News digest: Impending ban on drugs, Srikrishna committee report and more

Over 340 'irrational' drugs to go off shelves soon; many more under scanner

The Centre is one step closer to banning 343 “irrational” fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs that were potentially harmful to consumers. The market size of the banned drugs is estimated to be around Rs 20-22 billion and will impact the country’s top drugmakers.

Patient advocacy groups say more FDCs, worth Rs 200-250 billion, are under scanner. An FDC drug is one that contains two or more active ingredients in a fixed-dosage ratio. 

In March 2016, the ministry of health and family welfare had implemented a ban on 349 FDCs based on recommendations of the Chandrakant Kokate committee that found these drug combinations to be irrational and posing health risks. Read more  

Srikrishna committee: 70 Acts may have to be amended on panel proposals

The B N Srikrishna committee is likely to recommend that data related to Aadhaar, Right to Information, health care is included under the data protection framework. The move will mean amendments in 70-odd Acts, a source said. The panel on data protection is likely to give its report  to the government in the first week of August.

In what could be one the last meetings of the panel, around 2.5 hours were spent in discussing issues such as classification of data, localisation, and provisions for violations including penalties. Read on   

NCLT rejects Jyoti Structures' resolution plan, orders liquidation

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) bench here has rejected the resolution plan offered for Jyoti Structures. It has directed the Resolution Professional (RP) appointed for the insolvent engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) entity to file applications for its liquidation.

This is the first case from the Reserve Bank of India’s first list of 12 large and defaulting corporates referred to the bankruptcy court that has been directed to go for liquidation.

In another case, the Chandigarh bench of the NCLT approved UK-based Liberty House’s resolution plan to acquire Amtek Auto. Read more  

Uber to soon let you crowdsource your commute via OpenStreetMap project

Taxi-hailing giant Uber has readied plans to contribute to community-owned OpenStreetMap (OSM) project which allows anyone to edit and update online maps of cities around the world. The company will be rolling out this project in India soon, starting with Delhi.

While Uber now uses Google Maps for its platform, the buzz in the developer community suggests the company could be looking to move away gradually to open source maps for its commercial purposes. Reason? It is cost-effective and in some cases, more reliable due to user inputs from around the world. Read more