• The HPMC and HIMFED have already procured over 80,000 metric tonne grade ‘C’ apple under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) this year, the highest in the last 12 years. While the HPMC has procured 39,000 MT, HIMFED has procured around 41,000 MT.
• “The total procurement has crossed 80,000 MT and we are expecting around 2,000 MT more,” said an HPMC official.
• The two agencies had procured around 73,000 MT apple last year, which was a record procurement since 2010.
• The huge procurement under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) this season is somewhat surprising as the year witnessed much less hailstorm compared to the last year. Mostly, the produce damaged in hailstorm is sold under the MIS scheme. “There was not much hailstorm this year but a big chunk of the produce remained under-sized. And that’s the reason for the spurt in the MIS procurement,” said an HPMC official.
• Besides, the premature leaf fall led to the dropping of fruit in a large quantity as the season progressed, and this apple, too, was diverted to MIS.
• Both the apple growers and the procurement agencies are reeling under the problem of plenty this year. While the growers get merely Rs 10.5 per kg for grade ‘C’ apple under the MIS scheme, the procuring agency, particularly Himfed, are struggling to sell this apple further.
• “There are no buyers, they have left for home for Diwali. There are several loaded trucks awaiting buyers in Parwanoo,” said the HPMC officials.
• Also, we are struggling to sell the apple to the buyers at the assumed sale price of Rs 3.50 fixed by the government. Our average sale price is hardly around Rs 2. As a result, we have already run up losses of over Rs 1 crore. This difference in the assumed sale price and actual sale price will wreck the financial position of both Himfed and the HPMC,” the official said.
• Horticulture experts feel that the government needs to open up several small processing units in the apple growing areas to use up the C grade apple efficiently. “We will need to work in this direction so that Grade C apple is used at the local level,” said Harish Chauhan, convenor of the Sanyukt Kisan Manch.

• Sajan Bhanwal became the first-ever Indian Greco-Roman wrestler to win a medal at the Under-23 World Championship defeating Ukraine’s Dmytro Vasetskyi in the 77 kg bronze medal play-off at Pontevedra, Spain.
• The bout ended at 10-10 but since the Indian had scored the last point he was declared the winner on criteria.
• Six Greco-Roman wrestlers are participating in the championship along with two women and one free-style wrestler.

 About Greco-Roman wrestling:

• Greco-Roman is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1904.
• This style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist, which is the main feature that differentiates it from freestyle wrestling (the other form of wrestling contested at the Olympics). This restriction results in an emphasis on throws, because a wrestler cannot use trips to bring an opponent to the ground or hook/grab the opponent’s leg to avoid being thrown.
• Greco-Roman wrestling is one of several forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally. The other wrestling disciplines sanctioned by United World Wrestling are: men’s freestyle wrestling, women’s freestyle wrestling, grappling (submission wrestling), pankration, Alysh (belt), Pahlavani wrestling, and beach wrestling wrestling

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) allowed Pakistan to exit its grey list after four years against the backdrop of its ties with the West.
• Russia was banned from all deliberations of the body. Nicaragua too exited the list along with Pakistan, which had been under a close FATF monitoring since 2018. Tanzania, Congo and Mozambique were added to the list.
• An on-site visit by a FATF team in August had found that Pakistan was broadly in compliance with all 34 action points it had been asked to improve upon. Pakistan can now more effectively tackle money laundering and terror-financing, said FATF chief Raja Kumar of Singapore.
• Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani had reached Paris earlier this week with a team representing the country.
• Off the grey list, Pakistan will now be able to get more foreign direct investment, which had shown a downward trend recently.

• India successfully test-fired indigenously-developed new generation medium-range ballistic missile Agni Prime from the Odisha coast, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) sources said.
• The sleek missile was test fired from a mobile launcher from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island around 9.45 am.
• The solid-fuelled canisterised missile met all mission parameter during the test, they added.
• All its navigation was tracked and monitored by radars and telemetry equipment positioned along various points, the officials said.
• The missile’s strike range is between 1,000 km and 2,000 km, they said.
• The last trial of the missile was conducted on December 18 last year from the same base, which was also successful.

