The health ministry has restricted all FDCs containing chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride for children under four, citing safety concerns.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Saturday announced that it has banned Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) containing chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride for use in children below four years of age.

“In a significant step to safeguard the health and safety of young children, the government has imposed restrictions on the manufacture, sale and distribution of all fixed dose combinations (FDCs) containing Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride, mandating a clear warning that these medicines shall not be used in children below four years of age,” the health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The modification in rules has been notified in the Gazette.

Chlorpheniramine is a histamine-H1 receptor antagonist indicated for the management of symptoms associated with upper respiratory allergies.

Phenylephrine is used as a nasal decongestant to temporarily unblock a nose or relieve sinus pressure in people with nasal and sinus congestion caused by colds or allergies.

Earlier, the Centre had restricted certain FDCs containing chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride, subject to the same age-specific warning. The latest notification extends this requirement to all formulations containing these two ingredients.

The decision has been taken following the recommendations of an expert committee and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB).

According to the statement, experts in the department noted that the use of such combinations may pose risks to children below four years of age and that safer alternatives are available.

“Manufacturers have been directed to clearly display the warning, “Fixed Dose Combination shall not be used in children below four years of age,” on the label, package insert and promotional literature associated with these formulations,” read the health ministry statement.

“The notification has been issued under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, in the interest of public health and is effective from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette,” it added.

In June, the government banned 16 fixed-dose combinations, including skin medications, painkillers and muscle relaxants, that it felt had limited therapeutic use.

FDC drugs are those that contain a combination of two or more active pharmaceutical ingredients in a fixed ratio and are also referred to as “cocktail” drugs.

The health ministry has been trying to phase out from the market those fixed-dose combinations that pose a risk to human beings and for which better and safer alternatives are available in the market.

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), which advises the ministry’s drugs regulatory authority—the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)—constitutes an expert committee to examine various FDCs and identify those that are “irrational, lack therapeutic justification or may pose risks to human health.”

Based on the scientific assessment and recommendations of the expert committee, the government then takes action.

The government in 2016 announced a ban on 344 FDCs following recommendations from an expert panel.

Between 2023 and 2025, a total of 205 FDCs were banned as part of the exercise to phase out unapproved fixed-dose combination drugs from the Indian market. Many of the FDCs banned over the years were also among those 344 drug combinations.

source/content: hindustantime.com (headline edited)

This year, a total of 48 school teachers have been selected through a three-stage selection process at the district, State and national levels by the Department of School Education and Literacy.

The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, will confer the National Teachers Awards on 48 school teachers at Vigyan Bhawan, in New Delhi, on September 5, 2026.

The purpose of the National Teachers Award is to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country and to honour those teachers who, through their commitment and industry, have not only improved the quality of school education but have also enriched the lives of their students, the Ministry of Education said in an official statement.

This year, a total of 48 school teachers have been selected through a three-stage selection process at the district, State and national levels by the Department of School Education and Literacy. The 48 selected school teachers are from 27 States, seven Union Territories and six organisations of the central government. Of the 48 selected school teachers, 26 are male and 22 are female.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The government said the ‘smart’ cancer drug has been designed to switch on and work only inside cancer cells, sparing the healthy cells from damage.

In a major breakthrough for cancer treatment in India, the government on Thursday announced a “smart” cancer drug that can replace the traditional chemotherapy which, it said, has been found to harm healthy cells while attacking the cancer cells in the human body.

The government said the ‘smart’ cancer drug has been designed to switch on and work only inside cancer cells, sparing the healthy cells from damage.

“Cancer treatment often damages healthy cells along with cancer cells, causing significant associated adverse effects and side effects. This has created a need for targeted therapies that remain inactive in normal tissues while it travels through the body and become activated specifically at tumor sites,” the government said in a statement.

It said the smart cancer drug, named RK-251, was formulated after collaborative research led by Dr Asis Bala from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), and Dr KP Bhabak of Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati.

How the smart cancer drug works

Detailing on the mechanism of the RK-251 smart drug, the government said the cancer cells often produce ‘high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are harmful molecules.’

