September 2026 in current affairs: forty-six stories for CUET

World Tourism Day, 27 September, was observed in 2026 on the theme 'Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism'. Government figures released for the day put tourism's share of India's GDP at 5.22 per cent, supporting 8.46 crore jobs in 2023-24; domestic tourist visits reached 428.55 crore in 2025 and foreign tourist visits 2.53 crore.

The 11th Ayurveda Day was celebrated on 23 September 2026, with the main event in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on the theme 'Ayurveda for a Healthier Tomorrow' ('स्वस्थ भविष्य के लिए आयुर्वेद'). The Ministry of Ayush ran it as a nationwide health-communication campaign in the weeks before the day.

Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 began on 17 September 2026 with the theme 'Swachhata Mein Sahbhag; Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat'. Observed every year since 2017, the campaign is organised jointly by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Ministry of Jal Shakti) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and leads up to 2 October, when special Gram Sabhas are held.

The Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 2026, which received the President's assent on 13 August 2026, comes into force on 1 October 2026 and replaces the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891. It is technology-neutral — banking records kept in physical, electronic, digital or cloud form are all recognised — and it standardises how such records are certified, including by digital signature, for use as evidence in court.

On 10 September 2026 the Department of Consumer Affairs notified the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) (Amendment) Rules, 2026, amending the 2020 rules, to come into force on 1 January 2027. Every e-commerce entity must join the convergence process of the National Consumer Helpline, may not manipulate search results, and must give complainants a copy of the recorded complaint. In 2025 about 29 per cent of the helpline's 17.7 lakh grievances concerned e-commerce.

The Department of Consumer Affairs notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026 on 27 August 2026, published in the Gazette on 29 August, towards 'One Nation, One Time': IST becomes the common, legally recognised time reference for telecom, payments, power grids and other critical systems. The rules take effect 180 days after publication. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, India's National Metrology Institute, keeps IST traceable to within a few nanoseconds of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), backed by secondary timescales at five regional laboratories in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad and Guwahati.

On 30 September 2026 the Union Cabinet approved Phase III of the Green Energy Corridor (GEC-III), to strengthen transmission within States so that up to 135 GW of renewable power can be carried across States and Union Territories. It also provides for 50 GWh of battery energy storage, to deal with intermittency, congestion and demand after sunset. The scheme is to be in place by 2032-33 at a total outlay of ₹1,86,405 crore, with central financial support of ₹54,082 crore; the Government says it will help reach 900 GW of installed non-fossil capacity by 2035.

On 30 September 2026 Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav launched the guidelines for National Coastal Mission 2.0, a Central Sector Scheme with an outlay of ₹767 crore, to run until 2030-31 across nine coastal States and four Union Territories. It aims to make the coasts more resilient and to unlock the blue economy, through vulnerability assessments, ecosystem restoration, pollution management, biodiversity conservation, sustainable tourism and spatial planning.

By 28 September 2026 more than one crore FASTag Annual Passes had been issued since the pass was launched on 15 August 2025, the Road Transport Ministry said. For a one-time fee of ₹3,075 the pass is valid for one year or 200 toll-plaza crossings, at about 1,150 fee plazas on National Highways and National Expressways. It is for non-commercial vehicles with a valid FASTag, and is bought through the Rajmargyatra app.

Make in India, launched on 25 September 2014 to make India a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation, completed twelve years in September 2026. The Government credits it, with schemes such as Production Linked Incentives (PLI), PM GatiShakti, the National Single Window System and the India Industrial Land Bank, with growth in electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, railways and defence manufacturing. It was later widened as Make in India 2.0.

From 1 October 2026 domestic LPG consumers need to have completed Biometric Aadhaar Authentication to book refills at the regulated price with subsidy. It links each connection to a verified person so that subsidised cylinders are not diverted to commercial use and duplicate connections are removed. It can be done at delivery through the oil company's app, at the distributor's showroom or by other means; those who have done it once need not repeat it.

PM Vishwakarma, run by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for traditional artisans and craftspeople, completed three years on 17 September 2026, marked in Kolkata. Since its launch on 17 September 2023, 30 lakh beneficiaries have registered and about 24.5 lakh have received basic skill training; the scheme also gives modern toolkits, collateral-free credit and market support. West Bengal joined the scheme in May 2026.

