Notes:
A technical group on social stock exchanges (SSEs) was constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), under the chairmanship of Harsh Bhanwala, former chairman of NABARD in the month of September.
Recently, the group has recommended that political and religious organisations, professional/trade organisations and infrastructure and housing companies (except affordable housing) should not be allowed to raise funds through SSEs.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank is to conduct the first auction for special long-term repo operations (SLTRO) of Rs 10,000 crore for Small Finance Banks (SFBs), at the repo rate, one auction each month.
This will provide fresh lending of up to Rs 10 lakh per borrower and will support small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities. The facility will be available till October 31, 2021.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) finally granted the conditional approval to Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.
The Sinopharm vaccine, developed by China, was already authorised by 45 countries. China has approved five of its vaccines for emergency use and it is using Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for domestic use and export.

Notes:
Ministry of Ayush is launching a massive nationwide campaign to distribute poly herbal Ayurvedic drug AYUSH 64 and Siddha drug Kabasura Kudineer, to benefit COVID patients, who are in home isolation.
Kabasura Kudineer, a Siddha medicine was also subjected to clinical trials for studying the efficacy in Covid-19 patients by Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) under Ministry of Ayush.

Notes:
Health authorities in England has elevated one subtype of the Indian variant from under investigation category to a Variant of Concern (VOC).
This step has been taken following a rise in the number of cases in the UK and evidence of community transmission. The original India variant officially known as B.1.617 was first detected in October, and the variant B.1.617.2 is found to have more transmission capacity.