• In a significant achievement and recognition to country’s efforts against hypertension, India has won a UN award for its initiative to control and prevent hypertension under the government’s National Health Mission.
• The India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) which is a large-scale hypertension intervention under National Health Mission, has been recognized for its exceptional work within India’s existing primary healthcare system.
• The IHCI won the ‘2022 UN Interagency Task Force and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award’ at the UN General Assembly side event held at New York in USA.
• The award recognizes the outstanding commitment and action of India to prevent and control Non-Communicable Diseases and deliver integrated people-centric primary care.
• The IHCI has been able to leverage and strengthen the existing healthcare delivery system, and hypertension control interventions under National Health Mission.
• The initiative was launched in 2017 and expanded in a phased manner to cover more than 130 districts across 23 states.
• Under the initiative, more than 34 lakh people with hypertension are taking treatment in government health facilities, including Ayushman Bharat Health Wellness Centres.

• Nagaland Government will be launching its own health insurance scheme called the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS) on 1st of October.
• The CMHIS aimed to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure on hospital care for all bonafide citizens of the state.
• The scheme will cover two beneficiary categories-State government employees and pensioners including legislators/ex-legislators and their dependents, and all the Indigenous and or Permanent residents of the State who are not beneficiaries under AB PM-JAY or any public-funded insurance scheme.
• The beneficiary families will be entitled to free health insurance coverage of up to five lakh rupees per family per year.
• Additionally, the first category which is Government employees, pensioners, legislators, or ex-legislators should have additional staggered benefits as notified by the Government.

• Providing further impetus to Aatmanirbharta in defence production, Ministry of Defence signed a contract with M/s BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited BAPL for acquisition of additional dual-role capable Surface to Surface BrahMos missiles at an overall approximate cost of 1700 Crore rupees under Buy-Indian Category.
• Induction of these dual-role capable Missiles is going to significantly enhance the operational capability of Indian Navy fleet assets.
• It is notable that BAPL is a Joint Venture between India and Russia making a crucial contribution to augment the new generation of Surface-to-Surface Missiles with enhanced range and dual role capability for land as well as anti-ship attacks.
• This contract is going to give further boost to indigenous production of critical weapon system and ammunition with active participation of indigenous industry.

• Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur inaugurated the National Rafting Championship at Pirdi in Kullu.
• It will be organised in Beas River.
• Nearly 200 players from 11 different states are participating in the championship.
• Rafting is an Adventure sports.
• River Beas from Manali to Bhuntar, a stretch of 50 km with a number of rapids, is most popular for recreational river rafting runs.
• For safety reasons rapids of rivers in Himachal Pradesh have been graded in accordance with international guidelines.
• It has been categorised in six categories ranging from easy moving water for beginners to Un-runnable water for only experts.

• The “world’s longest extradosed single-span bridge”, which is slated to be constructed on 620-feet-high pillars (approximately equal to the height of three Qutub Minars) near Shakaral on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli stretch of the Parwanoo-Shimla four-laning project, is set to become another tourist attraction.
• There will be only two pillars in this 280-m-long single-span extradosed cable bridge to be constructed at a cost of Rs 600 crore in three years and the height of the bridge (top of the pillar) from the ditch will be 826 feet, said National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regional officer Abdul Basit.
• He said the bridge would be built by the state-of-the-art technology on the Shakral-Dhalli section of the stretch by Gawar Infrastructure Company, Gurgaon.
• “This will be the world’s first extradosed bridge with a span length of 280 m, surpassing the 275-m-long span extradosed bridge in Japan, as per information collected from Google,” said detailed project report (DPR) consultant, Intercontinental Techno Consultant, Neeraj Choudhary.
• He said the new highway would bypass Shimla and reduce the distance between Kaithlighat and Dhalli from 40.1 km to 28.4 km. The stretch would be constructed in two sections. The Kaithlighat-Shakral (17.46 km) section would be constructed by the HP Singla group while the Shakral-Dhalli (10.98 km) section would be constructed by Gawar Infrastructure Company.
• The total cost of the project is Rs 3,915 crore, which includes the construction of five tunnels measuring 5.14 km in length and five major and one minor bridge, besides 22 viaducts.
• The length of the longest and shortest tunnels is 2.66 km and 242 m, respectively. The bypass would be linked at seven points with Shimla city.