On 16 September 2026 the Union Cabinet approved the Ministry of Labour and Employment's proposal to raise the wage ceiling for mandatory EPFO coverage from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month. The ceiling had last been raised in September 2014, when it went to ₹15,000.

More than 51 lakh additional employees are expected to come under mandatory coverage. EPFO runs three schemes, the Employees' Provident Fund, the Employees' Pension Scheme and the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme. It has about 7.98 crore contributing members in about 7.68 lakh establishments, and the pension scheme pays about 82 lakh pensioners. Those figures describe EPFO as it already is, and they sit in the same release as the 51 lakh, which is the one about the change.

By 11 September 2026 more than 80 lakh doses of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine had been given under the National HPV Vaccination Campaign, launched by the Prime Minister in February 2026 to protect girls against cervical cancer. It offers 14-year-old girls a free, voluntary single dose at government health facilities, with parental consent — an annual cohort of about 1.2 crore girls.

On 30 September 2026 the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs raised the Minimum Support Prices of all mandated rabi crops for the 2027-28 marketing season. The largest increase was for safflower, ₹675 a quintal, followed by rapeseed and mustard, ₹413, and lentil (masur), ₹390. Wheat rose by ₹25, to ₹2,610 a quintal; at an expected 106 per cent over its cost of production, it has the widest margin of the six crops. The prices follow the rule, announced in the 2018-19 Budget, of at least 1.5 times the all-India weighted average cost of production.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 8.0 per cent in August 2026 over a year earlier, up from 6.7 per cent in July, by the quick estimate released on 28 September. Manufacturing grew 9.0 per cent and electricity 12.3 per cent, while mining and quarrying shrank 5.6 per cent. Manufacturing has now grown 8 per cent or more for three months running; motor vehicles, electrical equipment and other transport equipment contributed most. On its new base year, 2022-23, the index stood at 123.3.

On 24 September 2026 the Government cut the Basic Customs Duty on crude sunflower oil from 10 per cent to nil, and on crude soybean oil and crude palm oil from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, to ease domestic prices after a sharp rise in world edible oil prices. Duty on refined oils was cut too, keeping a gap of 19.25 per cent between crude and refined oils.

The Reserve Bank's annual survey finds that India's software services exports rose 8.2 per cent in 2025-26, to US$ 221.4 billion. Counting services delivered by the foreign affiliates of Indian companies, the total rose 9.5 per cent, to US$ 239.3 billion.

The United States stayed the main destination, with a 54.1 per cent share, followed by European countries with 31.8 per cent. 91.7 per cent of the exports were delivered off-site. The US dollar was the main invoicing currency, followed by the euro, the rupee and the pound sterling.

Retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index, now on the base year 2024=100, was 4.82 per cent in August 2026 (provisional), up from 4.45 per cent in July: 5.23 per cent in rural and 4.31 per cent in urban areas. Food inflation, by the Consumer Food Price Index, was 5.95 per cent. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the figures on 14 September 2026.

On 2 September 2026 the Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) upgraded India's long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer ratings by one notch, from 'BBB+' to 'A-', with a Stable outlook, and raised India's country ceiling to 'A'. JCR cited strong growth — real GDP grew 7.8 per cent in 2025-26 and again in the first quarter of 2026-27 — better quality of spending, and a fall in the Centre's fiscal deficit from 4.7 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 to 4.4 per cent in 2025-26.

India set out its justice reforms at the 15th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in Abu Dhabi, the Law Ministry said on 30 September 2026. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal spoke about the three new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — and about India's response to cyber-crime through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). The Congress's theme links crime prevention and the rule of law to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in the digital age.

The second edition of the ASEAN–India Maritime Exercise (AIME-2026) began at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 28 September 2026, with the Indian Navy's INS Sahyadri and INS Kulish and the maritime forces of ASEAN member states. Its theme is 'Anchored in Trust, United at Sea'. A harbour phase of professional and social exchanges leads into a sea phase of coordinated exercises. The Navy says the exercise furthers India's Act East Policy and its MAHASAGAR vision — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions.

