National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)
- The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India.
- It was set up as an attached office of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (now Department of Pharmaceuticals since July, 2008) on 29th August 1997.
- The NPPA regularly publishes lists of medicines and their maximum ceiling prices. It has been entrusted inter-alia, with the following functions :
- To implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 1995/2013 in accordance with the powers delegated to it.
- To undertake and/or sponsor relevant studies in respect of pricing of drugs/formulations.
- To monitor the availability of drugs, identify shortages, if any, and to take remedial steps.
- To collect/maintain data on production, exports and imports, market share of individual companies, profitability of companies etc. for bulk drugs and formulations.
- To deal with all legal matters arising out of the decisions of the Authority.
- To render advice to the Central Government on changes/revisions in the drug policy.
- To render assistance to the Central Government in the parliamentary matters relating to the drug pricing
Exchange Traded Currency Derivatives (ETCD)
- An exchange traded derivative is a standardised financial contract that is traded in stock exchanges in a regulated manner. ETDs are essentially contracts, deriving value from the price fluctuations of their underlying assets.
- There are mainly two types of derivatives: one that is subject to standardized terms and conditions, and thus being traded on stock exchanges, and the other being traded between private counter-parties in the absence of a formal intermediary.
- Exchange Traded Currency Derivatives (ETCD) refer to financial instruments traded on exchanges that derive their value from the underlying exchange rate of currencies. These derivatives are standardized contracts that enable investors to speculate on or hedge against fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
Term Repos
- Term Repos refers to repos that have a fixed maturity longer than one day. If the period is fixed and agreed in advance, it is a term repo, where either party may call for the repo to be terminated at any time, though it may require one or two days’ notice.
- Since October 2013, the Reserve Bank has introduced Term Repo under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) for 14 days and 7 days tenors for banks (scheduled commercial banks other than RRBs) in addition to the existing daily LAF (repo and reverse repo) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF).
- The aim of term repo is to help develop inter-bank money market, which in turn can set market based benchmarks for pricing of loans and deposits, and through that improve transmission of monetary policy.
- Term repo auctions are conducted on e-kuber platform through electronic bidding as is done in the case of auctions under Open Market Operations (OMO) .
- The total amount of liquidity injected through term repos is limited to 0.75% of Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL) of the banking system. Banks would be required to place their bids with the term repo rate that they are willing to pay to RBI for the tenor of the repo expressed in percentage terms up to two decimal places. While the 14 day term repo of tenor would be conducted every reporting Friday, the 7 day term repo would be conducted on every non-reporting Friday.
- In case the notified amount for the 14-day term repo is not fully subscribed, a 7-day term repo would be conducted on the following Friday for the remaining un-subscribed amount. In case of full subscription in the 14-day term repo, there will be no 7 day term repo auction on the following Friday.
UNHRC
- The Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.
- The Human Rights Council was established in 2006 by Resolution 60/251 as a subsidiary body to the UN General Assembly. It replaced the former Commission on Human Rights, which operated from 1946 to 2006.
- Composition- The Council is composed of 47 Member States elected from the UN General Assembly to staggered three-year terms, with a specified number of seats going to each major geographic region.
- Functions– The Council serves as a forum for dialogue among States, with input from other stakeholders. As a result of its discussions, the Council may issue resolutions calling on States to take specific actions or uphold certain principles, or it may create mechanisms to investigate or monitor questions of concern.
- Its mechanisms include the universal periodic review, which serves to assess the situations of human rights in all States Members of the United Nations. The Advisory Committee serves as the Council’s “think tank”, providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues. The complaint procedure allows individuals and organizations to bring human rights violations to the attention of the Council.
- In addition, the Council receives complaints alleging patterns of human rights violations, which are considered by the Working Group on Communications and may be referred to the Working Group on Situations. The Working Group on Situations reports substantiated claims of consistent patterns of gross violations to the Council and makes recommendations for action.
- The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
Unified Payment Interface
- The unified payments interface or the UPI is an interface via which you can transfer money between bank accounts across a single window.
- This means you can send or receive money or scan a quick response (QR) code to pay an individual, a merchant or a service provider to shop, pay bills or authorise payments.
- UPI allows you to make transactions 24/7, throughout the year. Currently, one can transfer upto INR 1 lakh in a single UPI transaction.
- UPI was launched in 2016, is the brainchild of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation that oversees retail payment systems in India. The NPCI is governed by the central banking authority, the Reserve Bank of India, and its primary goal is to drive India towards becoming a digital economy.