Policy Roundup: Export Bans to Essential Medicines

Last Updated on Sep 21, 2022 by Aradhana Gotur

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Campaign to eradicate Tuberculosis (TB)

India has a little less than 20% of the world’s population but has more than 25% of the world’s TB patients. Keeping this in mind, President Droupadi Murmu launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan
The Centre has set the target of eradicating TB by the year 2025. The scheme envisages creating awareness about the disease, its treatment, and the free-of-cost facility provided by the government

Broken rice export banned to ensure local availability

To ensure the availability of broken rice for animal feedstock and ethanol blending, the Department of Food & Public Distribution amended the export policy of broken rice.
India produces about 50-60 LMT of broken rice annually, which is mainly used as feed for domesticated animals.
It is also used as a feedstock by distilleries for producing ethanol, which is supplied to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for blending with petrol.
There has been a rise in global demand for broken rice due to the geopolitical scenario, which has impacted the price movement of commodities related to animal feed.

Centre to appoint consultants for consumer cases

The Department of Consumer Affairs is inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) for the appointment of a Project Development Consultant for the development of a technology for accurate speech recognition and machine learning.
The proposed project aims to achieve efficient disposal of matters and reduce the backlog of pending cases.

Fund disbursed under PLI Scheme

The Empowered Committee (EC) approved the first disbursement of Rs. 53.28 cr. under PLI Scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing to Padget Electronics – a 100% subsidiary of Dixon Technologies.
The Centre is working with other eligible applicants of the scheme for filing their disbursement claims for the year 2021-22.
PLI scheme for large-scale electronics has emerged as the most successful so far. As of June 2022, the scheme has led to more than Rs. 1,67,770 cr. of production, including Rs. 65,240 cr. in exports.

Finance Minister discusses illegal loan apps with RBI

Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a meeting to discuss the various issues related to Illegal loan apps outside the regular banking channels. She expressed concern over increasing instances of illegal loan apps offering loans/micro credits, especially to vulnerable and low-income groups.
The RBI will prepare a “whitelist” of legal apps and MeitY will ensure that only these are hosted on app stores.
The RBI will also monitor the ‘mule/rented’ accounts that may be used for money laundering and review/cancel dormant NBFCs to avoid their misuse.

National lists of essential medicines launched

Under the Sabko Dawai, Sasti Dawai the modified National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) was released to ensure accessibility of affordable quality medicines at all levels of healthcare.
This will give a boost to cost-effective, quality medicines and contribute towards the reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare for the citizens.
There are 384 drugs in total on the list. 34 drugs were added, while 26 from the previous list have been dropped. A total of 27 therapeutic categories are catered to under this initiative.

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