• The Durgavati Tiger Reserve is a 2,339 square kilometers new tiger reserve that will spread across Narsinghpur, Damoh, and Sagar districts. Madhya Pradesh Wildlife Board has approved the making of a new tiger reserve of Panna Tiger Reserve (PTP), one-fourth of which will get submerged due to the Linkin of the Ken-Betwa rivers.

Key Points:

• The new tiger reserve will be known as Durgavati Tiger Reserve and it will spread across Narsinghpur, Damoh, and Sagar districts.
• A green corridor linking PTR with Durgavati will be developed for the natural movement of the tiger to the new reserve.
• The Madhya Pradesh Wildlife Board was chaired by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
• He approved a notify 1,414 sq km area as the core area and 925 sq km as a buffer in the new tiger reserve.
• The new tiger reserves are a part of a wildlife management plan for Panna for the Ken-Betwa rivers linking project.
• The two state governments with the center are implementing a ₹44,605 crore river-linking project to end the water crisis in the Bundelkhand region.

About:

Tamil Nadu- State level committee:

• The committee, which has a two-year tenure, will take steps for monitoring the conservation and recovery of existing vulture sites and mapping of vulture populations across the State for creating safe zones.
• It will work to eliminate the use of toxic veterinary drugs (Diclofenac), the main reason for vulture fatalities.
• Prevention of poisoning of cattle carcasses, the principal food of vultures, is also one of the responsibilities of the newly formed committee.

In Tamil Nadu, four species of vultures are found —

• the Oriental white-backed vulture,
• the long-billed vulture,
• the red-headed vulture, and
• the Egyptian vulture.

• The first three are residents and can be found in the landscapes of the Nilgiris and Sathyamangalam.
• There is evidence of Egyptian vulture breeding only at one site in Dharmapuri.

Vulture population:

• 96% of India’s vulture population declined between 1993 and 2003.
• Therefore, the Central government put into place two action plans to protect the species at the national level — the first in 2006 and the second, ongoing plan for 2020-2025.
• One of the important action points in this nationwide plan is the formation of State-level committees to save the critically endangered population of vultures.

Vulture species in India:

• 9 species of vultures are found in India.
• Of these nine species, 4 are listed as Critically Endangered species of Vultures and one as endangered species in IUCN red list of endangered species.

Species of Vultures found in India and their Conservation Status:

• Indian Vulture or Long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus)-Critically Endangered
• Indian White-backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)-Critically Endangered
• Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogypscalvus)– Critically Endangered
• Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris)- Critically Endangered
• Egyptian Vulture (Neophronpercnopterus)- Endangered
• Cincerous Vulture (Aegypiusmonachus)- Near Threatened
• Bearded Vulture (Gypaetusbarbatus)-Near Threatened
• Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayansis)-Near Threatened
• Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus)- Least Concern

• If realised, Cyclone Sitrang will be the first cyclone to develop in the Bay of Bengal in October since 2018, and will be called Sitrang, as named by Thailand. The last October cyclone in the Bay of Bengal was Titli in 2018.

About:

• The months of October-November and May-June see storms of severe intensity develop in the North Indian Ocean — comprising the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea — with an average of five developing in a calendar year.
• In the past 131 years, October saw 61 storms develop in the Bay of Bengal, according to the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC).
• The east coast, notably Odisha, has faced many of its severest storms in October, including the Super Cyclone of 1999.

Formation:

• After the withdrawal of the Southwest monsoon, there is a rise in ocean heating, which leads to rise in sea surface temperature over the Bay of Bengal.
• The atmospheric moisture availability over the ocean region, too, is higher.
• So, when remnant systems from the South China Sea reach the Bay of Bengal, they get conducive conditions, aiding the formation and intensification of cyclones in October.
• In some years, ocean-atmospheric factors hinder this phenomenon.
• For instance, in 2020, weak La Nina conditions along the equatorial Pacific Ocean prevented a cyclonic formation near India’s coasts.

Cyclones in the Arabian Sea:

• In comparison with the Bay of Bengal, only 32 storms have developed in the Arabian Sea in October since 1891.
• Climatologically too, the IMD states that of the five storms formed in the North Indian Ocean in a calendar year, four are in the Bay of Bengal and one in Arabian Sea.