• World Alzheimer’s Day was observed on September 21.
• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is a progressive brain disease which results in loss of memory and thinking skills. It destroys the brain cells which causes memory loss, memory changes, erratic behaviour, and loss of body functions.
• This year the theme for world Alzheimer’s month 2022 is – know dementia, know Alzheimer’s.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of PM CARES Fund and said the component would be used to respond to distress situations and not just as relief assistance.
• The Prime Minister welcomed the trustees for becoming an integral part of the PM CARES Fund. The meeting was attended by trustees of the PM CARES Fund — Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and newly nominated trustees, including former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas, former Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, and Emeritus Chairman of Tata Sons Ratan Tata.
• The Trust further decided to nominate the following eminent persons for the constitution of the Advisory Board to PM CARES Fund — former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Rajiv Mehrishi, former chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murthy, co-founder of Teach for India and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation Anand Shah.
• On the occasion a presentation was made on the various initiatives undertaken with the help of the PM CARES Fund, including the PM CARES for Children scheme, which is supporting 4,345 kids who lost their parents to Covid.

• The Bihar government is set to introduce a “no-bag day” rule in schools and a mandatory games period at least once a week to reduce the burden on students.
• The weekly”no-bag day” will have task-based practical classes.
• At least once a week, students will come to school only with their lunch boxes. They do not need to carry books.
• The day will be devoted to practical and experiential learning.
• The objective of such a policy is to engage students in various activities which can positively impact their learning.
• The new initiative by the state government is in line with the National Education Policy 2022 and it would be implemented across private and government run schools.
• Players of the state, according to their position at the national-level sporting events, are provided with a subsidiary grant to avail the facility of sports kits, and treatment and enrolment in the course of the National Institute of Sports.
• Adding Rs 21.02 lakh was provided as a subsidiary grant to 70 players in 2020-21 Sportspersons from Bihar won six medals in the recently concluded World Championship of Arnis Games in the Philippines.

• The Union Cabinet has approved the second tranche of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme on ‘National programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt scale in High Efficiency Solar PV Modules.
• The national programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules aims to build an ecosystem for manufacturing of high efficiency solar PV modules in India reducing import dependence in the area of Renewable Energy.
• It will strengthen the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative and generate employment.
• The Tranche-2 scheme of High Efficiency Solar PV Modules has been approved with an outlay of 19,500 crore rupees for achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt scale.
• About 65 thousand Mega Watt per annum manufacturing capacity of fully and partially integrated solar PV modules will be installed.
• The scheme will bring direct investment of around 94 thousand crore rupees.
• The scheme will generate direct employment for around 2 lakh persons and indirect jobs to around eight lakh persons.
• The Cabinet also approved modifications in Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem India.
• Under modified programme, a uniform fiscal support of 50 per cent of Project Cost shall be provided across all technology nodes for setting up of Semiconductor Fabs or semicondutor fabrication plant.
• Given the niche technology and nature of compound semiconductors and advanced packaging, the modified programme shall also provide fiscal support of 50 per cent of Capital Expenditure.
• Earlier there were an incentive in range of 30 to 50 per cent are provided for three schemes related to semiconductor, display and compound semiconductor and packaging schemes.
• Under the modified program and uniform incentive of 50 per cent will be applied to these three schemes.

• Hurricane Fiona was headed northward after it bore down on the tiny Turks and Caicos archipelago September 20, and caused severe damage to Puerto Rico and then the Dominican Republic.
• Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 18, dumping huge amounts of rainfall on it, and then on the Dominican Republic.
• A public health emergency was declared by US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra for Puerto Rico, which allows the freeing up of federal funds and equipment to assist the island.
• The power category 3 storm dumped heavy rains, triggering floods on the Caribbean archipelago.
• The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that the hurricane had moved 75 miles north of Turks and Caicos and was strengthening with wind speeds of 125 mile per hour.

Categorization of Hurricanes:

• Hurricanes are categorized on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates them on a scale of 1 to 5 based on wind speed.
• Hurricanes that reach category three or higher are classified as major hurricanes.