COVAXIN
●India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV).
● The indigenous, inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) high containment facility.
●The vaccine will be used as a “back-up”, only if the country needs extra doses to vaccinate a large number of people, particularly given the possibility of a surge triggered by the UK variant.
●Unlike the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) vaccine Covishield, Covaxin will be used only in ‘clinical trial mode’, where consent will be taken and side-effects monitored, the heads of AIIMS and ICMR, part of the National Covid-19 task force.
Patents
●Indian Patents Act, 1970 defines an invention as “a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.”, such invention protected under the patent law refers to patented.
●Patents are a form of intellectual property.
●Patents protect inventions and new discoveries that are new and non-obvious. There are three types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Asian Waterbird Census (AWC)
●AWC is an international program that focuses on monitoring the status of waterbirds and wetlands.
● It also aims to increase public awareness on issues related to wetland and waterbird conservation.
●Asian Waterbird Census is coordinated in India by the Wildlife Institute of India.
Trans fats
●Trans fats are a form of unsaturated fat associated with a number of negative health effects. ●Artificial trans fat is created during hydrogenation, which converts liquid vegetable oils into semi-solid partially hydrogenated oil.
●Trans fat can also be found naturally in meat and dairy.
●They raise “bad” cholesterol and also lowers “good” cholesterol.
● A diet is laden with trans fat increases the risk of heart disease, the leading killer of adults.
Trans Fat – Regulation
●WHO aims to of eliminating industrially-produced TFA by 2023.
●India is committed to the elimination of industrial trans fats in fats/oils and in foods containing fats/oils in a phased manner.
● The trans fat content in fats and oils has already been limited to 5%, and the notification to further reduce it to 3% by 2021, and to 2% by 2022 is under process.