# FDI in insurance

• The union cabinet has approved a proposal to amend the insurance act, 1938.

• It will pave the way for increasing the FDI limit in the insurance sector from 49 to 74 percent.

• A bill to amend the act is likely to be introduced in the ongoing budget session of parliament itself.

# COVAXIN

• An expert panel on wednesday recommended the removal of the clinical trial mode label attached to Bharat biotech’s covid-19 vaccine “covaxin”.

• The recommendation by the subject expert committee (SEC), is expected to be accepted by the chief of India’s top drug regulatory body.

• The development follows the Hyderabad based vaccine maker’s announcement on march 3, based on interim data from late stage clinical trials, that covaxin has an efficacy of 80.6%.

# LPG use in slums

• Despite LPG connections in 86% households in urban slums, only half of them use LPG  exclusively.

• Atleast 50% of them use firewood or biogas partially or fully.

• The cooking energy access survey 2020 has looked at urban slums across six states – Bihar, chattisgarh, Madhya pradesh, jharkhand, rajasthan and Uttar pradesh.

# Illegal colonies in Delhi

• The Lok sabha on wednesday passed the National capital territory of Delhi laws (special provision) second (Amendment) bill 2021, to regulate unauthorised colonies.

• Minister of state of housing and urban affairs Hardeep singh puri said the bill would give protection to unauthorised colonies from sealing till December 31, 2023.

• The bill replaces the ordinance brought in December to extend protection from punitive action to unauthorised colonies.

# Telecom sector

• The department of telecommunication (DOT) on wednesday amended licensing conditions for telecom companies by including defense and national security as parameters in purchase of telecom equipment from trusted sources.

• The move could potentially make it more difficult for chinese telecom equipment vendors like huawei and ZTE to supply telecom equipments to Indian companies.