Here are 2 Back2Basics collections from today’s news items
B2B #1: From news- DoT releases draft National Telecom Policy
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority
- NPPA is a regulatory agency under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers of India which was established to fix/ revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country, under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995
- It renders advice to the Central Government on changes/ revisions in the drug pricing policy
- It regularly publishes lists of medicines and their maximum ceiling prices
- It is also entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the
controlled drugs from the consumers - It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels.
B2B #2: From news- India rejects U.S. request on medical device price caps
Universal Service Obligation Fund
- USOF was formed by the Central Government in 1999 to help fund projects to provide widespread and non-discriminatory access to quality ICT services at affordable prices to people in rural and remote areas
- The money for this fund comes through a Universal Access Levy (UAL) charged from the telecom
operators as a percentage of various licenses fees being paid by them - The amount from UAL is deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India and require prior parliamentary approval to be dispatched
- It is headed by the USOF Administrator who reports to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT)
As a part of revision for Prelims 2018, Here’s a Factoid to brush up your concepts
Name : Barak
Defence Forces : Army
Module Type : Missiles
Brief Intro : 1.Barak 8 (the Hebrew word for Lightning) also known as LR-SAM or as MR-SAM is an Indian-Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM), designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as cruise missiles and combat jets. Both maritime and land-based versions of the system exist. 2.Barak 8 was jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Israel’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, Elta Systems, Rafael and other companies. Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) produce the missiles.
Note4students (wherever applicable) : Also used by navy
