The Central government has made medicines for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other critical ailments more affordable by expanding the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) by adding 34 new drugs.

After the revision, 384 drugs for 27 therapeutic categories are now in the list of essential medicines.

At the same time, the popular antacid Ranitidine has been taken off the list because of concerns that it causes cancer.

The other 25 drugs like Sucralfate, Atenolol and Methyldopa have also been removed as cost-effective and better options for these medicines are now available.

NLEM, also known as scheduled drugs, was last revised in 2015. It includes medicines that treat prevalent diseases such as fever, infections, heart diseases, hypertension, kidney dysfunction, tuberculosis, diabetes, skin diseases and blood disorders, and cancer.

The other 34 drugs included in the list are anti-tuberculosis medicine Bedaquiline, Rotavirus vaccine, antibiotic Amikacin, anti-filariasis drug Ivermicitin, hormone insulin Glargine used by diabetic patients, anti-asthma drug Montelukast, cardiovascular medicines Dabigatran and Tenecetplace and anti-infectives like ivermectin and mupirocin. The list also includes Nicotine Replacement Therapy.

The Centre is understood to have asked the Nagaland government to convince the leadership of the insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) to sign the final agreement for a solution to the protracted “Naga political problem”.

A delegation of the Core Committee on Naga Political Issue, headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on  Sep 12 and urged him to expedite the solution to Naga issue but he put the ball in the court of the Naga leaders.

The Centre held separate peace talks with the NSCN-IM and seven groups which came together under the banner of Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs). The process of talks has already concluded.

Unlike the NSCN-IM, the groups in the NNPGs are flexible. They say the contentious issues could be pursued post-settlement.

Meanwhile, the NSCN-IM expressed concern over the manner in which the Centre is trying to resolve the Northeast’s oldest insurgency problem.

The wife of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, passed away.

Singh's wife Sukhpreet Kaur was a pillion rider on a two-wheeler when she accidentally fell from it near Fatehpur, said police.

She was taken to a hospital where she breathed her last, they said..

In June, Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, who had raised her voice at different forums in a bid to get her brother out of prison, died following chest pain.

Sarabjit Singh (49) died following an attack on him by the inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013.

He was convicted of alleged terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.

After his death, Sarabjit's body was brought from Lahore to Amritsar where his last rites were held.

Forty-nine Armenian soldiers have been killed in nighttime attacks by Azerbaijan, the country's prime minister said  on Sep 13 .

Azerbaijan resonded that it had been retaliating following Armenian attacks.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in Parliament that Azerbaijani forces attacked about half a dozen points.

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said in a statement that Armenian forces had fired on army positions in three districts of the country and that Armenian saboteurs planted mines in the areas.

It said Azerbaijani forces suffered unspecified casualties and that definitive retaliatory measures were taken.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

The Asia-Pacific Group of the FATF, a global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, has rated Pakistan's level of effectiveness as 'low' on 10 out of 11 international goals on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terror.

Asia-Pacific Group (APF), the Sydney-based regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), released an update as of September 2 on the rating of its regional members suggesting that Pakistan had a 'moderate level of effectiveness' on only one out of 11 outcomes.

Under this 'immediate outcome', Pakistan extends international cooperation on appropriate information, financial intelligence, and evidence and facilitates action against criminals and their assets.

A 15-member joint delegation of FATF and APG paid an onsite visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country's compliance with a 34-point action plan committed with FATF at the highest level in June 2018.

The task force had found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all the 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country's exit from the grey list.

India's milk production is expected to jump three-fold to 628 million tonnes in the next 25 years with an average annual growth of 4.5 per cent, said R S Sodhi, Managing Director of Amul.

The country's milk production was 210 million tonnes in 2021, according to the MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets dairy products under the Amul brand.

Sodhi was speaking at the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022, organised at India Expo Centre & Mart in Greater Noida  on September 12.

India's share in global production is estimated to nearly double from 23 per cent to 45 per cent now in the next 25 years.

Sodhi also mentioned that the demand is also set to increase because of the rising population.

The GCMMF MD said that the per capita availability of milk in India will increase to 852 grams per day in the next 25 years from 428 grams per day in 2021.

Fintech company BharatPe  has announced that  the appointment of former deputy governor of RBI BP Kanungo and Zomato chairman Kaushik Dutta as independent directors to its board.

With the appointment of these directors, BharatPe’s board will now comprise of two Executive Directors- Shashvat Nakrani (Founder) and Suhail Sameer (CEO); five Non-Executive Directors- including former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar and four investor nominees.

A few months ago, founder Ashneer Grover exited the company over allegations of misappropriation of funds. After the incident, many start-up founders and investors started debating about corporate governance in start-ups.

Founded in 2018, BharatPe currently serves 1 crore merchants across 400 cities. It is a leader in UPI offline transactions, processing over 18 crore UPI transactions per month (annualised Transaction processed value of $ 20 billion in payments).

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch  has said that  the capital market regulator has no role in the pricing of initial public offerings or IPOs, adding that there is a need for detailed disclosure for the better functioning of the market.

She was speaking at FICCI’s ‘Annual Capital Markets Conference’ event.

Her remarks come after several new-age tech companies that got listed last year wiped out crores of investors’ wealth overnight, leading to debate on the pricing of the issues and Sebi’s role in it. PayTM, whose share prices have fallen about 53% since listing in November 2021, had priced its IPO much higher than its private placement price. Its dismal performance on the market, along with the selling seen in Zomato, PB Fintech and Nykaa shares so far in 2022 has raised concerns over the interest of retail investors.