• The Philippine authorities started evacuating people from coastal areas on Sunday and hundreds were unable to travel by sea as the main island Luzon, including Manila, braced for a category 3 typhoon that continues to strengthen, officials said.
• Typhoon Noru became a super typhoon “after a period of explosive intensification”, with sustained winds increasing from 120 km per hour to 185 km per hour on Saturday evening, the disaster agency said in an advisory.
• It will continue intensifying and may make landfall with 185 to 205 kph of sustained winds.
• Noru, the 11th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, will bring heavy to torrential rains over the capital region and nearby provinces.
• The Philippine Coast Guard said more than 1,200 passengers and 28 vessels were stranded in ports south of the capital.

• The Government’s flagship programme ‘Make in India’ completes eight-year on 25th September2022. Make in India initiative which was launched in 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi aspires to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure.
• Make In India has substantial accomplishments across 27 sectors which include strategic sectors of manufacturing and services as well.
• The government is focusing on key sectors like semiconductors to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. Recognising the importance of semiconductors in the world economy, the government has launched a ten billion US dollar incentive scheme to build a semiconductor, display, and design ecosystem in India.
• Complimented by sincere efforts of domestic toy manufacturers, the growth of the Indian Toy industry has been remarkable in less than two years despite Covid-19 pandemic.  The import of toys in 2021-22 have reduced by 70 percent to 110 million US dollar.
• India’s export of toys registered tremendous growth of 636 percent during the months of April to August this year over the same period of 2013.
• Make India Programme is transforming the country into a leading global manufacturing and investment destination.
• The initiative is an open invitation to potential investors and partners across the globe to participate in the growth story of ‘New India’.
• To attract foreign investments, the Government has put in place a liberal and transparent policy wherein most sectors are open to Foreign Direct Investment under the automatic route.
• FDI inflows in India which stood at 45.15 billion US dollar in 2014-2015 reached record FDI inflows for eight years.
• The year 2021-22 recorded the highest ever FDI of  83.6 billion US dollar. The Production Linked Incentive scheme launched across 14 key manufacturing sectors is also giving a boost to Make in India initiative.
• With this initiative at the forefront, the businesses in India are aiming that the products that are ‘Made in India’ are also ‘Made for the World,’ adhering to global standards of quality.

• The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is creating a significant positive impact on India-UAE trade.
• Indian exports to the UAE, excluding petroleum products grew from 5.17 billion dollar from June to August last year to 5.92 billion US dollar during June to August this year. It denotes an increase of 14 percent. The CEPA agreement has come into effect on 1st of May this year.
• Commerce and Industry Ministry said, Indian imports from the UAE during the same period also grew from 5.56 billion dollar to 5.61 billion dollar.
• It said Indian exports are likely to increase further in the coming months with increasing use of the CEPA by the exporters and with dedicated efforts from Department of Commerce.

About India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA):

• The historic India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which was signed between the two nations on 18 February 2022.
• Gems & Jewellery sector contributes a substantial portion of India’s exports to the UAE and is a sector that is expected to benefit significantly from the tariff concessions obtained for Indian products under the India-UAE CEPA.
• Overall, India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 % of its tariff lines which account for 99% of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms particularly from labour-intensive sectors such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural and wood products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and Automobiles. As regards trade in services, Indian service providers will have enhanced access to around 111 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors.
• CEPA is expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over US$100 billion and trade in services to over US$ 15 billion within five years.

• In Telangana, Bathukamma, the state floral festival has begun with women in large numbers participating in the festivities across the state.
• The dates of this festival clash with Navratri in North India with the first day of Bathukamma 2022 falling on September 25.
• This festival will deepen our connect with nature and interest in flowers.
• The main celebrations will be held on 3rd next month which will be celebrated as Saddula Bathukamma.
• During the nine-day annual festival, women and girls sing and dance around specially arranged flowers. At the end of the festival, the floral arrangements will be immersed in local ponds.

About Bathukamma:

• Bathukamma, a floral festival representing the culture and spirit of Telangana, is celebrated for nine days during Navratri.
• The word Bathukamma comes from the Telugu words “Bathuku” meaning life and “Amma” meaning mother.
• As such, it is a celebration of life and womanhood. During the festival, the women come together in groups to prepare ornate stacks using local flowers such as Celosia, Senna, Marigold, Lotus, Cucurbita and Cucumis among others.
• This stack is called a Bathukamma and represents Goddess Maha Gauri and is worshipped for nine days.
• On the final day of the festival, Bathukamma is immersed in water bodies. Bathukamma was declared a state festival after the formation of Telangana in 2014.

• Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry will launch Swachh Toycathon, a unique competition to make toys from waste.
• The competition will be open to individuals and groups to bring forth innovation in toy designs using dry waste.
• It will focus on efficient designs that can be replicated at a larger scale, and toys that comply with minimum safety standards.
• The competition will be hosted on MyGov’s innovate India portal. Center for Creative Learning, IIT Gandhinagar is the knowledge partner for the initiative.
• The demand for toys in the country is increasing due to strong economic growth, rising disposable incomes, and several innovations for the junior population.
• National Action Plan for Toys 2020 was introduced to promote the Indian toy industry including traditional handicrafts and handmade toys with the objective of establishing India as a global Toy hub.
• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade along with 14 Ministries of Central Government is currently implementing various aspects of the National Action Plan for Toys.

