Current Affairs 8 September 2026

Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

Draft Amendment to Rule 65 of Drugs Rules Proposes CCTV at Prescription Drug Outlets

•The Union Health Ministry issued a draft gazette notification on 8 September 2026 amending Rule 65 of the Drugs Rules, 1945.
•Medical premises supplying prescription drugs, other than wholesale dealers, would have to install CCTV and keep recordings for at least three months.
•The aim is tighter oversight of Schedule H, H1 and X drugs, which may be sold only on a registered medical practitioner's prescription.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

NDSA Reviews Jharkhand's Dam Safety Act Compliance, Seeks Plan for Category-II Dams

•The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) reviewed Jharkhand's implementation of the Dam Safety Act, 2021 on 8 September 2026, and inspected Nalkari Dam (8 Sep) and Latratu Dam, a Category-II dam (9 Sep).
•Jharkhand was asked for a dam-wise action plan covering Comprehensive Dam Safety Evaluation (CDSE), Emergency Action Plans and rehabilitation of Category-II dams.
•NDSA pressed for Independent Panels of Experts and for rebuilding the State Dam Safety Organisation as a dedicated body rather than a committee.

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DefenceMediumquizQuiz

Russia Unveils S-71K Kovyor Stand-Off Missile for Su-57E in Egypt

•Russia publicly unveiled the S-71K Kovyor, an air-launched stand-off weapon for its Su-57E fifth-generation export fighter, at the El Alamein International Airshow in Egypt, which opened on 8 September 2026.
•The Kovyor abandons the conventional cylindrical missile body for a flattened, aircraft-like planform with a trapezoidal nose, low-mounted swept wings and inverted V-tails.
•Turbojet propulsion and three internal fuel tanks give it a powered cruise profile of about 300-350 km, so it can approach a target from a different axis than the launching aircraft.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Copper Sets Record High on LME Amid US Tariff Fears and Tight Supply

•Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.3% to about $14,703 a tonne in official open-outcry trading on 8 September 2026, an all-time high for the contract.
•The record came a session after the metal passed its previous peak of $14,527.50 a tonne, set in January 2026, during a rally that ran for several consecutive sessions.
•The rally was driven by expectations that the United States would extend tariffs to imports of refined copper, pulling metal into American warehouses and draining stocks elsewhere.

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Awards & HonoursMediumquizQuiz

UNESCO International Literacy Prizes 2026 Awarded to Six Programmes at Chiapas, Mexico

•UNESCO presented its International Literacy Prizes 2026 to six programmes from Colombia, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Thailand.
•The awards were given at the International Literacy Day global celebration held on 8-9 September 2026 in the State of Chiapas, Mexico - the 60th International Literacy Day.
•Three laureates won the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize (supported by the Republic of Korea) and three the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (supported by China); each receives US$30,000, a medal and a diploma.

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Science & TechHighquizQuiz

OpenAI Claims Navier-Stokes Blow-Up Result, Mathematicians Allege Their Work Was Scooped

•On 8 September 2026 OpenAI announced that a swarm of its AI agents had produced a claimed result on the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of the seven Clay Millennium Prize Problems.
•The claim is not a proof that smooth solutions always exist; it asserts the opposite branch - finite-time blow-up, in which the computed speed of a three-dimensional fluid grows without limit in finite time, corresponding to Fefferman's alternatives (C) and (D).
•The run used roughly 10,000 parallel agents over about 88 hours, exchanging 2.7 million messages and some 130 billion output tokens, producing a 166-page paper formalised in the proof assistant Lean.

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InternationalHighquizQuiz

UK Bans Imports From Israeli Settlements in the Occupied West Bank

•On 8 September 2026 the United Kingdom announced a ban on imports of all goods originating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
•Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons that Israel's occupation is unlawful and accused settlers of carrying out 'ethnic cleansing' in parts of the West Bank.
•The package goes beyond trade in goods: British firms are barred from providing services that facilitate settlement expansion, export licences that would materially assist the occupation will be refused, and sanctions on settler organisations and individuals will be widened.

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Awards & HonoursMediumquizQuiz

Former CJI Dipak Misra Conferred Kalinga Ratna Award 2026 at Cuttack

•Justice Dipak Misra, the 45th Chief Justice of India, was conferred the Kalinga Ratna Award 2026 at a ceremony in Cuttack on 8 September 2026.
•The award is instituted and conferred by Sarala Sahitya Sansad, a literary and cultural organisation based in Cuttack, Odisha.
•It comprises an artistically crafted silver idol of Goddess Saraswati along with a formal citation.

