IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Union Health Minister approves National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021.

Source: PIB India

News

• Harsh Vardhan, Union Health & Family Welfare Minister approved the “National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021”.

Aim: The Rare Diseases Policy aims to lower the high cost of treatment for rare diseases with increased focus on indigenous research with the help of a National Consortium to be set up with Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as convenor.

• Increased focus of research and development and local production of medicines will lower the cost of treatment for rare diseases. The policy also envisage creation of a national hospital based registry of rare diseases so that adequate data is available for definition of rare diseases and for research and development related to rare diseases within the country.

National Policy for Rare Diseases

• The field of rare diseases is very complex and heterogeneous and prevention, treatment and management of rare diseases has multiple challenges.
• Early diagnosis of rare diseases is a major challenge owing to a variety of factors that include lack of awareness among primary care physicians, lack of adequate screening and diagnostic facilities etc.
• There are also fundamental challenges in the research and development for the majority of rare diseases as relatively little is known about the pathophysiology or the natural history of these diseases particularly in the Indian context.
• Rare diseases are also difficult to research upon as the patients pool is very small and it often results in inadequate clinical experience. Availability and accessibility to medicines are also important to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with rare disease.
• Despite progress in recent years, there is a need to augment effective and safe treatment for rare diseases. The cost of treatment of rare diseases  is prohibitively expensive.  Various High Courts and the Supreme Court have also expressed concern about lack of a national policy for rare diseases.
• To address all these challenges, a very comprehensive National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 has been finalized by the Ministry of H&FW after multiple consultations with different stakeholders and experts in the area.
• The Policy also focuses on early screening and prevention through primary and secondary health care infrastructure such as Health and Wellness Centres and District Early Intervention Centres (DEICs) and through counselling for the high-risk parents.
• A provision for financial support up to Rs. 20 lakhs under the Umbrella Scheme of Rastriya Arogya Nidhi is proposed for treatment, of those rare diseases that require a one-time treatment (diseases listed under Group 1 in the rare disease policy).
• Beneficiaries for such financial assistance would not be limited to BPL families, but the benefit will be extended to about 40% of the population, who are eligible under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

India calls for early disengagement in remaining areas of eastern Ladakh

Source: Indian Express

News

• India said that it hoped that China will work with it to ensure that disengagement in the remaining areas of eastern Ladakh is completed at the earliest.

Disengagement

• There is a consensus that the two sides should now quickly resolve the remaining issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh and that the disengagement in Pangong Lake area was a significant step forward and it has provided a good basis for resolution of other remaining issues along the LAC in western sector.
• At both the Senior Commanders meeting and the WMCC, the two sides had detailed exchange of views on the remaining issues. The two sides continue to remain in touch through military and diplomatic channels.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

3 e-waste parks to come up to recycle used products

Source: Live Mint

News

• The Delhi government is planning to set up three electronic waste parks in each municipal division for dismantling and recycling used products.

Electronic waste parks

• The parks will have buildings for dismantling and recycling processes. E-waste recycling was earlier not permitted in Delhi, but the MCDs allowed it recently.
• The plan involves collecting e-waste from informal sector workers at these three parks, and supplying recycled products to manufacturers from here.
• The parks are proposed to be spread over spaces of about 20-acre each in areas within north, east and south Delhi.
• Two products can be derived by recycling e-waste metals and plastic. There are processes that ensure both these recycled products are of good quality and can be used again by manufacturers. Producers of electronics can take back recycled products from here.
• Through these parks, the government hopes to control illegal processing of e-waste in areas such as East Delhi’s Seelampur, which is said to be one of the largest e-waste markets in India.
• Improper handling of e-waste damages the environment and also poses several health risks for workers involved in extracting metals from used products.
• Development of such facilities would help electronic producers meet their waste collection and recycling targets as per their extended producer responsibility (EPR) under the E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016.