Union govt caps Trade Margin for five medical devices

Union Home minister Amit Shah on Saturday inaugurated the Inter State Bus Terminus at Mawiong located in the outskirts of Shillong city in the presence of DoNER Minister G Kishan Reddy and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma including other State Cabinet ministers and officials of the Government. The Union Home Minister stated that the Central Government will connect all the capitals of the north eastern states with railway and air connectivity by 2023- 2024. He said that the ISBT will be centre for economy, adding the Government has worked hard for development of the State since 2014. It will lead Meghalaya and the other North eastern states to path of development, the Union Minister added. The ISBT was constructed with an estimated cost of about 48 crore rupees funded by the North Eastern Council under the DoNER Ministry at 90/10 pattern with the State Government.

-Relief and Rescue operations are  in full swing in rain affected Maharashtra, Torrential Rainfall in various parts of Maharashtra coinciding with discharge from dams led to floods across many districts in the state. Mahad and Poladpur in Raigad, Chiplun and Khed in Ratnagiri along with various areas in Satara, Kolhapur and Sangli district have been affected badly. Twenty one teams of NDRF, seven teams of Indian Navy, four teams of SDRF and three teams each of Indian Army and Coast Guard are working for rescue of stranded civilians. As many as 17 bodies have been recovered from landslide debris at Khed Posre village in Khed Taluqua in Ratnagiri district today. 60 bodies have been recovered so far from landslide debris in Mahad and Poladpur taluquas in Raigad district. In Satara district also, NDRF teams are struggling to rescue people trapped under the debris, while 11 bodies have been recovered at Ambeghar. 

-Tamil Nadu Health Minister M. Subramaniam on Saturday launched a vaccination programme for children against Pneumonia and Brain Fever under the National Vaccination Scheme at the Egmore Children’s hospital. AIR correspondent reports that speaking to the media after the launching of the vaccination programme, the Minister said that all the children would be vaccinated free of cost. The State Government aims to vaccinate nine lakh 23 thousand children under the programme. Seventy thousand vaccines have been procured and are in stock. Children who are affected by muscular dystrophy will be given special treatment at a dedicated hospital in Chennai. More than 2,000 children are affected by the disease in the state and in Chennai alone, 200 children have been identified for muscular dystrophy.

-Union Government has capped the Trade Margin for five medical devices. They are – Pulse Oximeter, Blood Pressure Monitoring Machine, Nebulizer, Digital Thermometer and  Glucometer. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, exercising extraordinary powers in public interest, has capped the margin up to 70 per cent  on price to distributor level. The revised MRP has come into effect from 20th of this month. Following this, the price reduction up to 88 per cent has been reported by 91 per cent brands of these five medical devices. The downward revision of MRP has been reported by imported and domestic brands across all the categories. The highest reduction in prices for Pulse Oximeters, Blood Pressure Monitoring Machine and Nebulizer has been reported by importers. The move will further strengthen the government’s fight against COVID Pandemic.

-India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by 835 million dollars to touch a fresh lifetime high of 612.73 billion dollars in the week ended 16th July. A RBI press release informed that foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, increased by 463 million dollars to 568.748 billion dollars. In the previous week, the reserves had jumped by 1.883 billion dollars to 611.895 billion dollars. The gold reserves went up by 377 million dollars in the reporting week to reach 37.34 billion dollars. Country’s special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund went up by 1 million dollars to reach 1.548 billion dollars while reserve position with the IMF declined by 7 million dollars to 5.1 billion dollars.