for some time.
• A resident of Lindur village in Lahaul and Spiti district, Colonel Prem devoted his life to adventure. He started climbing mountains from a very young age.
• He was known as the ‘Hero of Kangchenjunga’. Seeing his courage and passion to scale mountains, the Army had decorated him with the name of ‘Snow Tiger’.
• One of the best mountaineers, the Colonel was the founder of the Himalayan Outdoor Adventure Academy. He scaled more than 30 peaks in various places, including Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Garhwal, Kashmir and eastern Karakoram.
• The Mountaineering Federation of India awarded him a Gold Medal for his excellence in mountaineering. He was also selected to lead the Indian Ski team for the 1972 Winter Olympics.

• The Drugs Control Administration (DCA) has directed a pharmaceutical company at Kala Amb in Himachal’s Sirmaur district to stop manufacturing controversial injection Propofol following lab reports that it did not conform to the India Pharmacopoeia (IP) 2018 monograph nor met the quality standards laid down by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
• The IP is an authoritative and legally enforceable book of standard of drugs manufactured and marketed in India.
• In September, five deaths were reported at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, following the administration of Propofol, an anaesthetic given to patients before surgery.
• Subsequently, Kala Amb-based Nixi Laboratories Private Limited that manufactures the injection came under the scanner.
• The CDSCO had taken samples from batch No. PNL-220316 and sent these for analysis to the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh. As per the lab report, the drug failed in pH, Propofol dimer, free fatty acid, bacterial endotoxins and sterility. Put simply, the drug failed the quality standards prescribed by the IP, 2018. Garima Sharma, Assistant Drug Controller-cum licensing authority, Solan, has confirmed this.
• “The directions to stop manufacturing Propofol were issued on September 28 following the receipt of the CDSCO report,” she said.
• Manufacture, sale and distribution of Propofol would invite action under Section 18 (C) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• Navneet Marwaha, State Drugs Controller (SDC), said: “The DCA has ordered the withdrawal of all batches of Propofol. While three samples of the batch (PNL-220316) were drawn from the firm soon after the PGI incident, 18 more samples have been drawn from several batches recalled from the market. This has been done to ascertain the quality of all injections available in the market.”

About:

• Quality Council of India was set up in 1997, jointly by the Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations i.e. Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), with Mr Ratan Tata as its first Chairman.
• QCI was established as a National body for Accreditation. It is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.
• QCI has launched a marquee campaign–Gunvatta Se Atmanirbharta: India’s quality movement. The campaign aims to celebrate India’s quality hubs, create awareness about India’s landmark achievements and inform people about the many initiatives that India is embracing with an aim to enhance the quality of lives of all our citizens.

About:

• India has registered a decline in female infant mortality rate.
• In sixteen states, IMR remained higher for female babies than male but the gap had reduced since 2011. According to Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2020, Chhattisgarh had the highest gap in 2020, with a male infant mortality rate of 35 compared to female infant mortality rate of 41.

Infant Mortality

• Infant mortality is the death of an infant before his or her first birthday.
• The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.
• In addition to giving us key information about maternal and infant health, the infant mortality rate is an important marker of the overall health of a society.

Interventions for improving Infant Mortality Rate (IMR):

• Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA): Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for first six months and appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices are promoted under Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA).
• Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) initiative implemented since 2019 for reduction of Childhood morbidity and mortality due to Pneumonia.
• Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)is implemented to provide vaccination to children against life threatening diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Measles, Rubella, Pneumonia and Meningitis caused by Haemophilus Influenzae B.
• Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK):Children from 0 to 18 years of age are screened for 30 health conditions (i.e. Diseases, Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay) under Rashtriya Bal SwasthyaKaryakaram (RBSK) to improve child survival.

