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India’s proposed changes to anti-smoking law face objections from tobacco industry

India released draft changes to its tobacco-control law over the weekend to ban smoking zones in hotels, restaurants and airports. The proposal also calls for increasing the minimum legal smoking age from 18 to 21.
The draft changes have also tightened existing provisions to ban advertising at kiosks and prohibit sale of loose cigarette sticks, which form the bulk of the sales, health activists said.
If implemented, the plan is seen hitting sales of companies such as ITC, Godfrey Phillips India and a unit of Philip Morris International which operate in the country’s $12 billion cigarette market, executives said.

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Post Office Savings Bank likely to be interconnected with other banks by April

“Besides making services digitally accessible to people, we are focussing on doorstep delivery of services. This year we remitted Rs 900 crore money through around 85 lakh transactions and verified 3 lakh pensioners on their doorstep,” Department of Posts Secretary Pradipta Kumar Bisoi said.

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Brexit ends Britons’ right to live and work in EU

Under the divorce deal agreed by the two sides on Dec. 24, the roughly 1 million British citizens who are legal residents in the EU will have broadly the same rights as they have now. The same applies to more than 3 million EU citizens living in the U.K.

But British citizens will no longer have the automatic right to live and work in the EU, and vice versa. People who want to cross the border to settle will have to follow immigration rules and face other red tape such as ensuring their qualifications are recognized.

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Health ministry releases communication strategy to support Covid-19 vaccine rollout

“The communication strategy that supports the Covid-19 vaccines rollout in India seeks to disseminate timely, accurate and transparent information about the vaccine(s) to alleviate apprehensions about the vaccine, ensure its acceptance and encourage uptake,” it said.

According to the document, the strategy aims at managing and mitigating any potential disappointment expressed by unmet demand for the vaccine or ‘eagerness’ amongst people and addressing vaccine ‘hesitancy’ that could arise because of apprehensions around vaccine safety, efficacy apart from any other myths and misconceptions.

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Our mantra for 2021 is ‘dawai bhi aur kadaai bhi’: PM Modi

“We started working holistically in the health sector. While we stressed on preventive care, on one hand, we also gave priority to modern treatment facilities,” he added. In the last six years, 31,000 new seats have been added in MBBS and 24,000 new seats have been added in post-graduate courses. India is moving towards wholesome changes in the health sector, the Prime Minister stated.

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