The Union health ministry will make it mandatory for all active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) packages to be barcoded to detect spurious drugs and monitor imported and indigenously produced raw materials used to manufacture medicines. APIs are critical components that make drug formulations potent against disease. There are about 2,500 APIs that are used to create hundreds of thousands of drug formulations.

Drugmakers may be asked to declare on their packagings whether a medicine contains gluten, a step that health officials say would provide immediate relief to millions of Indians suffering from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the body mistakenly reacts to gluten. India's chief advisory body on drugs will discuss the issue at its meeting scheduled on Thursday, a source said.

Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said that being online for longer hours on social media is causing sleep deprivation in pilots. Speaking at the 57th annual-conference by Indian-Society of Aerospace Medicine, the Air Force chief said that being active on social media till late hours causes sleep deprivations in pilots and it is very important to have a check mechanism for the same.