• Saudi Arabia was chosen to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at a $500 billion futuristic megacity in the desert that planners say will feature a year-round winter sports complex.
• “The deserts and mountains of Saudi Arabia will soon be a playground for winter sports,” the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement on the decision made during its general assembly meeting in Phnom Penh.
• The Saudi bid was “unanimously approved”, the statement said, noting that the megacity known as NEOM will be the first West Asian city to host the event.
• First announced in 2017, NEOM has consistently raised eyebrows for proposed flourishes like flying taxis and robot maids, even as architects and economists have questioned its feasibility.
• In July, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans for a project within NEOM known as The Line, two parallel mirror-encased skyscrapers extending over 170 kilometres of mountain and desert terrain.
• The Asian Winter Games are slated to take place in Trojena, an area of NEOM “where winter temperatures drop below zero celsius and year-round temperatures are generally 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the region”, according to the project’s website.
• Set to be completed in 2026, Trojena will include year-round skiing, a manmade freshwater lake, chalets, mansions and ultra-luxury hotels, the website says.
• The Asian Winter Games include competitions for skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey and figure skating — 47 events in all, 28 on snow and 10 on ice, the OCA said.
• Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism for alleged “sportswashing” — hosting high-profile boxing, Formula 1 and other contests to divert attention from its human rights record.
• An Egyptian official said in September that Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia were in talks on a proposal to jointly host the 2030 World Cup football tournament.

• Election Commission of India (ECI)in creating awareness amongst voters, Actor Pankaj Tripathi has been declared as the ‘National Icon’ of ECI.
• The actor was chosen for the honour by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)Rajiv Kumar for keeping in view his commitment to the cause and wide appeal across the country.
• An event on the ‘Voter Awareness Program’, CEC Rajiv Kumar complimented ECI state icon, Pankaj Tripathi, for his association with ECI in creating voting awareness across citizens, and henceforth declared him as the National Icon for ECI.

• Eighty-Two-year-old French writer Annie Ernaux has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for the year 2022. The Swedish Academy has awarded the Nobel to the octogenarian french author for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory. Her literary work maintains close links with sociology.
• Last year the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.
• Annie Ernaux is a pioneer of autofiction, a style of writing that combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. The events in her book, she says, belong to everyone, to history, to sociology. In her works, the past is a raw material of her writings, which is transformed by rooting it in the present.
• Ernaux says “necessity, not pleasure” takes her back to her past, which she dissects like a forensics expert examining a crime scene. Her magnum opus, Les années (The Years) has been written in the vein of a memoir and explodes with perspective and voice. The book has been written using “one” and “we” and occasionally “she” or “they”, but never “I” The Happening, recounting her experience as a university student in France in 1963, is an intense account of an illegal abortion.
• The novel was also adapted into an award winning French drama thriller film in 2021 by the same name. In Simple Passion, Ernaux touches on her sexuality through a fictionalised account of a tumultuous affair with an Eastern European businessman. She attributes her view of her life as a woman to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and acknowledges the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre.

• Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has taken up an urgent investigation after the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert on four India-made cough and cold syrups used for paediatric groups.
• The investigation in the matter has been taken up by CDSCO with the State Regulatory Authorities immediately after receiving communication from WHO. It said, all required steps will be taken in the matter, as a robust National Regulatory Authority.
• WHO has been requested to share at the earliest with CDSCO, the report on establishment of causal relation to death with the medical products in question, photographs of Products.

 About Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)

• The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)under Directorate General of Health Services,Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,Government of India is the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India.
• Its headquarter is located in New Delhi.
• It has six zonal offices,four sub zonal offices,thirteen Port offices and seven laboratories spread across the country.
• The Drugs & Cosmetics Act,1940 and rules 1945 have entrusted various responsibilities to central & state regulators for regulation of drugs & cosmetics.
• It envisages uniform implementation of the provisions of the Act & Rules made there under for ensuring the safety, rights and wellbeing of the patients by regulating the drugs and cosmetics.
• CDSCO is constantly thriving upon to bring out transparency, accountability and uniformity in its services in order to ensure safety, efficacy and quality of the medical product manufactured, imported and distributed in the country.
• Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, CDSCO is responsible for approval of Drugs, Conduct of Clinical Trials, laying down the standards for Drugs, control over the quality of imported Drugs in the country and coordination of the activities of State Drug Control Organizations by providing expert advice with a view of bring about the uniformity in the enforcement of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
• Further CDSCO along with state regulators, is jointly responsible for grant of licenses of certain specialized categories of critical Drugs such as blood and blood products, I. V. Fluids, Vaccine and Sera.