Current Affair 1:

WHO’s Good manufacturing practice (GMP)

 

News:

Good manufacturing practice (GMP) is that part of a quality management system to ensure that products are consistently produced and controlled to the quality standards appropriate to their intended use and as required by the marketing authorization.

GMP is aimed primarily at diminishing the risks inherent in any pharmaceutical production; which may broadly be categorized into two groups: (1) cross-contamination/mix-ups and (2) false labelling.

The first WHO draft text on GMP was adopted in 1968. In 1969, when the World Health Assembly recommended the first version of the WHO Certification Scheme on the quality of pharmaceutical products moving in the global market, it accepted the WHO GMP as an integral part of the Scheme.

A supplementary annex on biological medicinal products was adopted by the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) in 1991 and establishes the general approach to the quality control of biological medicines that include products such as vaccines, blood and blood products, antigens, cell and tissue therapies, biopharmaceutical products, and others.

More than 100 countries have incorporated the WHO GMP provisions into their national medicines’ laws:

The GMP system was first incorporated in India in 1988 in Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, and the last amendment was done in June 2005. WHO-GMP standards are now part of the revised Schedule M.

The WHO GMP continues to be used as a basis for the WHO Certification Scheme and prequalification of vaccines for procurement by UN agencies.

Current Affair 2:

India Joins Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)

 

News:

Locations:

The United Kingdom, where SKAO Global Headquarters is located.

With respect to India:

How India is contributing?

1. India is positioned to supervise the development of the software required to monitor and control the SKA telescopes.
2. There are also plans to build an SKA Regional Centre – part of a global network – to facilitate the processing, storage and delivery of SKAO data products to the astronomy community.
3. India’s radio astronomy community, led by Prof. Govind Swarup, put forward one of the first concepts for a large radio observatory of the class of the SKAO in the 1990s.
4. Today, a consortium of more than 20 academic and research institutes contributes to India’s participation, led by NCRA and its Director Prof. Yashwant Gupta, who’s been championing India’s efforts in the SKA project for over a decade.
5. Scientists based at Indian institutions are active in 12 of the SKAO’s Science Working Groups, and hold co-chair positions in the Solar, Heliospheric, and Ionospheric Physics, Epoch of Reionisation, and Pulsars groups.
6. National-level SKA workshops have been held almost every year since 2014, and India also hosted 2016’s international SKA Science Meeting.
7. In 2022, the SKAO signed a cooperation arrangement with India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), acting on behalf of the DAE, which enabled the science and technology communities and industry to remain involved while work towards full national membership progressed.

Current Affair 3:

Proba-3 Mission

 

News:

Proba-3, a mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA), has been in the making for at least 14 years. Proba-3 is ESA’s – and the world’s – first precision formation flying mission. A pair of satellites will fly together.

The two satellites will together form a 144-m long solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved.

Besides its scientific interest, the experiment will be a perfect instrument to measure the achievement of the precise positioning of the two spacecraft.

Current Affair 4:

What is the status of ‘Land Record Digitization’ in India?

 

It must be kept in mind that the subject of ‘Land’ and its management falls under the state list provided under Entry 18 and Entry 45 of List II of Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution. The Union government only provides financial assistance to states in digitizing the land records.

In this story, we look at the status of the implementation of DILRMP and some issues surrounding it, using data from the DILRMP dashboard, Land Record and Services Index (LRSI) by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and various parliamentary questions.

Important concepts

Before diving into the analysis of Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), it is essential to understand the basic terminology relating to the land sector.

Land Titles: These are the documents that establish the ownership of the land.

Record of Rights (RoR): It is a document that has information regarding the landowners, land, and other such details.

Cadastral Map: While RoR refers to textual land records, cadastral maps are basically the land records in spatial form. Ownership of land parcels along with demarcation & labelling is shown in these maps.

Financing Land Record digitization in India

Since the inception of this program in 2008, states undertook several initiatives to ensure transparent and tamper-proof land records. As already mentioned, the Union Government provides financial assistance to the states for implementing this program. The actual expenditure has been low compared to the budget estimates since the inception of the scheme.

About Programme:

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