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DefenceMediumquizQuiz

US Navy Selects L3Harris VAMPIRE Counter-Drone System for Littoral Defence

•The United States Navy selected the VAMPIRE counter-unmanned system for coastal and littoral defence on 8 September 2026.
•VAMPIRE stands for Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment and is built by L3Harris Technologies, headquartered at Melbourne, Florida.
•It is a palletised kit that can be fitted to different vehicle platforms and fires 70 mm AGR-20A APKWS laser-guided rockets at aerial, ground and sea-based targets.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Meta Launches Muse, a Personal AI Agent That Performs Tasks

•Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent, on 8 September 2026, releasing it first to users in the United States; India was not in the launch geography.
•Unlike a chatbot, Muse acts on a stated goal — it books and schedules, shops, fills forms, sends emails and keeps working after the app is closed.
•Muse runs inside a dedicated sandbox called Muse Secure VM, which has its own browser and computing resources, and a second agent screens what it may send to the internet.

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History & CultureMediumquizQuiz

Maharashtra Orders Survey of Unauthorised Structures Around Shivneri Fort

•Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister chaired a review meeting at Mantralaya and directed officials to carry out an objective assessment of unauthorised constructions, graves, dargahs and other structures in and around Shivneri Fort.
•Officials were told to act on unauthorised constructions in the fort's buffer zone within seven days.
•The meeting was attended by the Pune district collector, the superintendent of police, Archaeological Survey of India officials, state archaeology officials, the tehsildar and police officers.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

DoT's Financial Fraud Risk Indicator Prevents Over Rs 5,000 Crore in Cyber Fraud Losses

•The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has prevented suspected cyber fraud losses of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the 15 months since its launch.
•Cumulative savings rose from Rs 139.16 crore in August 2025 to Rs 5,043.73 crore by August 2026, with over Rs 2,000 crore of that prevented in the four months from April 2026 alone.
•The FRI was launched on 22 May 2025 by DoT's Digital Intelligence Unit; it classifies mobile numbers as Medium, High or Very High Risk for likely involvement in financial fraud.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Island Gets EUR 1 Billion EIB Facility for Energy Island Phase Two

•Elia Transmission Belgium's EUR 1 billion green credit facility from the European Investment Bank for the Princess Elisabeth Island came into public view in early September 2026, with coverage on 8 September.
•Princess Elisabeth Island, about 45 km off the Belgian coast in the North Sea, is billed as the world's first artificial energy island - a 5-hectare offshore hub for connecting offshore wind to the grid.
•It is designed to connect up to 3.15 GW of offshore wind capacity and is expected to be operational in 2031.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Akasa Air Flies First Commercial Flight on 1% Sustainable Aviation Fuel Blend from BPCL

•Akasa Air operated its first commercial flight on aviation turbine fuel blended with 1% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on 8 September 2026, between Mumbai and Goa.
•The SAF blend was supplied by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a public sector oil marketing company.
•The flight left Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, at 13:05 IST and landed at Manohar International Airport, Goa, at 14:30 IST.

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ObituariesLowquizQuiz

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's First Post-Handover Chief Executive, Dies at 89

•Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, died on 8 September 2026 at a Hong Kong hospital, aged 89.
•He held office from 1 July 1997, when Britain transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, until 12 March 2005, and was succeeded by Donald Tsang.
•A Shanghai-born shipping magnate, he ran the family group Orient Overseas; Orient Overseas (International) Ltd was sold to state-owned COSCO Shipping in a deal announced in July 2017.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Google DeepMind Releases AlphaGenome Atlas Covering All 9 Billion Human DNA Variants

•Google DeepMind launched the AlphaGenome Atlas on 8 September 2026 as an open-access database of precomputed AI predictions for all 9 billion possible single-letter mutations in human DNA.
•The dataset is about 1 petabyte, which DeepMind says is more than 30 times the size of the AlphaFold Database.
•It introduces the AlphaGenome Variant Impact (AVI) score, a single metric for ranking both coding and non-coding mutations.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

New Lichen Species Buellia maharajensis Described from Mathikettan Shola National Park

•Buellia maharajensis, a new saxicolous (rock-dwelling) lichen species, has been described from Mathikettan Shola National Park in Idukki district, Kerala, reported on 8 September 2026.
•It was recorded at an elevation of about 1,351 metres and named in tribute to Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, on its 150th anniversary.
•The description, by a five-member team from Maharaja's College, the KSCSTE-Kerala Forest Research Institute and CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, appeared in the botany journal Taiwania.

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DefenceMediumquizQuiz

IAF to Hold Dronathon-2026 at Pokhran Range on Drone and Counter-Drone Systems

•The Indian Air Force announced on 8 September 2026 that it will hold Dronathon-2026 at the Pokhran range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, from 14 to 16 September 2026.
•The three-day event covers Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS) through static displays and live tactical demonstrations.
•Focus areas are surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous operations, swarm technologies and electronic warfare.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Five Baby Orangutans Rescued in Odisha's Balasore; Trafficking Probe Ordered

•The Odisha Forest Department rescued five juvenile orangutans (three male, two female) from a forest in Bhograi block, Balasore district, on 8 September 2026.
•Orangutans are not native to India — wild populations exist only on Borneo and Sumatra — so the case points to international wildlife trafficking.
•The animals were moved to Nandankanan Zoological Park, Bhubaneswar, for quarantine; the state asked the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to trace the route, and the Crime Branch STF joined the probe on 9 September.

