Current Affairs 10th April 2018

Current Affairs 10th April 2018 - Important Points

• Over-the- counter sale of 14 steroid creams  banned by - Health Ministry 
• Free chemotherapy units for cancer patients to be started by - Maharashtra
• Goa government to launch app-based taxi service on - 9th April 2018
• Name of two endangered languages discovered - Walmiki and Malhar
• Digitally signed QR code with photo on e-Aadhaar launched by - UIDAI
• Heena Sindhu clinches gold in women’s 25m pistol in - CWG 2018
• India, Bangladesh sign six MoUs including 129.5 km oil pipeline deal on - 9th April 2018

Current Affairs 10th April 2018 - Details

Over-the- counter sale of 14 steroid creams  banned by - Health Ministry 

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has barred on-counter sale of fourteen steroid creams to avoid indiscriminate sale of ointments creams having steroids and antibiotics without Rx. These fourteen preparations were consisted under Schedule-H of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 to impose the restriction.
Key Points

• The conclusion was taken after consultation with Drugs Technical Advisory Board, which had suggested restriction on sale of such creams without Rx. It also had presented their recomendations to Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation.
• The initiative comes after skin-specialist complained that pharmaceutical firms were marketing steroid-based ointments to patients, who utilise them without medical supervision.
• Some restricted creamss are beclomethasone, desonide, alclometasone and fluocinonide among others.
  Drugs Technical Advisory Board
• Drugs Technical Advisory Board is peak statutory decision-making body on technical issues related to medicines in the nations. It is established according to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• It is section of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
  Schedule H Drugs
• Schedule-H is a class of Rx medicines enlisted under Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 which rules
  production and sale of all medicines in India.
• These are medicines that cannot be bought over the counter without Rx of competent doctor.  It is reviewed timely on advice of Drugs Technical Advisory Board.

Free chemotherapy units for cancer patients to be started by - Maharashtra

The Maharashtra state government has declared that cancer patients would be issued with free chemotherapy medication at district hospitals. The 1st phase of the planning would initiate in June 2018. The planning will initiate with hospitals in Nagpur, Akola, Jalgaon, Gadchiroli, Pune, Satara, Bhandara, Nashik, Wardha and Amravati districts.
Key Highlights

• The move focuses to comfort the travelling and lodging issues of cancer patients who come to Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel, for 6-week chemotherapy medication as a part of their treatment. 
• Under the fresh plan, a doctor and nurse from each of the nominated district hospitals would be provided with training for 3 weeks initiating from May by the Oncology department, Tata Memorial Hospital.
• The move is supposed to ease the patients save their lodging and travel expenditures. 
• The list of drugs needed to initiate chemotherapy at the nominated hospitals has already been attained from the Tata Memorial.

Goa government to launch app-based taxi service on - 9th April 2018

The Goa state government has finalised to initiate its own app related taxi service to some key tourist spots of the state. 
The state operated Goa Tourism Development Corporation on April 9th , 2018 invited taxi-operators to register with the fresh mobile app transport service.
Key Highlights

• The taxi contractors holding the license to operate cabs in Goa would be entitled to register for the new transport service.
• The fresh service would function from locations including Goa Tourism Development Corporation positions and hotels in the state, the Mormugao Port Trust jetty, the airport and the St Monica Jetty in Panaji, besides other destinations.
• The taxi contractors would be needed to trail the online queuing system, which would confirm or assigned a ride to them.
• The service will be functioned on the lines of specialized taxi services consisting Uber that have a good presence in other parts of the nation.
• With the introduction of the new app-based taxi service, Goa Tourism Development Corporation faiths to solve the state’s tourist taxi problematic issue that has been troubling its tourism area for several years.

Name of two endangered languages discovered - Walmiki and Malhar

Two languages named Walmiki and Malhar were discovered by linguist Prof Panchanan Mohanty from the University of Hyderabad. These languages were hidden till now. Prof Panchanan Mohanty published a paper in Annual Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (UK) after collecting sufficient data of these languages.

