Salient weather features over the country for the month of Oct, 2020: IMD Report



  • Southwest Monsoon withdrew from the entire country and Northeast Monsoon rains simultaneously commenced over extreme south peninsular India on 28th October 2020


  • In October 2020, a total of 3 Depressions formed over NIO with one intensifying into a Cyclone


  • During, Oct, 2020, the rainfall over the country is 78.1 mm with 3% above Long Period Average (LPA) over the country as a whole




NPPA plays crucial role in making Cancer Drugs affordable



  • Following NPPA’s price rationalisation initiated in February 2019, 526 brands of 42 anti-cancer drugs showed price reduction up to 90%


  • Saving of about 1000 crore annually to Cancer Patients


  • NPPA Observes National Cancer Awareness day on 07th November Under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PM-JAY) is being implemented to reduce the financial burden for poor and vulnerable groups arising out of catastrophic hospital episodes and to provide access to quality health services. It offers a benefit cover of Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year (on a family floater basis).


  • NPPA regulates the prices of all Drugs as per the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013. It fixes the Ceiling Price of scheduled formulations as per the list of medicines specified in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) which are included in the First Schedule of Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO), 2013.


  • By regulating prices of Scheduled Drugs, NPPA roughly covers only 16-17% of the Pharma sector universe. First Schedule of DPCO, 2013 also includes select drugs used for the treatment of cancer. However, there has been a long standing felt need to further regulate the Non Scheduled segment also where high markups have led to arbitrary pricing practices.