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State NewsMediumquizQuiz

Tripura Records Zero Dropout Rate at Primary Level in 2025–26

•Tripura CM Manik Saha announced on 8 September 2026 that the state's primary-level (Classes I–V) dropout rate reached zero in 2025–26, citing UDISE+ data.
•The primary dropout rate was 2.21% in 2013–14; the secondary rate fell from 25.51% to 10.40% over the same period.
•The announcement came at the International Literacy Day and ULLAS Mela 2026 in New Delhi.

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BusinessMediumquizQuiz

ONGC Announces ₹2,000-Crore Fund for Energy Deeptech Start-Ups

•ONGC Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar Singh announced a ₹2,000-crore Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) for deeptech energy start-ups at IIT Bombay on 8 September 2026.
•The fund will operate under Petronet LNG and pool ONGC, HPCL, IOCL, BPCL, GAIL, Oil India and Petronet LNG under one mandate.
•A tripartite MoU was signed between the MC²⁺ Foundation, IIT Bombay and its incubator SINE, with ONGC as a partner.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

India, Japan Hold 7th Forestry Working Group Meeting, Endorse 2027–31 Roadmap

•The 7th meeting of the India–Japan Joint Working Group (JWG) on cooperation in forests was held in Bengaluru on 8 September 2026.
•Both sides endorsed a Roadmap for 2027–2031 under the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2015.
•Discussions centred on Trees Outside Forests, Forest Genetics and Forest Stack.

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DefenceMediumquizQuiz

India and Morocco Hold Inaugural Joint Defence Committee Meeting in New Delhi

•India and Morocco held the first-ever meeting of their Joint Defence Committee (JDC) in New Delhi on 8 September 2026.
•It was co-chaired by Amitabh Prasad, Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), MoD, and Brigadier General Abdellah Athmani, Chief of the 2nd Bureau of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces.
•The JDC flows from the Defence Cooperation MoU signed during Rajnath Singh's September 2025 visit, the first ever by an Indian Defence Minister to Morocco.

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Agreements & MoUsMediumquizQuiz

Food Department and FCI Sign FY 2026-27 MoU to Cut Losses and Digitise Foodgrain Management

•The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) signed an MoU for FY 2026-27 in New Delhi on 8 September 2026.
•It sets annual, outcome-based targets on storage and transit losses, storage-capacity use, logistics, quality control, digitisation and employee skills.
•Part of the targets are tied to depot scores on the Depot Darpan portal.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

US Labor Department Suspends Cognizant, Cloudera Green Card Labour Filings Amid Visa Probe

•On 8 September 2026 the US Department of Labor temporarily suspended new PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) filings by Cognizant, and about an hour later by Cloudera.
•The suspensions, announced by Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito, come under a probe launched on 8 July 2026 into alleged fraud in the H-1B and PERM programmes.
•PERM is the first step for most employer-sponsored green cards; existing approvals and H-1B visas are not cancelled, and no charges had been filed.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Coal Ministry Launches India's First Sector-Specific CSR Framework for Coal Companies

•The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited launched the Comprehensive CSR Framework for Indian Coal Companies in New Delhi on 8 September 2026.
•It is the first sector-specific CSR framework since statutory CSR came in under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013; the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs drafted it.
•The framework aims to make CSR in mining regions transparent, outcome-oriented and measurable, built around local community needs.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

US Bans Canadian Alcohol, Dairy and Motorcycle Imports as Trade War Escalates

•On 8 September 2026 US President Donald Trump signed five executive orders banning most Canadian alcohol, whey and other dairy products, molasses, non-alcoholic beer and larger motorcycles, effective 29 September 2026.
•A further 50% tariff was imposed on Canadian steel beams and girders, aluminium bars and tubes, mattresses, motorboats and golf carts from 15 September 2026.
•The General Services Administration was told to strip Canadian-origin products from its Multiple Award Schedules for federal procurement.

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Banking & FinanceMediumquizQuiz

PM Modi Opens 7th Global Fintech Fest, Proposes Fintech Consumer Protection Index

•PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the 7th Global Fintech Fest (GFF) in Mumbai on 8 September 2026; the fest runs 8-11 September.
•He urged fintech firms to move beyond payments into credit, insurance, savings, investments and pensions.
•He set out four priorities: top-notch cybersecurity, ethical data protection, a strong regulator-industry innovation ecosystem, and a fintech consumer protection index.

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Agreements & MoUsLowquizQuiz

Australia Announces Five Space Industry Partnerships with India at Bengaluru Space Expo 2026

•Australia announced five industry partnerships with Indian space entities at the 9th Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX), held 7-9 September 2026.
•Perth-based LatConnect 60 will use NewSpace India Limited's ground stations for telemetry, tracking and command of its SWIRSAT satellites.
•Other tie-ups cover research and education (University of Western Australia with the Space Industry Association of India) and spacecraft re-entry and recovery with Indian start-ups.