India and New Zealand announced on 21 September 2026 that their Free Trade Agreement will enter into force on 20 October 2026. It was signed on 27 April 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and New Zealand's Trade Minister Todd McClay; New Zealand's Parliament passed the enabling law on 16 September. The Prime Minister's visit to New Zealand in July 2026 was the first by an Indian Prime Minister in four decades.

Exercise Nomadic Elephant, the annual platoon-level exercise of the Indian Army and the Mongolian Armed Forces, held alternately in the two countries, opened at the Foreign Training Node, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, on 21 September 2026 and runs to 3 October, with 45 personnel from each side. It trains for counter-insurgency operations in semi-urban and mountainous terrain under a United Nations mandate. The previous edition was in Ulaanbaatar in 2025.

The 22nd edition of the India–US joint military exercise Yudh Abhyas opened on 15 September 2026 at the Foreign Training Node, Auli, in Uttarakhand, and ran at the same time at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan, with about 600 soldiers from each side. It trained for integrated battle groups in mountainous terrain, with drones and autonomous systems for surveillance.

On 14 September 2026 Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Uruguay's Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin, for Uruguay's pro tempore presidency of MERCOSUR, announced the launch of negotiations to expand the India–MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement to more areas of mutual interest. The two sides are finalising the terms of reference for the expanded agreement.

The eighteenth BRICS Summit was held in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September 2026, under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" — five words whose initials spell BRICS, which is both how the theme was chosen and the easiest way to hold it.

The New Delhi Declaration restates cooperation as resting on three pillars: political and security; economic and financial; and cultural and people-to-people. It records the contribution of partner countries and the growing role of the New Development Bank, which it describes as entering its second decade.

The nineteenth summit is to be held in China.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever made an official visit to India from 2 to 4 September 2026, his first since taking office in February 2025. The leaders recalled the more than 9,000 Indian soldiers who died in Flanders in the First World War, and that Belgium was among the first European countries to establish diplomatic relations with India, in 1947. They welcomed the first India–Belgium Strategic Dialogue, held in Brussels on 15 July 2026.

The 26th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, from 31 August to 1 September 2026. It fell in the organisation's 25th anniversary year. Besides the Bishkek Declaration, four MoUs and over twenty decisions and statements were adopted.

Several items India had backed went into the Declaration: English in the SCO Charter as an official language, a Civilisation Dialogue Forum, a Young Scientist Forum and a Young Author's Conclave. The Prime Minister said India would host the first edition of the SCO Civilisation Dialogue Forum later in 2026.

On 18 September 2026 in Bengaluru, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) handed over two Light Combat Aircraft Tejas twin-seat trainers, built to the Final Operational Clearance standard, and three HTT-40 basic trainers to the Indian Air Force, and four Dhruv Next Generation helicopters to Pawan Hans Limited, in the presence of the Defence and Civil Aviation Ministers.

The Ocean Research Vessel Sagar Manthan was launched at the Rishi Bankim Shipyard in Kolkata on 9 September 2026. It was designed and built by the defence shipbuilder Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

On 9 September 2026 ISRO ran the flight acceptance hot test of the CE20 cryogenic engine picked for LVM3's seventh operational mission, M7. The test was held at the Main Engine and stage Test facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri. The engine will be assembled into the C32 upper stage for the M7 mission, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Future LVM3 missions plan to run the CE20 at an uprated thrust of 22 tonnes to carry heavier payloads, so the test was run at 22t. It also demonstrated a LOX tank pressurisation module meant for the C32 stages of Gaganyaan.

GSLV-F17 flew on 4 September 2026 from the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, and placed EOS-05 into a sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit. It was the nineteenth flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.

ISRO describes EOS-05 as India's first imaging satellite from geosynchronous orbit. Height is the point of it: a camera that holds station over the same longitude can watch one region continuously, where a satellite in a low polar orbit has to come round again before it sees the same ground.

India stressed the conservation of whales and other cetaceans at the 70th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC-70), held in Hobart, Australia, from 28 September to 2 October 2026. The meeting coincides with the 80th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, signed in Washington, D.C., on 2 December 1946, under which the IWC was set up; the Commission has 89 member governments.

