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Posted 16 Feb 2024

Updated 18 Mar 2024

9 min read

Data Exclusivity

India has rejected the demand for ‘data exclusivity’ provision in the free trade pact with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) bloc.
- This decision has been taken to protect the interest of domestic generic drug manufacturer.
About Data Exclusivity
- Form of intellectual property protection that applies specifically to data from pharmaceutical clinical trials.
- Generic drug manufacturer cannot apply for regulatory approval for equivalent drugs relying on the originator’s data for a specified number of years.
- It lengthens the monopoly for the original drug manufacturer.
Not mandatory under Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement (WTO) and India laws do not provide for it.

Between 2021 and 2023, H5N1 has wiped out a significant bird population in the United Kingdom.
H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza (or "bird flu").
- H5N1 is categorized as one of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses.
- H5N1 infection in humans occurs through close contact with infected live or dead birds, or H5N1-contaminated environments.
- H5N1 infection in humans can cause severe disease and has a high mortality rate.

Japan recently slipped to the world's 4^th-largest economy.
USA, China, Germany are the top 3 largest economies in the world, while India is ranked as 5^th Largest.
The comparisons among nations’ economies is based on nominal GDP and are in dollar terms.
Reasons for declining status of Japan:
- Aging population and low birth rates contribute to Japan's declining competitiveness and productivity.
- Weak yen and lack of innovation challenge Japan's economic growth.
- Labour shortage: Japan's acceptance of foreign labor is limited.

SPMCIL’s 19th foundation day was recently celebrated
About SPMCIL
- Miniratna Category-I company of Government of India.
  - Public sector units which have made continuous profit in the last three years with pre-tax profit of Rs.30 crores or more in at least one of the years are granted Miniratna-I status.
- Works under the Ministry of Finance.
Key Functions: Production of Currency Notes, Security Paper, Non-Judicial Stamp Papers, Postal Stamps, Passport, Visas etc.

SpaceX launched this Private U.S. moon mission, 52 years after the last Apollo lunar mission.
The IM-1 flight is carrying lander Nova-C (Odysseus) and six NASA payloads of instruments designed to gather data about the lunar environment.
It will attempt to soft land near Moon’s south pole at Malapert A crater.
Previous unsuccessful private attempts:
- In 2019, Beresheet (Israel)
- In 2023, Hakuto-R mission (Japan)
- In 2024, The Peregrine lander (USA)

The US, the former Soviet Union, China, India and Japan are the only countries that have carried out successful soft lunar touchdowns.

STAR metric, developed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with other organizations and experts, has been expanded for use in marine areas.
- It was first unveiled in 2021 for use in terrestrial areas.
The STAR metric utilizes existing data from IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to quantify extinction risks and threats faced by species.
- STAR assesses the potential of specific actions at specific locations to contribute to international conservation targets.
- STAR estimates the contribution of two kinds of action – threat abatement and habitat restoration.