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History & CultureMediumquizQuiz

Rare Siditale Hero Stone Found at Barakuru in Udupi District

•A rare 'Siditale' hero stone has been discovered at the Panchalingeshwara Temple in Barakuru (Barkur), Udupi district, Karnataka, during an epigraphical survey.
•It is the first hero stone of this specific type reported from Tulunadu, the coastal Kannada-Tulu region.
•The stone, about four feet tall, is carved in three panels depicting a self-sacrifice ritual, the hero's ascent to heaven and his presence before Shiva.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

ICMR Study Flags Nicotine Pouches Slipping Through India's Tobacco Laws

•A study led by the ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research finds nicotine pouches reaching Indian cities through online platforms, hookah shops and gig delivery services.
•The study follows a World Health Organization warning of 15 May 2026 that nicotine pouch brands are targeting young people as sales surge.
•No Indian law clearly covers the product: COTPA, 2003 lists specific tobacco products and pouches are not among them, and they contain no tobacco leaf.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

Macron Urges EU-Wide Social Media Ban for Children Under 15

•The Elysee Palace disclosed on 8 September 2026 that President Emmanuel Macron has written to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seeking an EU-wide ban on social media access for children under 15.
•The letter, dated 29 August 2026, asks for a new European legislative text so the rule is harmonised across all 27 member states.
•Macron turned to Brussels after France's Constitutional Council struck down the national ban on 14 August 2026 as a disproportionate infringement of freedom of expression and communication and of privacy.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PM-SETU Panel Clears Rs 735.70 Crore for Three ITI Clusters

•The 5th National Steering Committee of PM-SETU approved Strategic Investment Plans worth Rs 735.70 crore for ITI clusters in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.
•Total sanctioned investment under the scheme rises to Rs 2,171 crore across nine ITI clusters.
•Cluster-wise: Bhiwadi (Rajasthan) Rs 241 crore, Medchal (Telangana) Rs 254.30 crore, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) Rs 240.40 crore, each covering five ITIs.

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Awards & HonoursMediumquizQuiz

72nd National Film Awards to Honour 92 Winners at Statue of Unity

•The 72nd National Film Awards ceremony will be held on 22 September 2026 at the Statue of Unity complex in Ekta Nagar, Narmada district, Gujarat, honouring 92 winners.
•It is the first time in more than five decades that the ceremony moves out of New Delhi; the last relocation was the 17th edition, held in Madras (now Chennai) on 21 November 1970.
•Winners were announced by the National Film Development Corporation of India on 18 July 2026; Article 370 won Best Feature Film and Yami Gautam won Best Actress.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Astrogate Labs Develops India's First Indigenous Optical Inter-Satellite Link

•Astrogate Labs announced India's first indigenous Optical Inter-Satellite Link (OISL) terminal, for direct satellite-to-satellite laser communication, targeting full flight readiness by 2027.
•The announcement was made at the 9th Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX 2026), held from 7 to 9 September 2026 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre.
•The company also demonstrated AstroLink Micro, a 10 Gbps space-to-ground laser communication terminal.

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NationalHighquizQuiz

PM Modi Dedicates Rs 35,000 Crore Projects, Completing Western Freight Corridor

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth over Rs 35,000 crore at Vadodara, Gujarat, on 8 September 2026.
•Three sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor totalling 326 route km, built at over Rs 20,700 crore, were dedicated to the nation, completing the corridor's operationalisation.
•The sections are Sanand (North)-Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), giving direct freight access to Mumbai's port.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Agnikul Cosmos Opens STIF and PROOF Facilities for Reusable Rockets

•Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos inaugurated two facilities on 8 September 2026 - the Stage Testing and Inspection Facility (STIF) and the Pressurant Tank Realisation, Over-wrapping and Outfitting Facility (PROOF).
•STIF tests complete rocket stages with integrated propulsion and avionics at thrust levels of 1 kN to 200 kN, with liquid oxygen sub-cooling to 73 Kelvin and burns of up to 150 seconds.
•PROOF manufactures composite overwrapped pressure vessels in-house, cutting dependence on outside vendors for pressurant tanks.

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EconomyHighquizQuiz

UK Recognises India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme for CBAM Relief

•The UK's HM Treasury has included India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) in its indicative list of overseas carbon pricing mechanisms qualifying for relief under the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
•The confirmation was conveyed to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power, which administers the CCTS.
•UK importers of eligible Indian goods can claim relief for the carbon price already paid in India, avoiding double carbon pricing.

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Banking & FinanceMediumquizQuiz

Coastal Local Area Bank Gets Scheduled Bank Status Under RBI Act

•Coastal Local Area Bank Limited, headquartered in Vijayawada, has been included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, gaining scheduled bank status.
•The inclusion was made through RBI Notification DoR.LIC.No.S3539/22-03-070/2026-27 dated 28 July 2026, published in the Gazette of India (Part III, Section 4).
•It becomes the only scheduled bank headquartered in Andhra Pradesh, while continuing to function as a local area bank.