“When RK-251 enters a cancer cell, the high ROS levels trigger the drug’s activation, releasing a powerful anticancer compound called “NBDHEX”. This compound blocks target proteins that many cancer cells use to survive and resist treatment,” it said, adding that the smart drug showed strong activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells, with much less effect on healthy cells in preclinical studies.

It further added that the drug did not show any obvious signs of toxicity while its behavior was being studied in zebrafish embryos. “It exhibited the desired fluorescence in the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), suggesting the drug may be safe for further research and validation,” the government said on Thursday, adding that more studies are required before the technology can be tested in patients.

Indian healthcare is facing a mounting pressure on account of rising cancer cases. India records over 1.4 million new cancer cases and more than 700,000 deaths annually, according to the Indian Journal of Medicine. The most common types include breast, oral cavity, lung, cervical, and colorectal cancers. Many of these cancers have been attributed to lifestyle, food habits and use of tobacco.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Various research groups have over the past decade proposed evidence of life, ranging from 3.9 billion years ago in Quebec and 3.7 billion years ago in southwestern Greenland to 3.4 billion years ago in western Australia.

Twelve years ago, Trisrota Chaudhuri noticed a set of black-and-white patterns embedded on an ancient rock near Bhitardari, about 20km south of Jamshedpur, and wondered whether the black might represent carbon from ancient life forms.

Now, Chaudhuri, a scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Calcutta, and her colleagues have found that the 3.5-billion-year-old rock contains distinct chemical signatures of past biological activity — the oldest directly dated evidence for life yet documented on Earth.

Twelve years ago, Trisrota Chaudhuri noticed a set of black-and-white patterns embedded on an ancient rock near Bhitardari, about 20km south of Jamshedpur, and wondered whether the black might represent carbon from ancient life forms.

Now, Chaudhuri, a scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Calcutta, and her colleagues have found that the 3.5-billion-year-old rock contains distinct chemical signatures of past biological activity — the oldest directly dated evidence for life yet documented on Earth.

The scientists have interpreted tiny black bands running through the silica-rich rock, known as chert, as remnants of microbial mats, or fossilised remains of thin carpet-like layers of microscopic organisms. Their findings appeared in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

“The chemical signatures preserved in this rock suggest that by 3.5 billion years ago, life forms were already using sophisticated ways of turning carbon dioxide into organic matter,” Chaudhury told The Telegraph.

Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, but when life first emerged remains unclear. Various research groups have over the past decade proposed evidence of life, ranging from 3.9 billion years ago in Quebec and 3.7 billion years ago in southwestern Greenland to 3.4 billion years ago in western Australia.

The two older dates remain under debate because some scientists have argued that extensive geological processes would make it difficult to distinguish their biological signatures from features produced by non-biological processes.

Chaudhuri began her field visits to Jharkhand — home to some of the world’s oldest rocks — in 2014. Modern dating studies, for instance, have shown that some rocks in Singhbhum are 3.5 billion years old.

During one such trek, she explored thick layers of ancient volcanic rock interspersed with other rock layers near Bhitardari village and came across black-and-white patterns on the chert.

She collaborated with scientists in Europe and the US to date the samples and analyse their carbon content. Differences in the carbon profile and molecular-structure analysis, using a technique called Laser Raman Spectroscopy, helped distinguish biological carbon from non-biological carbon.

Dating analyses put the chert containing the microbial mats at 3.497 billion years old.

“What distinguishes our study is that we were able to directly date the rock samples,” said Rajat Mazumder, professor of geology at the German University of Technology in Muscat, Oman, who had accompanied Chaudhuri during her 2014 field visits and later for sample extraction.

Similar rocks containing organic residues have been found in Western Australia and South Africa, Mazumder said, but they lack material that can be directly dated. Their ages have instead been inferred from nearby rocks.

Scientists have long hypothesised that life emerged underwater around volcanic vents, where heat and mineral-rich fluids may have provided the chemicals and energy needed for early life to emerge and evolve.

Some of the oldest rocks in the Singhbhum region preserve evidence of such underwater volcanic environments, suggesting that the setting in which Chaudhuri found the chert may have been conducive to life.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)