 Good evening as friends, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar AS Academy for the date 17th of November 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles that we will be going through today. Before getting into the discussion, I have an important announcement for you. The announcement is regarding Prelims Test Series. The pre-storming batch 3 is about to start. The details regarding the test series are displayed here. I have also attached the link to the registration form in the description. Make use of the test series to boost your Prelims score. With these announcements, let us start today's discussion. Take a look at this editorial article. This article talks about the recent guidelines issued by the National Medical Council. See, there was a long-standing issue regarding the prescription written by the registered medical practitioners, that is the doctors. They usually prescribe a brand name for medicines that has to be bought from the medical shop. But in reality, it is the salesperson who decide which brand of medicine can be given to a patient. To solve this issue, the National Medical Council on August 3rd, 2023 directed all doctors to prescribe only generic names and not brand names. This led to widespread protest by the Indian Medical Association. The doctors claim that the guidelines are limiting their ability to prescribe the medicines they believe is the best for a patient. So, the National Medical Council withdrew the order on generic prescribing on August 23. This is about the article given here. In this context, let us understand the pros and cons of generic medicine. We will also see the steps taken by the government to encourage generic medicine. Now, look at this question. Let me read out the question for you. Recently, the National Medical Council withdrew the order on generic prescribing, which directed all doctors to prescribe only generic names and not brand names. In this context, write about the pros and cons of generic medicines. What are the steps taken by the government to promote generic medicines? See, this question can be asked in GS paper 2 under the syllabus issues relating to development and management of social sector relating to health. Now, let us approach this question. This question is very straightforward. So, in the introduction, you can write about what is generic medicine and few points about the National Medical Council's order. You can write that, according to the World Health Organization, a generic medicine is a pharmacutical product that is produced without a license from the innovator company. It is sold only after the expiration of the patent or other exclusive rights. The National Medical Council's guidelines to prescribe only generic medicine are only a temporary fix. As a long-term solution, the government should ensure the quality of all medicines on the market. Until then, the doctors should have the flexibility to include the company's name in the prescription. You can write these points in the introduction part. Moving on, you can split the main body of the answer into three parts. First, you have to write about the pros of generic medicine. Then, you have to write about the cons associated with generic medicines. And finally, you have to mention the steps taken by the government to promote generic medicines. Let us start with the pros of the generic medicines. Here, firstly, you can write that they are cost-effective. This is mainly because generic medicines do not have the same research and development cost as the companies that initially developed the medication. This cost-effectiveness can make healthcare more accessible and reduce the financial burden on the individuals and the healthcare system. Secondly, generic medicines are equivalent in efficacy. Generic medicines must meet the rigorous regulatory standards to ensure they are bio-equivalent to the brand name medicines. This means they have the same effective and active ingredients, they have the same strength and the same dosage form. So, they produce the same therapeutic effects as the brand name medicines. Patients can expect similar efficacy from the generic medications. Thirdly, the availability of generic alternative introduces competition in the pharmaceutical market. This competition often leads to lower price for both the generic and the brand name drugs as manufacturers strive to offer more cost-effective options. Fourthly, generic medicines contribute to broader access to essential medication mainly in areas or communities where healthcare resources are very limited. The affordability of generic medicine makes it easier for larger population to afford necessary treatments. Finally, the cost savings associated with generic drugs can free up resources for the pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and development of newer medication. This ongoing innovation benefits the overall advancement of the healthcare industry. See, you can write all these points under the pros heading. Now moving on, let us see the cons of the generic medicines. The first con is the concern about the perceived difference between generic and the brand name drugs. This leads to a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the generic medications. This can be a result of variations in appearance, packaging or other non-therapeutic aspects. This is the first issue. Secondly, the allergic reaction to inactive ingredients. See, although generic drugs have the same active ingredients as their brand name counterparts, they may contain different inactive ingredients. This could potentially