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Important DaysMediumquizQuiz

International Literacy Day 2026 Marks 60th Anniversary in Chiapas, Mexico

•International Literacy Day 2026, observed on 8 September, marks the 60th edition of the observance.
•Theme: 'Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity', linking literacy to inclusion, environmental awareness and livelihoods.
•UNESCO's global celebration is held on 8-9 September 2026 in Chiapas, Mexico, with the Government of Mexico; the opening ceremony is at the indigenous community of San Juan Chamula.

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Summits & ConferencesMediumquizQuiz

27th World Knowledge Forum Opens in Seoul on AI Co-Intelligence

•The 27th World Knowledge Forum opened in Seoul, South Korea, on 8 September 2026 and runs for three days, until 10 September.
•The theme is 'The Promethean Moment: Architecting the Co-Intelligence Order', framing artificial intelligence as the fire of the 21st century.
•Sessions are organised around five pillars - Power, Capital, Intelligence, Planet and Humanity - at Jangchung Arena and The Shilla Seoul.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

India Joins 26-Nation Call to Action for 6G Leadership and Security

•India endorsed the United States-led Call to Action for 6G Leadership and Security, becoming the 26th government in the grouping.
•The US Department of Commerce announced India's entry after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada on the sidelines of the G20 Innovation Ministerial.
•Launched by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Call to Action pledges cooperation on secure, interoperable and resilient 6G networks, supply chains and standards for the next 12 months and beyond.

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Polity & GovernanceLowquizQuiz

Ladakh Lt Governor given additional charge of Jammu and Kashmir

•The President appointed Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, Lt. Governor of Ladakh, to discharge the functions of the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in addition to his own duties.
•The arrangement covers the period of leave of Shri Manoj Sinha, Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
•Union Territories are administered by the President through an administrator appointed by him under Article 239, which is the source of this power.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Coal Ministry launches first sector-wide CSR framework; 1,050 transplants under TBSY

•Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy launched the Comprehensive CSR Framework for Indian Coal Companies — the first sector-specific CSR framework since statutory CSR began under the Companies Act, 2013.
•The framework was prepared by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and is meant to make CSR in coal mining areas outcome-oriented.
•Coal India Limited's Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojana has completed more than 1,050 bone marrow transplants, with up to Rs. 10 lakh per patient paid directly to empanelled hospitals against a Rs. 130 crore outlay across four phases.

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Polity & GovernanceLowquizQuiz

NCSC issues notice to Punjab Government, seeks report within five days

•The National Commission for Scheduled Castes issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Government of Punjab, over the death of Gulzar Singh, a resident of Sangrur district.
•The Commission ordered the inquiry in exercise of its powers under Article 338 of the Constitution and directed that the facts and an action-taken report be submitted within five days of receipt of the notice.
•NCSC Chairman Shri Kishor Makwana announced that he would visit Sangrur on 10 September 2026 to examine the matter.

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Polity & GovernanceLowquizQuiz

MoSPI launches QPR portal on data harmonisation for administrative data use

•MoSPI held a workshop of Statistical Advisers and Chief Data Officers of all Central Ministries, Departments and Organisations on 8 September 2026 in New Delhi, themed 'Data Harmonisation for Use of Administrative Data in Data Driven Governance'.
•Shri Shaktikanta Das, Principal Secretary-2 to the Prime Minister, launched the Quarterly Progress Report (QPR) portal on data harmonisation at qpr.mospi.gov.in.
•The portal lets ministries report dataset cataloguing, metadata preparation, use of common unique identifiers and quality checks under the Statistical Quality Assurance Framework, with automated validation and cross-verification against NMDS.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

President appoints five judges to Chhattisgarh and Gauhati High Courts

•The President, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, appointed three Judicial Officers — Santosh Sharma, Sushma Sawant and Sudhir Kumar — as Judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court.
•Advocate Nchumbemo Mozhui and Judicial Officer Helen Dawngliani were appointed Additional Judges of the Gauhati High Court.
•Judges of a High Court are appointed under Article 217; Additional Judges are appointed under Article 224 for a term not exceeding two years.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

WHO South-East Asia Region adopts Dili Declaration; India wins two SEARO awards

•Health Ministers of the WHO South-East Asia Region adopted the Dili Declaration on Human Resources for Health: Equity in Specialized Care at the 79th Session of the Regional Committee (RC79) held in Timor-Leste.
•India told the ministerial roundtable that medical colleges have risen from 387 to 858 since 2014 (up 121.71%), MBBS seats from 51,348 to 1,42,464 (up 177.45%) and PG seats from 31,185 to 86,287 (up 176.69%).
•India received two WHO South-East Asia Regional awards — for sustaining elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus over a decade, and for leadership on noncommunicable diseases through primary healthcare.