• Country’s first ‘Migration Monitoring System’, which provides updated information on migrant pregnant women, lactating mothers and children instantly on a single system, was inaugurated in Mumbai.
• Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Mangalprabhat Lodha launched the system developed by Department of Women and Child Development.
• The Department has created a website-based Migration Tracking System (MTS) to track the movements of vulnerable seasonal migrant beneficiaries through individual unique identification numbers.
• He said that due to this system, the information of seasonal migrant women and children will be available immediately.
• He continued saying that this will make it easier for the beneficiaries to get the benefits of the government schemes.
• The system is available on the website  https://mahamts.in/login and MahaMTS App is available in Google Play Store.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch Chandrayaan-3, its third mission to the moon, in June 2023.
• ISRO has made Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) more robust so that it does not have any problems.
• The space agency has also lined up the first test flight of the ‘abort mission’ for Gaganyaan, the country’s first human spaceflight, early next year.
• Somnath said, ISRO also plans to fly Indian astronauts into orbit by the end of 2024 after carrying out successful abort missions and uncrewed test flights.

 About Gaganyaan:

• Gaganyaan is a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• Under the Gaganyaan schedule: Three flights will be sent into orbit, there will be two unmanned flights and one human spaceflight.
• The Gaganyaan system module, called the Orbital Module will have three Indian astronauts, including a woman.
• It will circle Earth at a low-earth-orbit at an altitude of 300-400 km from earth for 5-7 days.

About Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
• The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.
• It will have an orbiter and a landing module. However, this orbiter won’t be loaded with scientific instruments like the Chandrayaan-2.
• Its job will only be confined to carry the lander to the moon, oversee the landing from its orbit and communicate between the lander and the earth station.”

• India suffered an income loss of $159 billion, 5.4 per cent of its gross domestic product in the service, manufacturing, agriculture, and construction sectors due to extreme heat in 2021, according to the Climate Transparency Report 2022 compiled by an international partnership of organisations.
• Climate change-induced extreme weather events are causing significant economic losses across all sectors, with agriculture being the most vulnerable, accounting for 16 per cent of Indian GDP, and providing nearly half of the employment, the report stated.
• Several areas of Hindukush Karakoram Himalaya, the main driver of the Indian monsoon and a source of 10 major Asian rivers, experienced reduced snowfall and glacial retreat.
• Heat exposure in the country led to the loss of 167 billion potential labour hours, a 39 per cent increase from the period between 1990 and 1999.
• Extreme events such as cyclones, flash floods, floods and landslides damaged crops over 36 million hectares — a $3.75 billion loss to farmers — between 2016 and 2021.
• It is feared that the annual damage from tropical cyclones and river flooding at 3°C global warming would be 4.6 to 5.1 times than what it would be experienced at the 1.5°C level.
• Labour productivity is projected to decline by five per cent from the 1986-2006 reference period as a result of 1.5°C of global warming — 2.1 times at 2.5°C level and 2.7 times at 3°C level.
• Increased precipitation, along with change in land use with increased urbanisation, is the main cause of increase in surface run-off in India. Prolonged waterlogging may alter the soil moisture content in many places, the report stated.
• Two-thirds of Indian agriculture is rain-fed, and thus highly prone to changes in rainfall, the report pointed ominously.
• At 1.5°C level, the national maize and wheat yield is projected to decrease by three per cent and five per cent, respectively. This loss may increase by a magnitude of 2.5 times for maize and 3.2 times for wheat at 3°C of warming.
• In India, local precipitation is projected to increase by 6 per cent from the reference period of 1986-2006 at 1.5°C of warming. Under a 3°C warming scenario, precipitation will increase by 3 times the precipitation anticipated at 1.5°C of warming.
• The rainfall pattern in India has changed in the past 30 years impacting many economic activities such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
• Snowfall in India is expected to decrease in the 1.5°C scenario by 13 per cent when compared with the reference period’s snowfall levels. At 3°C, the decrease is expected to be 2.4 times the 1.5°C scenario.