# Covaxin

• Bharat biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine ‘covaxin’ has been recommended for emergency use authorisation (EUA) for two to 18 year olds by the Subject expert committee of the central drug standards control organisation (CDSCO).

• Covaxin is the country’s first indigenous, whole virion, inactivated vaccine developed by Bharat biotech in collaboration with the Indian council of medical research (ICMR) and the National institute of virology (NIV).

• If given the green signal, it will emerge as the first Covid-19 vaccine globally to be used for vaccinating children as young as 2 years.

# Retail inflation

• India’s retail inflation cooled off to a five month low of 4.35% in September.

• Industrial output growth accelerated to 11.9% in August.

• Food inflation based on the consumer food price index (CPI) fell to just 0.68% in September after having declined to a seven month low of 3.1% in August.

# GRAP measures

• Delhi government officials said that measures under “very poor” and “severe” category of the graded response action plan (GRAP) to control air pollution will kick in only when the air quality deteriorates further and stays in prescribed levels for 48 hours.

• GRAP is a set of emergency measures to be taken to reduce air pollution.

# Plastic waste recycling

• The environment ministry has issued draft rules that mandate producers of plastic packaging material to collect all of their produce by 2024.

• It has also specified a system whereby makers and users of plastic packaging could collect certificates – called extended producer responsibility certificates and trade in them.

# IMF

• The IMF has projected that India will grow at 9.5% and 8.5% this year and next.

• It has projected global growth at 5.9% this year and 4.9% in 2022.