cause allergic reaction in some individuals. The third issue is with respect to bioequivalence variability. See, while regulatory agencies mandate that generic drugs demonstrate bioequivalence to the original brand name drugs, they may be slight variation in the rate and the extent of the absorption. In some cases, these differences may have clinical significance for certain individuals. Fourthly, presence of quality control issues. While generic drugs are subject to rigorous regulatory standards, the quality control practices of same manufacturers may vary. Instances of substandard or counterfeit generic drugs have been reported, particularly in regions with very less regulatory oversight. Finally, in some cases, patient may not be adequately informed about the benefits and the safety of the generic medications. Lack of education and awareness can contribute to misconception and reluctance to use generic drugs. These are some points you can write under the cutting cons of generic medications. Finally, you have to mention some steps taken by the government to promote generic medicine. Here, you can write about the Pradhan The program aims to provide affordable and high-quality generic medicines to public through dedicated outlets called the Pradhan Mandri Bharatia Jan Aushaandri Kendras. These centers offer quality generic medicines at affordable prices. The prices of medicines sold through these outlets are 50-90% less than the branded medicines price in the open market. Secondly, you can write about the Jan Ausha the Sungam mobile application. This application provides information to the public about the location of the Kendras. It also helps them search the Jan Ausha the Medicines and compare the maximum retail price of generic with the branded medicines. Thirdly, you can mention about the Indian Medical Council Regulation 2002. This regulation prescribes that every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names, legibly and preferably in capital letters. Then, under the free drug initiative of the National Health Mission, support is provided for provision of essential generic drugs free of cost in public health facilities. Lastly, you can mention that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Central Drug Standards Control and Organization have taken steps to ensure the quality of the generic medicines. For example, to make sure medicines work effectively, the drug and cosmetic rules 1945 was changed. So, if someone is applying for a license to make oral drugs, the applicant must include results from a bioequivalent study. The Principal Health Secretary of all state and union territories were also directed to ensure the license for manufacturing drugs are granted or renewed using proper or generic names. You can write all these points under the heading The Steps Taken by the Government to Promote Generic Medicines. This is the body of the answer, finally coming to the conclusion part. In the conclusion part, you can write that while generic medicines present several advantages, it is also essential to acknowledge the potential concerns. In this line, patients should be encouraged to consult their health care providers to address any concern and make informed decision about their medication choices for optimal health outcomes. Likewise, government should also ensure universal access to affordable generic medication without compromising the quality of the medicine. This can be a good conclusion for this answer. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, through a main question, we saw the pros and cons of generic medicine and we also saw the steps taken by the government to promote generic medicine. With this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. It talks about the plan of UGCE to bring a new curriculum for the postgraduate program. This updated curriculum is in line with the new national education policy 2020. This plan will offer flexibility to students who move from one discipline of study to another. This is about the article given here. So, in our discussion today, let us see some points about the UGC. The University Grants Commission was established in 1953. It became a statutory body by the UGC Act of 1956. The UGC will coordinate, determine, and maintain the standards of university education in our country. It has its head office in New Delhi and it has six regional offices in Bengaluru, Bhopal, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. Now, let us see the composition of the UGC. The UGC consists of a chairman, a vice chairman, and 10 other members who are all appointed by the central government. The tenure of the chairman is five years or until he attains the age of 65 years. For both the vice chairman and the members, the tenure is only three years. Moving forward, let us see the powers and functions of UGC. The first and foremost function of the UGC is the promotion and coordination of university education in our country. The UGC will determine and maintain the standards of teaching, examination, and research in universities. The financial function of UGC includes, it will look at the budgetary requirement of universities. Moreover, it can assign and disperse grants to the universities which are founded or incorporated by or under the central act. The most important function of UGC is that it confers recognition to Indian universities. It will advise the central government or state government on the allocation of grants to universities from their consolidated fund. The fund allocation can be either for a general purpose or for a specific purpose. In