PIB Current Affairs 2 September 2026

Summits & ConferencesLowquizQuiz

BRICS IP Offices Adopt Updated Operational Guidelines at 18th Meeting in New Delhi

•The 18th Meeting of the Heads of Intellectual Property Offices of BRICS countries (IP BRICS) was held in New Delhi from 1 to 3 September 2026, hosted by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (O/o CGPDTM) under DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
•The meeting adopted Updated Operational Guidelines for IP BRICS cooperation and noted progress under the Study on Reinforced Patent Examination Cooperation, meant to streamline examination, cut patent backlogs and improve the exchange of search results between member offices.
•About 35 delegates took part, with Russia, Iran and Ethiopia joining online; deliberations were aligned with the theme of India's 2026 BRICS Chairship, 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.

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Banking & FinanceMediumquizQuiz

GIFT IFSC banking units mobilise $52.8 billion under RBI's FCNR(B) swap facility

•IFSCA reported that as on 31 August 2026, 20 IFSC Banking Units (IBUs) at GIFT City had sanctioned USD 54.02 billion under the Reserve Bank of India's special swap facility for FCNR(B) deposits, of which approximately USD 52.82 billion had been disbursed.
•The scale-up was steep in August alone: aggregate sanctions rose from USD 28.60 billion on 14 August to USD 37.26 billion on 21 August and USD 54.02 billion by 31 August 2026.
•Beyond the swap facility, IBUs at GIFT IFSC disbursed USD 11.62 billion of External Commercial Borrowings between April and August 2026, with monthly disbursements rising from USD 1.54 billion in April to USD 3.54 billion in August.

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EconomyLowquizQuiz

First meeting of High-Level Committee on Aircraft Leasing and Financing held

•The first meeting of the High-Level Committee (HLC) on Aircraft Leasing and Financing was held on 2 September 2026 under the chairmanship of Union Civil Aviation Minister Shri Ram Mohan Naidu, with officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Finance, Department of Commerce, DGCA, RBI, IFSCA and industry associations.
•The Committee was set up on an industry suggestion made at the second Aircraft Leasing Summit; it took up taxation, regulatory frameworks, availability of finance and ease of doing business, including rupee-denominated aircraft financing, clarity on the applicability of GAAR, and possible renegotiation of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement framework with Ireland.
•Per the release, 422 assets - including 250 aircraft and 87 engines - have been leased through the IFSC and 474 leasing agreements signed; more than 85% of the fleet of Indian carriers is leased, and India is operationalising an airport every 45 days.

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Summits & ConferencesMediumquizQuiz

PM chairs first National Departmental Summit on Water, launching Centre-State summit series

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the valedictory session of the two-day National Departmental Summit on Water on 2 September 2026, organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti with Ministers and senior officials of States and Union Territories.
•The Summit is the FIRST in a new series of Centre-State Departmental Summits, intended to strengthen the 'Team India' spirit, deepen cooperative federalism and build collective ownership of national priorities.
•PM's directions included robust water data governance using AI on a uniform format, de-silting as a regular programme with clear criteria and SOPs, pre-monsoon dam-safety preparedness taught in school curricula, 'Jal Utsav' for Jan Bhagidari, Chintan Shivirs for Urban Local Bodies and structured inter-State study visits for officials, public representatives and farmers.

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Science & TechLowquizQuiz

CSIR-CRRI demonstrates 60% reclaimed asphalt in the DBM layer on NH-716

•CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CSIR-CRRI), Oriental Structural Engineers Private Limited (OSEPL) and Ooms Polymer Modified Bitumen Pvt. Ltd. demonstrated the use of 60 per cent Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in the Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM) layer on National Highway-716, Chennai-Tirupati Package-I.
•The demonstration covered the full recycling chain under live highway conditions — RAP recovery and processing, material characterisation, rejuvenation, mix design, hot-mix plant production, laying and field compaction — and was attended by NHAI and Government of Tamil Nadu officials.
•It featured REJUBIT, an indigenous RAP rejuvenator jointly developed by CSIR-CRRI and Ooms India that restores properties of the aged bitumen in reclaimed asphalt, allowing a higher share of old pavement material in new mixes.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PM-AJAY: 892 Andhra Pradesh villages declared Adarsh Grams, 1.19 lakh beneficiaries under Grants-in-Aid

•The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment reported progress under the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY) in Andhra Pradesh, where 1,159 villages have been selected under the Adarsh Gram component since 2018-19 and 892 have been declared Adarsh Grams by the State Government.
•Tirupati has the most selected villages at 221, followed by Prakasam (111), Chittoor (101), Eluru (99) and Krishna (88); all 88 in Krishna, and all selected villages in Sri Sathya Sai and Vizianagaram, have achieved Adarsh Gram status.
•267 selected villages are still progressing towards the status, with gap-filling infrastructure works under way to reach the prescribed score of 70 out of 100 across socio-economic development indicators.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Japan Credit Rating Agency upgrades India to 'A-' with stable outlook; country ceiling raised to 'A'

•Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) has upgraded India's Long-Term Foreign Currency and Local Currency Issuer Ratings by one notch, from 'BBB+' to 'A-', while retaining a Stable Outlook.
•JCR has simultaneously raised India's country ceiling by one notch, to 'A'.
•The agency cited sustained high growth, the effectiveness of economic policies, better quality of fiscal spending with a capital expenditure tilt, a sounder financial system and a resilient external position.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

UGC notifies 33 new allied and healthcare degrees under the NCAHP Act framework

•The University Grants Commission has notified 33 new and 21 restructured or updated allied and healthcare undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, bringing them within the regulatory purview of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP).
•The instrument is the 5th Amendment to the Specification of Degrees issued under Section 22(3) of the UGC Act, 1956 — Notification No. F.21-12/2026(CPP-II), UIN 3/2026, dated 27 August 2026 and gazetted on 31 August 2026.
•The notification fixes degree nomenclature, abbreviation, duration and entry qualifications, and creates specialisation-specific masters degrees: nine specialisations in Master of Occupational Therapy, eight in Master of Physiotherapy, four in Master of Medical Laboratory Sciences, three in Master of Medical Radiology and Imaging Technology and two in Master of Respiratory Technology.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

DAY-NRLM review: 93 lakh SHGs, Rs 13.67 lakh crore bank credit, push to Financial Inclusion 2.0

•The Ministry of Rural Development announced a High-Level Meeting with Banks and State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) on SHG-Bank Linkages and Individual Enterprise Financing, held on 3 September 2026 at Mumbai and chaired by the Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development.
•The release puts DAY-NRLM's cumulative coverage at over 10 crore rural women in more than 93 lakh Self Help Groups, with cumulative bank credit disbursement of over Rs 13.67 lakh crore to SHGs and 3.46 crore women recorded as Lakhpati Didis.
•Agenda items include doubling the individual enterprise credit portfolio, raising the average quantum disbursed per SHG, cutting loan turnaround time, saturating credit linkage in difficult regions, and strengthening the cooperative credit route through District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).

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Science & TechLowquizQuiz

RRI study erases memory in jammed microgel systems using temperature shocks

•Researchers at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru — an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology — have shown that sudden temperature shocks can briefly make a jammed, glass-like system flow, wiping out the memory imprints stored in it.
•Working with suspensions of microgel particles, the team found that the path the suspension took to reach 20 degrees Celsius on heating was not the mirror image of the path on cooling; raising the temperature ramp rate sharply pushed the jammed system into a temporary liquid state, erasing that path memory and reducing the asymmetry.
•The finding matters for targeted drug delivery: the microgels used are loaded with a drug while swollen at low temperature and collapse above about 34 degrees Celsius, squeezing the medicine out at the target site, so controlling their structural recovery makes the release more predictable.

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Awards & HonoursLowquizQuiz

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards 2024 announced; four awardees named

•The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards (TNNAA) for 2024 in four categories — Land Adventure, Water Adventure, Air Adventure and Lifetime Achievement.
•Four awardees were approved: Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin (Land Adventure), Rimo Saha (Water Adventure) and Shiv Prasad Chamoli (Lifetime Achievement); the selections followed the recommendations of the National Selection Committee.
•The awards will be conferred by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan along with the National Sports Awards 2025, on a date to be announced separately; each awardee receives a statuette, a certificate and award money of Rs 15 lakh.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

CCPA fines B2B platform Rs 10 lakh for online listing of ammonium nitrate

•The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Dial4Trade Technologies Private Limited for facilitating the online listing, hosting, advertising and sale of ammonium nitrate without the regulatory safeguards the law requires.
•The order was passed under Sections 10, 20 and 21 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 by the CCPA headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare with Commissioner Anupam Mishra, and directs the platform to stop listing ammonium nitrate or any substance classified as an explosive under the Explosives Act, 1884.
•CCPA held that a product listing on a digital marketplace is an 'advertisement' under Section 2(1) of the Act, and that presenting a regulated explosive as an ordinary consumer product amounts to a misleading advertisement and unfair trade practice under Sections 2(28) and 2(47).

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DefenceLowquizQuiz

INS Sudarshini reaches Barcelona on Lokayan 26, the Navy's ten-month transoceanic sail expedition

•INS Sudarshini, the Indian Navy's sail training ship, arrived in Barcelona, Spain on 1 September 2026 as part of her ongoing transoceanic expedition Lokayan 26.
•During the port call the ship will conduct professional and cultural engagements with the Spanish Navy and other maritime stakeholders, with sea trainees taking part in seamanship exchanges.
•INS Sudarshini was opened to visitors on 4 September 2026, presented as an opportunity to experience India's maritime traditions and its naval training tradition.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

EPF Scheme 2026 opens six-month amnesty to regularise exempt status of provident fund trusts