Both these languages are categorised as endangered as these are spoken by very less number of people. Important to mention here that Prof Panchanan Mohanty is President of Linguistic Society of India.

Digitally signed QR code with photo on e-Aadhaar launched by - UIDAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India has come up with a secured digitally-signed QR-Code on e-
Aadhaar. It will have photograph of Aadhaar card bearer in addition to demographic details. The small
QR-code will be on front side of cutaway portion of e- Aadhaar, with demographic information. It will also have Unique Identification Authority of India digital signature to make this data much secured and
tamper-secure.
Key Points

• QR-code is kind of barcode label which consists of machine-legible data while e-Aadhaar is electronic variant of Aadhaar card that can be downloaded from official Unique Identification Authority of India website.
• The digitally signed QR-code will have a photograph of Aadhaar card bearer extra to present facility of demographic particulars.
• It will permit various subscriber-based firms including banks to authenticate the validity of Aadhaar card offline.
  Unique Identification Authority of India
• Unique Identification Authority of India is nodal constitutional association behind the Aadhaar card
  which is a 12-digit unique number.
• It was approved statutory status by Aadhaar Act, 2016. Aadhaar is 10-digit number, which is connected with a person’s demographic and biometric data, which obliges as a verification tool throughout India.
• Using Aadhaar card, Union and State Governments are making efforts to connect many of their chief progress and subsidy plans to decrease leakages and duplication.

Heena Sindhu clinches gold in women’s 25m pistol in - CWG 2018

The Day 6th of Commonwealth Games 2018 begun with a high for India with Indian top shooter Heena Sidhu won the gold medal in women’s 25 meters pistol game event. Heena Sidhu is also finished to the final of women’s 25 meters Air Pistol along with another Indian shooter Annu Singh. Indian boxers Amit Phangal and Naman Tanwar have also guaranteed of a medal by succeeding for the semi-final game of 46-49 kilograms and 91 kilograms categories respectively. In Hockey, India beat Malaysia 2-1 to qualify for the semi-final of the game.
In another surprising game for India, Indian sprinter Mohammad Anas qualified for the men’s 400m finals game. With this, the athlete became the only 2nd Indian after legendary Milkha Singh to qualify for the championships of any track occasion in the Commonwealth Games.
Key Highlights

• Indian shooter Heena Sidhu won the gold medal in the women's 25 meters pistol game at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Australia on April 10 th , 2018.
• Heena Sidhu formed a fresh Commonwealth Game record of 38 points to collect the gold, while her challenger Elena Galiabovitch of Australia recorded 35 for silver and Malaysia's Alia Sazana Azahari got bronze with 26.

India, Bangladesh sign six MoUs including 129.5 km oil pipeline deal on - 9th April 2018

India and Bangladesh inked an accordance to form a 129.5 kilometres oil pipeline objected at pumping oil from India to Bangladesh with a capacity of One million metric tons per year, on April 9 th , 2018.
MoU for India-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline between Siliguri & Parbatipur

• This 129.5 kilometres long oil pipeline will be constructed from the Siliguri Marketing Terminal of the Numaligarah Refinery Ltd in India to the Parbaripur depot of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
• The agreement concentrates on excavating bilateral collaboration in the hydrocarbon sector.
  6 MoUs between India and Bangladesh
• This oil pipeline contract is a part of the 6 MoUs which were inked between India and Bangladesh during a two-sided meeting between the foreign secretaries of both the nations at Dhaka.
• One of the Contracts was on collaboration between India's Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Betar, following with another for the equipment of an Indian Council for Cultural Relations Urdu Chair in Dhaka University.
• Both the nations also inked an contract to form language laboratories in 500 schools in Bangladesh and improve different roads in Rangpur, Bangladesh.
  GCNEP-BAEC Interagency Agreement
• An addition was inked relating to Inter-Agency accordance between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership of India's atomic energy department and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
• All these Contracts form India’s efforts to accept projects in Bangladesh in different sectors consisting education, traditions, health and roads.