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FSSAI mulling using next-gen technology tools to ensure food safety, quality

”FSSAI is exploring the possibilities of using technological tools like blockchain, machine learning, etc in obtaining traceability information,” Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Arun Singhal said.

Next generation tools like genome sequencing and innovations in chemical and molecular analysis can be very useful in the area of food authenticity and integrity, he pointed out. Also, Internet of Things (IoT) has taken a big leap forward and can be used for mounting production and processing operations, he added.

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NPPA has fixed ceiling prices of 355 medicines, 882 formulations: Mandaviya

”Most of the drugs that are part of COVID-19 management protocol have ceiling prices, viz., paracetamol, dexamethasone, methylprednisolone, IVIGs, enoxaparin, budesonide, heparin and amphotericin, etc,” Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya said in a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha.
In the case of few non-scheduled medicines like remdesivir, which are part of COVID-19 protocol and are non-scheduled, on government intervention, MRPs of various brands of remdesivir have been reduced voluntarily by the major manufacturers/marketers of the remdesivir injection (lyophilized), he added.
Inter-brand maximum retail prices (MRPs) that varied up to Rs 5,400 per vial were brought down to less than Rs 3,500, the minister said.

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Law without order: investors grapple with China’s regulatory risk

The Chinese Communist Party’s uneasy relationship with private business has always weighed on the minds of Western investors who seek legal and regulatory certainty to place their bets.

Yet Beijing’s recent moves are unsettling even seasoned investors who are otherwise used to navigating corporate China’s murky auditing and poor governance in order to chase growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

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Is Delta defeating us? Here’s why the variant makes contact tracing so much harder

Delta makes the job so much harder In the absence of enough vaccines for everyone, control of the epidemic requires: 1) identifying all new cases by testing and isolating them to prevent further transmission 2) tracing all contacts and quarantining them for the incubation period, so they don’t cause further transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious in asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people, so without contact tracing these people would carry on, unaware they are infected, and may infect many others.

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Companies struggling to manage reporting on climate risks, says report

”Companies based in India presented 28 per cent on quality disclosure and 49 per cent coverage. Only 3 per cent of global companies reviewed meet the highest levels of quality and the average quality score is 42 per cent,” EY said in a release on Sunday.

Among others, the number of Indian companies responding to disclosure platforms such as carbon disclosure project is on the rise. In the coming year, greater Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures reporting is expected, driven by pressure from financiers, investors and customers, it added.

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