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is going to launch Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan that promotes ranking of 131 cities in the country for implementing City Action Plans prepared as part of National Clean Air Programme for reducing air pollution upto 40 percent by 2025-26.
• For this survey, 131 cities are categorized into three groups based on population. 47 cities are in the first group having population more than 10 lakh.
• 44 cities are in the second group having population between 3 to 10 lakh. Third group consists of 40 cities having population less than 3 lakh.
• Cities are required to do the self-assessment as per the framework provided on the Ministry’s online portal.
• This assessment is carried out annually. Cities have to report implementation of activities and measures taken in respect of solid waste and road dust management, management of construction and demolition waste, control of vehicular emissions and industrial pollution.
• The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change declared this survey during the last leg of a two-day National Conference of Ministers of Environment, Forest and Climate Change at Ekta Nagar, in Gujarat.
• This conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually.

• The health minister confirmed that Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has crossed the landmark of 1 crore digitally linked health records with over 27 lakh records linked in a day.
• The Government of India launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to promote healthcare digitisation and to build an open, interoperable digital health ecosystem for the country.
• It intends to accomplish this by prescribing common health data standards and developing core modules such as the registry of health facilities, healthcare professionals, and other interoperability requirements, so that various digital health systems can interact with one another by enabling seamless data sharing across various healthcare providers who may use different digital health systems.
• The integration of various resources is the primary focus on digitisation of processes in healthcare institutions. As a result, the goal of ABDM is to bridge the gap between the various stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem.
• In the same vein, the National Health Authority (NHA) launched a public dashboard for near real-time information on its flagship scheme, ABDM, in May of this year. The ABDM public dashboard provides detailed information on the mission’s core registries, which include Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) numbers, Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR), and Health Facility Registry (HFR).
• On August 15, 2020, the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) pilot project was launched in the six union territories of Ladakh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman, and the Nicobar Islands. On September 27, 2021, Prime Minister announced the nationwide rollout of this pilot project under the name “Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.”

• Himachal Medical Officers Association (HMOA) has alleged that the government was trying to implement the Mobile Clinic Scheme without the required manpower and facilities.
• The Chief Minister had announced that doctors would be recruited separately for the scheme.
• According to HMOA official, the doctors for the scheme are being drawn from PHCs and CHCs.
• According to HMOA official, there is also lack of some basic facilities for the diagnosis of the patients.
• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had announced this scheme during the Budget Session.
• Under this scheme, a mobile medical unit, comprising a doctor, a pharmacist and a lab technician, would provide healthcare services in remote and un-serviced areas in all 68 Assembly constituencies.

• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated a new Milkfed plant at Chakkar in Balh area of Mandi district. Constructed at a cost of Rs 16.32 crore, the new plant would increase its capacity to over 50,000 litres.
• This plant would process milk in a semi-automatic way, which would provide the facility of procurement of more milk from the farmers.
• The HP Milkfed collected about 395 lakh litres of milk from 47,295 farmers of the state during 2021-22 and Rs 110.56 crore was paid to farmers.
• The purchase of milk has increased by 78 per cent, that is, from 219.00 lakh litres in 2017-18 to 395.39 lakh litres in 2021-22.
• The total turnover of Himachal Pradesh Milk Federation in the year 2017-18 was Rs 99 crore, which has increased to Rs 172 crore in 2021-22, he added.
• An increase of Rs 9 per litre was made in the price of milk purchased from farmers, from Rs 22.90 per litre in the year 2017-18 to Rs 31.90 per litre in 2022-23.
• The commission of milk societies was increased from 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent and the Milk Federation was paying the best price to the milk producers in the country.
• The Milkfed has 11 milk processing plants, one cattle feed plant and one powder plant functioning in the state.
• With the commissioning of milk plant Chakkar, Mandi, the daily capacity of milk has increased from 100000 litres to 130000 litres. He said that another milk processing plant of 50,000 litres capacity was under construction in Duttnagar, of which 70 per cent work has been completed.

This plant would facilitate about thousands of farmers from Mandi, Kullu and other districts

• Dilip Tirkey, a former India hockey captain and member of the gold medal-winning team at the 1998 Asian Games, was unanimously elected as Hockey India (HI)
• First time in history, a former sportsperson and an Olympian has gone on to head the national body.
• Tirkey, 44, has a record 412 international matches as a defender in his career spanning more than 15 years.
• He represented India at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, and Athens in 2004.
• The Hockey India elections were supposed to be completed by October 9, according to the deadline set in August by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the Committee of Administrators (CoA).
• Prior to Tirkey’s election as president, Hockey India was subject to the COA’s jurisdiction on the orders of the Delhi High Court due to an alleged violation of the National Sports Act.