On 26 September 2026 the foundation stone was laid for India's first port-based e-methanol plant, at the Deendayal Port Authority in Kandla, Gujarat. The ₹2,300 crore, 150-tonne-a-day plant will make e-methanol — a green shipping fuel — from renewable power, water and biogenic carbon dioxide, for ships on the Asia–Europe trade route. It is a joint venture of the port and Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd of Namrup; the first 50-tonne-a-day phase is due by January 2027.

Neeru Dhanda won the women's trap gold at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on 29 September 2026, becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual Asian Games gold in trap shooting. The Prime Minister called it a historic moment, praising her accuracy and composure, and said it would encourage more young people to take up shooting.

The 46th Chess Olympiad ended in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 27 September 2026. In the open section the hosts beat Ukraine 2.5–1.5 in the last round to win their second Olympiad title, after Chennai 2022; India took silver after a 2–2 draw with Hungary, and Germany took bronze. In the women's section China won gold and Kazakhstan silver, and India drew 2–2 with Georgia and took bronze on tiebreak.

India came to Samarkand as the champions of both sections, having won both at Budapest in 2024.

The 65th Subroto Cup International Football Tournament ended at the Dr B R Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi, where Minerva Public School (CISCE), Mohali, beat MIC EMHSS of Kerala 3–2 to win the Junior Boys (Under-17) title. Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, chairman of the Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society, presented the trophy.

The 2026 Asian Games were held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October, on a five-cluster competition model. On 8 September the Sports Ministry sent off a 503-member Indian contingent of athletes and support staff, more than 300 of them first-timers. IOA President P.T. Usha was at the send-off, and Sahdev Yadav was Chef de Mission.

The mark to beat was the 107 medals India won at Hangzhou in 2022, its highest Asian Games tally. A March 2026 review expected more than 700 athletes; that was a projection, and 503 is the contingent that went.

India finished 10th at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, held in Shanghai, China, from 23 to 26 September 2026, with six silver medals and 20 Medals for Excellence. It sent its largest-ever contingent, 70 competitors in 63 skills; the competition as a whole drew more than 1,400 young competitors from about 68 countries and regions, in 64 skills. Students of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) won two of India's silver medals.

Timur Turlov, president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, was elected President of FIDE, the International Chess Federation, on 26 September 2026. The vote was held at the FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, alongside the 46th Chess Olympiad. He led the first round with 96 votes against two candidates from Germany, and won the second by 110 votes to 85.

Turlov, 38, is the second-youngest FIDE President ever elected, and its eighth. He succeeds Arkady Dvorkovich, who served two terms, from 2018 to 2026.

President Droupadi Murmu conferred the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on 22 September 2026. 'Article 370' won Best Feature Film, and Yami Gautam Best Actress in a Leading Role for it; the Best Actor award was shared by Mammootty ('Bramayugam') and Kartik Aaryan ('Chandu Champion'); Rajkumar Periasamy won Best Direction for 'Amaran'. Anant Nag received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

The veteran actor Anant Nag has been named for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2024, to be conferred at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony scheduled for 22 September 2026 at Kevadia, Gujarat. The award carries the year 2024 because it belongs to that year's National Film Awards, even though it is presented in 2026.

Nag made his acting debut in the Kannada film Sankalp and his Hindi debut in Ankur, and received the Padma Bhushan in 2025. The award was instituted in 1969, when it was presented to Devika Rani. It carries a Swarna Kamal medallion, a shawl and ₹10 lakh.

Dr Vinaya Prakash Singh, an Indian Postal Service officer, was re-elected unopposed as Secretary-General of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU) at its 14th Congress in Bangkok on 4 September 2026, for a second four-year term from January 2027 to December 2030. The APPU, headquartered in Bangkok, has 32 member countries and is a regional union of the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

The Sports Ministry announced the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards for 2024 on 2 September 2026: Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin for land adventure, Rimo Saha for water adventure, and Shiv Prasad Chamoli for lifetime achievement. Each receives a statuette, a certificate and ₹15 lakh from the President, together with the National Sports Awards 2025.

On 1 September 2026 Air Vice Marshal Shakti Sharma became the first woman officer outside the medical services in India's defence forces to reach the rank of Air Vice Marshal or its equivalent, and took over as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Education) at Air Headquarters. Commissioned into the IAF's Education Branch on 18 June 1994, she was earlier the first woman officer from the three services to command a Sainik School, as Principal of Sainik School, Kapurthala.