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Science & TechLowquizQuiz

STPI holds Electropreneur Summit 2026, launches Open Challenge Programme

•Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) held the Electropreneur Summit 2026 at IIIT-Delhi, launching the Open Challenge Programme of the STPI Electropreneur Park to identify and support ESDM startups.
•MoUs were exchanged with 11 Spoke Centres spanning Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and with investors Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Solara VC.
•Electropreneur Park 2.0 targets 500 startups and a push into Tier-II and Tier-III cities, against EP 1.0's 59 startups, 66 patent filings and over ₹640 crore in startup valuation.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

ICAR-NRC on Mithun develops AI system to track Mithun behaviour in real time

•Researchers at the ICAR-National Research Centre on Mithun, Nagaland, have built an artificial intelligence system that detects and tracks Mithun behaviour in real time in a natural farm setting.
•Twelve high-definition CCTV cameras with infrared coverage across two sheds produced a dataset of 3,000 manually annotated images of four behaviours — feeding, standing, lying and mounting.
•The framework pairs the YOLOv8n detection model with DeepSORT tracking, achieving mAP@0.5 of 99.5 per cent, recall of 99.6 per cent and about 31 frames per second on an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU.

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DefenceLowquizQuiz

India and Morocco hold inaugural Joint Defence Committee meeting in New Delhi

•The inaugural India-Morocco Joint Defence Committee meeting was held in New Delhi on 8 September 2026, covering training and education, peacekeeping, military exercises, medical cooperation, cyber defence and defence industries.
•It was co-chaired by Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), Ministry of Defence, Shri Amitabh Prasad and Brigadier General Abdellah Athmani, Chief of the 2nd Bureau of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces.
•The Committee is the institutional mechanism created by the defence MoU signed during Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh's visit to Morocco in September 2025; the two sides are moving towards the 70th anniversary of ties in 2027.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan turns six; 10 crore-plus national pledge planned

•The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will hold a National Mass Pledge Against Drug Abuse by the end of September 2026 to mark the sixth anniversary of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA), targeting participation by over 10 crore citizens.
•The plan was firmed up at the third high-level coordination meeting chaired by Joint Secretary (Drug Prevention) Dr Sandeep Rewaji Rathod, which set out a 'Whole of Government' and 'Whole of Society' approach and a Uniform Reporting Mechanism for participation data.
•Pledge ceremonies are to be held across offices, educational institutions, autonomous bodies, PSUs and field formations of ministries including Railways, Defence, Youth Affairs & Sports, Education, Post, Police, CAPF, NCC, AYUSH, Rural Development and Health & Family Welfare.

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DefenceLowquizQuiz

Navy Chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan to visit Australia and New Zealand

•Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Chief of the Naval Staff, begins an official visit to Australia and New Zealand on 9 September 2026 to deepen cooperation with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy.
•The Australia leg follows the Third India-Australia Annual Summit of July 2026 and the Second India-Australia Defence Ministers' Dialogue of June 2026.
•The New Zealand leg follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's July 2026 visit, during which the two countries elevated ties to a Strategic Partnership, and the recently concluded Maritime Cooperation Arrangement.

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DefenceLowquizQuiz

IAF and Japan Air Self Defence Force to hold Veer Guardian-2026 at Jodhpur

•The Indian Air Force and the Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) will hold the bilateral air exercise Veer Guardian-2026 at Air Force Station Jodhpur from 9 to 22 September 2026.
•The IAF fields the indigenous LCA Tejas along with Su-30 MKI and Rafale; the JASDF participates with its F-2A fighter aircraft.
•The fourteen-day schedule covers advanced operational missions, mission planning conferences, subject-matter-expert exchanges, and engineering and aerospace-safety interactions.

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Science & TechLowquizQuiz

ARCI develops bi-layered titanium-zirconia single-piece dental implant under DST support

•Scientists at ARCI, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have developed a single-piece dental implant that fuses a titanium alloy fixture with a zirconia crown region.
•The single-piece design removes the abutment interface, where micromovements can compromise osseointegration, and cuts the two to three surgeries a conventional implant needs.
•It was made by Spark Plasma Sintering in a custom tapered graphite die, reaching 99.5% density with a crack-free interface; the work is published in Materials Letters.

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EnvironmentLowquizQuiz

7th India-Japan Joint Working Group on Forests meets at Bengaluru, endorses 2027-2031 roadmap

•The 7th meeting of the India-Japan Joint Working Group on cooperation in forests was held at Bengaluru on 8 September 2026.
•The Indian side was led by the Additional Director General (Forests), MoEFCC, and the Japanese side by a Deputy Director General of the Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
•The two sides endorsed a Roadmap for 2027-2031 under the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2015 and signed the Minutes of the 7th JWG.

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Science & TechHighquizQuiz

DoT's Financial Fraud Risk Indicator prevents over Rs 5,000 crore of suspected cyber fraud in 15 months

•The Department of Telecommunications says its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has helped prevent suspected cyber fraud losses of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the fifteen months since its launch on 22 May 2025.
•Cumulative prevention rose from Rs 139.16 crore in August 2025 to Rs 5,043.73 crore by August 2026, with over Rs 2,000 crore prevented in the four months from April 2026 alone.
•FRI is built on DoT's Digital Intelligence Platform and classifies mobile numbers as Medium, High or Very High risk using inputs from Sanchar Saathi, I4C's National Cybercrime Reporting Portal and telecom operators.

