• On March 24, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) permitted Bharat Biotech to unblind all "participants of age group of more than 45 years and offer to administer the vaccine free of cost as and when they become eligible for the vaccine in the national programme
• The Committee recommended that the company unblind the participants as "vaccines [including Covaxin] are [already] available under the immunisation programme, and therefore all the eligible age groups under the immunisation programme should be permitted for unblinding for vaccination".

• In order to formulate the policy and guidelines for approval of new drugs, clinical trials and banning of drugs an Expert Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• The Expert Committee submitted its report to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• The actions proposed to be taken on the recommendations of the Expert Committee were finalized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• The Subject Expert Committee shall evaluate the applications of clinical trials and new drugs and their recommendations shall be reviewed by the Technical Review Committee (TRC).
• The TRC shall be constituted under DGHS which consists of experts from each fields
• Clinical Trial and New Drugs shall get approval by CDSCO based on the recommendations by TRC.
• Subject Expert Committee (SEC) comprises of 8 medical experts (01 Pharmacologist and 07 medical specialists) shall be constituted to select names of the experts from the respective panels approved by the Ministry.
• If an expert fails to attend the SEC meeting, another expert from the same panel shall be invited to attend the meeting.

• It under Directorate General of Health Services,Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,Government of India is the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India.
• The Drugs & Cosmetics Act,1940 and rules 1945 have entrusted various responsibilities to central & state regulators for regulation of drugs & cosmetics.
• It envisages uniform implementation of the provisions of the Act & Rules made there under for ensuring the safety, rights and well being of the patients by regulating the drugs and cosmetics.
• CDSCO is constantly thriving upon to bring out transparency, accountability and uniformity in its services in order to ensure safety, efficacy and quality of the medical product manufactured, imported and distributed in the country.
• Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, CDSCO is responsible for approval of Drugs, Conduct of Clinical Trials, laying down the standards for Drugs, control over the quality of imported Drugs in the country and coordination of the activities of State Drug Control Organizations by providing expert advice with a view of bring about the uniformity in the enforcement of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
• Further CDSCO along with state regulators, is jointly responsible for grant of licenses of certain specialized categories of critical Drugs such as blood and blood products, I. V. Fluids, Vaccine and Sera.
• Within the CDSCO, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) regulates pharmaceutical and medical devices and is positioning within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The DCGI is advised by the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) and the Drug Consultative Committee (DCC).

• India has contributed $300,000 to the United Nations agency for gender equality and women empowerment, a contribution lauded by the UN entity.
• India made the contribution to UN Women, the world organisation's entity for gender equality and women's empowerment.
• India reaffirms its support for gender equality and women empowerment, describing UN Women as a "valued partner in our progress from women's development to #women-led development."

• The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women.
• A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
• UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide.
• UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system's work in advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements linked to the 2030 Agenda.
• The entity works to position gender equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more inclusive world.

• The Gujarat Assembly passed the Freedom of Religion Act, 2003 amendment Bill that seeks to penalise forcible or fraudulent religious conversion by marriage or "love jihad", bringing in stringent provisions against forcible conversion through marriage or allurement.

• The Bill has provisions for 3-10 years in jail and a fine of up to ₹5 lakh if the accused is found guilty.
• The Bill amends a 2003 Act, and seeks to curb the "emerging trend in which women are lured to marriage for the purpose of religious conversion
• The Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, deals with religious conversion "through allurement, force or by misrepresentation or by any other fraudulent means".
• The Gujarat amendment Bill says it is necessary to prohibit "forcible conversion by marriage or by getting a person married or by aiding a person to get married
• As per the provisions of the Bill, "Forcible conversion by marriage or by getting a person married" shall invite imprisonment of 3-5 years and up to ₹2 lakh fine.
• If the victim is a minor, a woman, a Dalit or tribal, then the offenders may be punished with a jail term of 4-7 years and a fine of not less than ₹3 lakh.
• If any organisation is found violating the law, the person in-charge can be sentenced to between three years and 10 years in jail and a fine of up to ₹5 lakh can be imposed.
• Additionally, marriages solemnised for the purpose of such conversion will be declared void and the burden of proof shall lie on the accused.
• Parents, siblings or any other person related by blood, marriage or adoption to the victim can lodge the complaint and the offences shall be non-bailable.

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Global Gender Gap Report 2021 highlights)
What's the NEWS

• India has fallen 28 places in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021, and is now one of the worst performers in South Asia, trailing behind neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar -- it is now ranked 140 among 156 countries.
• The index benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps among four key dimensions - Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment - and tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time

Know! the report highlights (India Specifics)

• India had so far closed 62.5% of its gender gap.
• Most of the decline was seen on the Political Empowerment sub-index, where India went back 13.5 percentage points.
• The main change that took place this year is the significant decline in the share of women among ministers, which halved, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021
• The share of women in parliament remains stagnant at 14.4% and the share of the last 50 years in which a woman has been head of state is 15.5%.

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• The reduction in women's labour force participation rate was another reason for the drop in India's rank.
•  The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2%
• The estimated earned income of women in India was one-fifth of men's, which put India among the bottom 10 countries globally on that indicator.
• India had closed 96.2% of the Educational Attainment sub-index gender gap, certain gaps existed in terms of literacy. One third of women are illiterate (34.2%) compared to 17.6% of men
  

• The two indices where India has fared the worst are "Health and Survival", which includes the sex ratio, and economic participation of women.
• The Health and Survival index that India has fared the worst, ranking at 155 - the only country to have fared worse is China.
• While ranking India at 155 - a spot ahead of China - on the health and survival index, the report points to a skewed sex ratio as the major factor.
• It says the ratio can be attributed to norms of son preference and gender-biased prenatal sex-selective practices.
• China and India together account for about 90 to 95 per cent of the estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million missing female births annually worldwide due to gender-biased prenatal sex selective practices

Report highlights (World Specifics)

• South Asia incidentally is one of the worst performing regions, followed only by the Middle East and northern Africa
• The report points out that many countries have fared worse in this year's rankings compared to last year's, on account of economic performance.
• Globally, the average distance completed to parity is at 68 per cent, a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points).
• These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries.
• On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide
• The gender gap in political empowerment remains the largest: women represent only 26.1 per cent of some 35,500 parliament seats and just 22.6 per cent of over 3,400 ministers worldwide
• Bangladesh is "the only country where more women have held head-of-state positions than men in the past 50 years
• The second-largest gender gap among the four components of the index is for the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex.
• The countries with the largest gender gaps in economic participation include Iran, India, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Environment
The Leaders Summit on Climate

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Leaders Summit on Climate)
What's the NEWS

• USA President Biden invited 40 world leaders to the Leaders Summit on Climate he will host on April 22 and 23.
• The virtual Leaders Summit will be live streamed for public viewing.

Know! about the Leaders Summit on Climate

• The Leaders Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency - and the economic benefits - of stronger climate action.
• It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.
• In recent years, scientists have underscored the need to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.
• A key goal of both the Leaders Summit and COP26 will be to catalyze efforts that keep that 1.5-degree goal within reach.
• The Summit will also highlight examples of how enhanced climate ambition will create good paying jobs, advance innovative technologies, and help vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts.
• The United States will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement during the summit
• In his invitation, the President urged leaders to use the Summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.
• The Summit will reconvene the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP.
• The President also invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net-zero economy.
• A small number of business and civil society leaders will also participate in the Summit.

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