The PCIM&H has achieved the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Integrated Management System (IMS) Certifications.

About PCIM&H

• Subordinate office under Ministry of AYUSH.
• Institution for establishing and maintaining standards for Indian medicine and homoeopathy.
• Act as Central Drug Testing cum Appellate Laboratory for IM&H.
• Imparts capacity building training to drug regulatory authorities engaged in quality control pertaining to IM&H.
• Maintains an authentic Reference Raw Materials (RRM) Repository for IM&H.

Note: Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) is a separate Autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, responsible to set standards of drugs in the country.

Ministry of Labor and Employment approved CPPS for Employees’ Pension Scheme. 

About CPPS

• It establishes a national-level centralized system enabling pensioners to receive their pensions from any bank, any branch, anywhere in the country. 
  • Existing pension disbursement system is decentralized, with each zonal/regional office of EPFO maintaining separate agreements with only 3-4 banks.
• It will be launched as part of EPFO’s Centralized IT Enabled System (CITES 2.01) from 1st January 2025.
• In the next phase, CPPS will enable a smooth transition to Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS).

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been awarded a National Award for e-Governance 2024 for their Poshan Tracker initiative.

Poshan Tracker initiative

• It is a tech tool to monitor Mission Poshan 2.0's progress, including growth measurements, Aadhar verification, and real-time tracking of nutrition services.

Benefits

• Tracks last-mile service delivery through 1.3 Million Anganwadi Workers 
• Provides nutritional services to 101 Million beneficiaries
• Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children.

Phrynarachne decipiens has been recorded for the first time in the country from Assam’s Kamrup district and Kokrajhar district. 

About Phrynarachne decipiens

• Popularaly known as the bird dung or bird-dropping crab spider. 
  • Spiders of the genus Phrynarachne resemble a blob of bird dropping, and even smell like feces or urine. 
  • This may help it attract and ambush prey, and avoid the notice of predators
• Generally found in Malaysia and Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra. 

Indian Researchers have moved a step forward towards the unification of classical & quantum gravity. 

• They have obtained an uncertainty relation induced from the noise of gravitons. 
  • A graviton is a hypothetical particle that is believed to mediate the gravitational interaction.

About Quantum gravity (QG) 

• QG is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics.
• It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or neutron stars. 

RBI Deputy governor said that Household savings will remain top net lenders to the economy in the coming decades. 

• He noted that household savings are increasing from 10.6% during 2011-2017 to 11.5% during 2017-2023. 

Household savings 

• Household savings rate is expressed as ratio of household savings to GDP. 
• household savings are categorized into 
  • Financial savings: currency, deposits, life insurance funds, etc.
    • Decline in financial savings poses challenges for banking sector in maintaining liquidity and managing credit risk.
  • Physical savings: physical assets along with savings made in gold and silver. 
• In India, household sector typically generates surplus savings relative to its investments, lending the excess to other sectors. 

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched IGEIC under the Graphene Aurora program (GAP). 

• GAP was launched in 2023 to nurture the deep/emerging Graphene technology & innovation ecosystem. 
• It is implemented by Digital University Kerala. 

About IGEIC

• Incorporated as not for profit, section 8 company in Trivandrum, Kerala.
• Aims to create a hub of excellence in graphene technology commercialization. 
• It shall fill the gap between R&D and commercialization by providing a complete facility to startup and industry.
• Earlier MeitY had launched India's first graphene centre-the India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) in Kerala 

ONDC awarded Gold Award under category "Application of Emerging Technologies for Providing Citizen-Centric Services" in National Awards for e-Governance  by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. 

About ONDC

• Aims at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks.
• Expected to make e-Commerce more inclusive and accessible for consumers.
• It is an initiative of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
• ONDC was incorporated as a Section 8 (not for profit) company with the Quality Council of India and Protean eGov Technologies Limited as Founding Members.