addition to this, the UGC sets the criteria for exams like ICAR NET, UGC NET, and CSAR UGC NET. Know that it is the duty of the commission to prepare an annual report every year, and this report will be laid down by the central government before both the houses of the parliament. These are the powers and functions of the university grants commission. Before concluding, we should note that in 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has prepared a draft bill to repel UGC. The bill is named as Higher Education Commission of India Ripple of University Grants Commission Act Bill 2018. This bill will set up the Higher Education Commission of India in place of UGC. Till now, this bill has not been passed by the houses of the parliament. So in future, this bill might get passed and the UGC might be replaced by the Higher Education Commission of India. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we cover the basics about University Grants Commission. Now with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. According to the news article, yesterday, the mortal remains of freedom fighter and veteran CPIM leader, N. Sanghraya was cremated with state honors in Chennai. This is about the article given here. So in our discussion today, let us see a few facts about N. Sanghraya. Sanghraya was born in 1922 in a village near Kovilpatti in Tuthukudi district in Tamil Nadu. From the age of 19, he actively participated in various movements, including the freedom struggle. He was a very good orator. He mobilized students against a British rule while studying BA history in 1941. When the police searched the student hostel, they found pamphlets written by Sanghraya and he was arrested. This incident put an end to his studies. He could not complete his degree as he was lodged in prison 15 days before the final examination. His first jail term lasted 18 months. Sanghraya had also actively participated in the Quit India movement during the independent struggle. During his long political career, as a freedom fighter, he spent four years in prison and as a communist, he faced another four year jail term in the independent India. Sanghraya held crucial positions Unified Communist Party before its split in 1964. After 1964, he co-founded the Communist Party of India Marxist. He remained a member of CPIM's State Secretariat and served as Tamil Nadu State Secretary from 1995 to 2002. One of Sanghraya's significant contribution was advocating for exclusive attention to caste issues within the party's class perspective. Recognizing the increasing awareness among Dalits about their rights and identity, he pushed for dedicated efforts against oppression, discrimination and untouchability. His proposal led to the formation of untouchability eradication wings within the CPI's organizational structure. He served as MLA in Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections He also served as the editor of Thikadir, which is the official mouthpiece of Tamil Nadu CPI party. In 2021, the state government conferred on him the Thahaisal Tamil award, that is Distinguished Tamil Award. This award carries a cash price of rupees 10 lakh under citation. He donated the entire prize money to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. He passed away two days back on November 15, 2023, at the age of 102. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw few important points about politician and freedom fighter Mr. Yen Sanghraya. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this text and context article. This text and context article talks about the recently uprooted chicken gunia vaccine. See, we have comprehensively covered about the chicken gunia virus on our November 11th discussion. Kindly see that again to have a better understanding about this discussion. Now let's start. Chicken gunia is one of the neglected tropical disease affecting more than 3 million infections per year. Its prevalence is severe among the developing and the underdeveloped countries resulting in loss of life in these countries. As per the National Center for Vector Disease Control, in India, 93,455 suspected chicken gunia cases were reported in the year 2023 alone. Recently, world's first vaccine for chicken gunia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the US. This vaccine was developed by European vaccine manufacturer Valneva. It will be marketed under the brand name Ichchik. Moreover, it was approved for people of age 18 and over who are in the areas with risk of exposure to chicken gunia. Okay, now let us see some points about the vaccine. See, this vaccine is administered as a single dose by injecting directly into the muscle. The vaccine contains live and weakened version of the chicken gunia virus. Since it contains live weakened version of the chicken gunia virus, it may cause symptoms to the recipients of the vaccine. Although the symptoms might be mild, they are very much similar to those experienced by the real sick people. This is some points about the virus and that's all regarding this discussion. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The news here is that Tata Technologies Ltd has announced plans to open its offer for sale initial public offering. The article here also mentions various economy related terms. So in our analysis, let us see about the various capital market related economic terms from our exam perspective. First, let us take up initial public offering. Initial public offering or IPO is a process by which a privately held company like Zomato or a government owned company like LIC raises fund from the market. It will raise it by offering shares to the public or to new investors. Usually after IPO, the company is listed on the stock exchange. Before giving IPO, the company has to file its offer document with the market regulator which is the security and exchange board of India that is SIDI. Now let us see who can invest in an IPO. The investors are classified into institutional buyers and retail buyers. Here, qualified institutional buyers are category of investors that include foreign portfolio investors, mutual funds, commercial banks, insurance companies, pension companies etc. Then retail investors are individuals who invest up to 2 lakhs in an IPO. Retail investors investing about 2 lakhs are classified as high net worth individuals. This is all about the initial public offering. Next, let us see about offer for sale. And offer for sale is a method where the promoters of the company can sell their shares in a transparent manner through the bidding platform. This mechanism was first introduced by SEBI in 2012. See, offer for sale makes it easier for the promoters of publicly traded companies to cut their holdings. By doing this, they will comply with the minimum public holding norms of the SEBI. Only promoters or shareholders holding more than 10% of the share capital of a company can come up with the offer for sale. The mechanism is available to 200 top companies in terms of market capitalization. Moreover, in an offer for sale, a minimum of 25% of the shares offered are reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies. This is all about offer for sale. Next, let us look at face value of an equity share. In stock market terminology, face value is a financial term used to describe the nominal value or power value of a security. It means the original cost of a stock that is listed in the certificate. The face value is set up in the firm initiate issuing shares and bonds. It is for this face value the company offers dividends. Next, let us take up issue price of the equity share. The issue price of the share is the price at which they are offered for sale when they are first become available for the public. The issue price is nothing but the sum of face value and the premium. Now, let us understand these two terms with an example. See, the face value of the equity shares offered by the TATA technologies is rupees 2 each. But the issue price is in the range of rupees 475 to rupees 500 per share. That is, the premium charged for each share here is in the range of rupees 473 to rupees 498. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the various capital market related terms mentioned in the news article given here. And with this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now, let us take up the practice problems questions. We have three practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. Here, three statements about the chicken gunia is given. We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Let us take up the first statement. Chicken gunia virus is a RNA virus spread through adis egypti mosquito. This statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement. It is one of the neglected topical disease. This statement is also correct. Moving on to the last statement. Recently, world's first vaccine for chicken gunia was approved by the world health organization. This statement is incorrect because as we saw in the discussion, the vaccine was approved by the FDA of the United States. So statement three is incorrect. Since only two statements are correct here, the correct answer here is option B only two. Moving on to the second question. This is also a three statement question. Three statements about the university grants commission is given. We have to find how many of the statements are correct. Look at the first statement. It was established by the UGC act of 1956. This statement is incorrect because the UGC was established in 1953 and accorded statutory status in 1956. So statement one is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement. The chairman and members are appointed by the committee consisting of members of both central and state government. This statement is also incorrect because the chairman and members are appointed by the central government. Statement two is incorrect. Moving on to the third statement. It submits its annual report before both the houses of the parliament. This statement is also incorrect because the university grants commission gives its annual report to the central government and it is the central government that places the report before the houses of the parliament. So all the statements given here are incorrect. So the correct answer is option D. Moving on to the last question. Which of the following is not true about the Quit India movement of 1942. The movement reported instances of violence. This is correct. Actually Quit India movement was a violent movement. Moving on to the second statement. It was led by Mahatma Gandhi. This statement is also correct. Moving on to the third statement. It was a spontaneous movement. Okay. This statement is also correct. More or less because the movement started spontaneously all over India. Moving on to the last statement. It did not attract the labor class in general. This statement is incorrect because the Quit India movement was largely supported by the labor class. Here they are asking which of the statement is not true. So the correct answer here is option D. So that's all regarding this discussion. If you like this video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.