•The Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme 2026, notified on 29 June 2026, introduces Amnesty provisions as a transitional measure — a one-time opportunity for provident fund trusts to regularise their exemption status.
•The window targets PF trusts recognised under the Income Tax Act, 1961 that do not hold a formal exemption order under section 17 of the EPF & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 or section 143 of the Code on Social Security, 2020.
•The amnesty runs for six months from notification, up to 28 December 2026; operational guidelines were issued in an EPFO circular dated 11 July 2026.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

IBCA and ADB sign MoU on nature-positive financing at New Delhi tiger landscapes workshop

•The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering landscape conservation, sustainable development, capacity building, knowledge exchange and nature-positive financing initiatives.
•The MoU was signed at a two-day International Workshop on 'Tiger Landscapes: Conservation, Bioeconomy and Ecotourism as Pillars for Livelihood and Income Generation', held in New Delhi on 2-3 September 2026 and jointly organised by IBCA, ADB and the National Tiger Conservation Authority under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
•Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the workshop, arguing for a shift from species-centric conservation to integrated landscape management that treats tiger landscapes as natural capital delivering water security, carbon sequestration, climate regulation and livelihoods.

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InternationalLowquizQuiz

India–Afghanistan Joint Working Group on Trade meets virtually, agrees follow-up on customs and connectivity

•The India–Afghanistan Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade, Commerce and Investment held its meeting virtually on 1 September 2026, with officials from commerce, industry, customs, regulatory authorities and the diplomatic missions of both sides.
•Discussions covered trade facilitation and customs cooperation, visa facilitation for Afghan traders, banking and financial cooperation, pharmaceutical and agricultural trade, energy cooperation, investment and trade promotion, tariff concessions, and cargo connectivity and port-related issues.
•Both sides agreed to pursue follow-up actions on customs and data-sharing cooperation, regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals and agriculture, improved trade connectivity, and business-to-business engagement.

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EconomyHighquizQuiz

MoSPI explains Q1 FY27 GDP: double deflation, a negative manufacturing deflator and the 2022-23 base year

•The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation issued a detailed question-and-answer note, alongside a PIB Backgrounder, explaining the Q1 2026-27 GDP estimates released on 31 August 2026 under the updated series with 2022-23 as the base year.
•Two methodological changes drive the numbers: the base year revision, and the adoption of double deflation for manufacturing, under which output and intermediate consumption are deflated separately to obtain GVA at constant prices.
•Because manufacturing input prices rose faster than output prices in Q1 FY27, nominal GVA grew 7.7% against real GVA growth of 9.2%, producing an implicit GVA deflator of −1.5% — which does not mean manufacturing prices fell.

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EconomyHighquizQuiz

Districts as Export Hubs: DGFT-anchored convergence framework now spans over 770 districts

•A PIB Backgrounder sets out how the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative treats each district as a unit of export planning rather than only of production, building on the One District One Product concept.
•DEH is run by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Department of Commerce, and covered more than 770 districts as on January 2026; draft District Export Action Plans existed for 590 districts as of March 2026, of which 249 had been formally adopted.
•It carries no separate outlay of its own — it is a convergence framework that routes existing central and state scheme funding towards district-level export bottlenecks.

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Current Affairs Pulse

PIB Current Affairs — 2 September 2026

BRICS IP Offices Adopt Updated Operational Guidelines at 18th Meeting in New Delhi

GIFT IFSC banking units mobilise $52.8 billion under RBI's FCNR(B) swap facility

First meeting of High-Level Committee on Aircraft Leasing and Financing held

PM chairs first National Departmental Summit on Water, launching Centre-State summit series

CSIR-CRRI demonstrates 60% reclaimed asphalt in the DBM layer on NH-716

PM-AJAY: 892 Andhra Pradesh villages declared Adarsh Grams, 1.19 lakh beneficiaries under Grants-in-Aid

Japan Credit Rating Agency upgrades India to 'A-' with stable outlook; country ceiling raised to 'A'

UGC notifies 33 new allied and healthcare degrees under the NCAHP Act framework

DAY-NRLM review: 93 lakh SHGs, Rs 13.67 lakh crore bank credit, push to Financial Inclusion 2.0

RRI study erases memory in jammed microgel systems using temperature shocks

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards 2024 announced; four awardees named

CCPA fines B2B platform Rs 10 lakh for online listing of ammonium nitrate

INS Sudarshini reaches Barcelona on Lokayan 26, the Navy's ten-month transoceanic sail expedition

EPF Scheme 2026 opens six-month amnesty to regularise exempt status of provident fund trusts

IBCA and ADB sign MoU on nature-positive financing at New Delhi tiger landscapes workshop

India–Afghanistan Joint Working Group on Trade meets virtually, agrees follow-up on customs and connectivity

MoSPI explains Q1 FY27 GDP: double deflation, a negative manufacturing deflator and the 2022-23 base year

Districts as Export Hubs: DGFT-anchored convergence framework now spans over 770 districts