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History & CultureLowquizQuiz

Vice-President visits INA Museum at Moirang, site of the first tricolour hoisting on the Indian mainland

•Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan visited the INA Museum at Moirang, Manipur, and paid floral tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the site where the INA first hoisted the tricolour on the Indian mainland.
•He then visited Sainik School Imphal, where he laid a floral tribute at the War Memorial and addressed the cadets on discipline, courage and leadership.
•He said Sainik Schools have a special role in strengthening the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, as cadets from diverse backgrounds study and train together.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Day-Care Cancer Facility inaugurated at Vidisha with Tata Memorial Centre support

•Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated a Day-Care Cancer Facility at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government Medical College, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.
•The facility is being developed with technical support from the Tata Memorial Centre, the cancer institution run under the Department of Atomic Energy.
•It follows a Cancer Gap Care Analysis by TMC specialists from 5 to 7 June 2026 and a screening camp that identified 586 cancer patients and 254 suspected cases.

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DefenceLowquizQuiz

IAF to hold Dronathon-2026 at Pokhran range for indigenous drone and counter-drone systems

•The Indian Air Force is organising Dronathon-2026 to let domestic manufacturers demonstrate Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS) capabilities.
•It runs from 14 to 16 September 2026 at the Pokhran range, Jaisalmer, with static displays and live demonstrations to evaluate combat effectiveness.
•Focus areas are surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous operations, swarm technologies and electronic warfare, aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat.

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Agreements & MoUsMediumquizQuiz

DFPD and FCI sign FY 2026-27 MoU linking foodgrain management targets to depot performance

•The Department of Food & Public Distribution and the Food Corporation of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding for FY 2026-27 in New Delhi.
•The MoU sets a performance framework with defined annual targets on storage losses, storage capacity utilisation, logistics and supply chain, and quality control.
•A proportion of the targets is linked to depot performance measured through the Depot Darpan Portal, a web platform assessing depot infrastructure and operational efficiency.

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NationalMediumquizQuiz

2,800-km Dedicated Freight Corridor completed as PM dedicates ₹35,000 crore projects in Vadodara

•The Prime Minister laid foundation stones for and dedicated development projects worth more than ₹35,000 crore at Vadodara, Gujarat, on 8 September 2026.
•The centrepiece was the completion of the 2,800-km Dedicated Freight Corridor, comprising the Eastern and Western corridors.
•Separating freight from passenger traffic allows over 430 cargo trains to run daily and cuts a 30-hour truck journey to 10-12 hours.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Kharif sown area at 1,086.31 lakh hectares; pulses and jute gain, rice and cotton fall

•All-India kharif sown area stood at 1,086.31 lakh hectares as on 4 September 2026, against 1,104.00 lakh hectares in the same week of 2025-26 — a fall of 17.69 lakh hectares.
•Pulses (117.13 lakh ha, up 1.84) and jute and mesta (6.34 lakh ha, up 0.10) were the two groups to gain over last year.
•Rice fell the most, to 421.82 lakh hectares from 438.19 lakh hectares, a decline of 16.37 lakh hectares.

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Awards & HonoursLowquizQuiz

72nd National Film Awards to be presented at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on 22 September

•The President of India will present the 72nd National Film Awards on 22 September 2026 at Ekta Nagar (Kevadia), Gujarat, honouring Indian cinema of 2024.
•The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has decided to hold future editions in different states and cities rather than only in the National Capital.
•'Article 370' was adjudged Best Feature Film, 'Bhangaar' Best Non-Feature Film and 'Ram-Nami' Best Documentary; Mammootty ('Bramayugam') and Kartik Aaryan ('Chandu Champion') share Best Actor, Yami Gautam is Best Actress and Randeep Hooda wins Best Debut Director.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PM-SETU clears ₹735.70 crore ITI cluster plans; total sanction reaches ₹2,171 crore

•The 5th National Steering Committee of PM-SETU approved Strategic Investment Plans worth ₹735.70 crore for ITI clusters in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.
•This takes the total sanctioned investment under PM-SETU to ₹2,171 crore across nine ITI clusters.
•The three clusters are Bhiwadi (Rajasthan, ₹241.00 crore, anchored by H.G. Infra Engineering Limited), Medchal (Telangana, ₹254.30 crore, anchored by ZEN Technologies Limited) and Meerut (Uttar Pradesh, ₹240.40 crore, submitted by NSDC).

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History & CultureLowquizQuiz

Bhupen Hazarika's 100th birth anniversary marked; Bharat Ratna and Phalke laureate of Assam

•The Prime Minister paid tribute to Dr Bhupen Hazarika on his 100th birth anniversary on 8 September 2026.
•Hazarika was born on 8 September 1926 at Sadiya in Assam and died in 2011; he was a singer, lyricist, composer, filmmaker and writer.
•He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1992, the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2012 and the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 2019.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

DAHD steps up Lumpy Skin Disease surveillance; 36.18 crore cattle vaccinated so far

•The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has stepped up prevention, surveillance and control of Lumpy Skin Disease, coordinating with States and UTs on vaccination and other containment measures.
•More than 36.18 crore cattle have been vaccinated or re-vaccinated against LSD so far; there are 3,461 active cases at present, mainly among young, unvaccinated animals and those with co-morbidities.
•Since July 2026 sporadic cases have been reported mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand, with very low severity and recovery generally within a week.

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InternationalMediumquizQuiz

Rajnath Singh begins maiden Sri Lanka visit, pledges support in times of crisis

•Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh began his maiden visit to Sri Lanka on 8 September 2026 with an interaction with the Indian diaspora in Colombo, saying India will always stand firmly with the island nation whenever it faces a crisis.
•He framed the relationship on shared cultural and civilisational ties and credited the diaspora with acting as a bridge between the two peoples.
•The address set out India's economic transformation — an economy that has roughly doubled from USD 2 trillion in 2014 to about USD 4 trillion, growing 7.8% in Q1 of FY 2026-27.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

MoES and NIOT hold deep sea mining industry workshop to secure India's critical minerals

•The Ministry of Earth Sciences and the National Institute of Ocean Technology held an Industry Outreach Workshop on 'Deep Sea Mining - Business Opportunities and Strategic Importance' at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi, with EY as knowledge partner and NITI Aayog associated.
•India holds an exclusive International Seabed Authority exploration contract over 75,000 sq km of the Central Indian Ocean Basin, estimated to hold roughly 366 to 380 million tonnes of polymetallic nodules.
•India is the first nation to hold two exploration contracts for polymetallic sulphides, the more recent one covering the Carlsberg Ridge.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

CRCS-Sahara refund portal restored; Rs 9,267 crore paid to 41.56 lakh depositors

•The Ministry of Cooperation has restored the CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal, restarting verification and refund processing for depositors of four Sahara Group cooperative societies.
•Rs 9,267 crore has been refunded so far to 41,56,711 depositors, credited directly into Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts; about 20 lakh applications are still to be processed.
•The refund mechanism runs under the Supreme Court's order of 29 March 2023 in W.P. No. 191/2022, and the portal itself was launched on 18 July 2023.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

International Literacy Day 2026 marked as ULLAS drives the push for a fully literate India

•The Ministry of Education held the national-level celebration of International Literacy Day 2026 in New Delhi, with Minister of State for Education Shri Jayant Chaudhary saying literacy and education must be reimagined as instruments of empowerment and active citizenship.
•The event was organised by the Department of School Education & Literacy around this year's theme, 'Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity'.
•Tripura Chief Minister Prof. (Dr.) Manik Saha said the state had reached a 95.6% literacy rate, crossing the Centre's benchmark for being declared fully literate.

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SportsMediumquizQuiz

503-Athlete Indian Contingent Sent Off for 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya

•India's 503-athlete contingent for the 20th Asian Games was given a formal send-off in New Delhi on 8 September 2026.
•More than 300 of the athletes will be making their Asian Games debut.
•Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, IOA President P.T. Usha, Sports Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao and Chef de Mission Sahdev Yadav unveiled the contingent's jersey.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Seven bids in Round 1 of the ₹37,500 crore coal and lignite gasification scheme

•Round 1 of the ₹37,500 crore Scheme for Promotion of Surface Coal/Lignite Gasification Projects closed with seven applications.
•Applicants are NTPC Limited (synthetic natural gas), Adani Enterprises (three urea projects), Gallantt Ispat (direct reduced iron and syngas), Shyam Sel & Power (syngas) and Talcher Fertilisers (urea).
•The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet on 13 May 2026; the Request for Proposal was issued on 7 July 2026.

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Banking & FinanceHighquizQuiz

Global Fintech Fest 2026 opens in Mumbai on agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum

•The 7th Global Fintech Fest is being held in Mumbai from 8 to 11 September 2026 and was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 8 September.
•Its theme is 'Potential to Impact: Agentic AI | Tokenisation | Quantum — Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance'.
•The principal organisers are the Payments Council of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and the Fintech Convergence Council, with support from MeitY, the Department of Financial Services, the MEA's NEST Division, NITI Aayog, RBI, SEBI, IFSCA and PFRDA.

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Schemes & CommitteesHighquizQuiz

9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah to launch from Varanasi with Anganwadi Centres at its core

•The 9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah will be launched on 9 September 2026 at the Rudraksh International Cooperation and Convention Centre, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
•Its central theme is 'Hamari Anganwadi, Hamari Jimmedari', built on five priorities: dietary diversity and protein, fresh hot cooked meals, community ownership through Anganwadi Management Committees, nutrition-linked early childhood development, and ten years of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.
•Poshan Maah is the September campaign of Mission Poshan 2.0, the unified nutrition mission of the Ministry of Women and Child Development that merged POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services (ICDS) and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

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