Current affairs — 12 September 2026

Prelims pointers

• India and Russia discussed steps toward a bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2030.
• The September 11, 2026 talks included civil nuclear projects and cooperation in critical minerals.
• Industrial cooperation discussed included railways, tunnelling, the steel value chain and business-to-business opportunities.
• The two sides discussed employment in Russia for Indian blue-collar professionals and skilled-manpower mobility.
• Modi and Putin had earlier met at the SCO summit in Bishkek on August 31, where Modi called for ending the Ukraine war.

Prelims pointers

• Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy announced the pipeline shutdown on September 11, 2026, after an attack the previous day.
• The ministry did not identify the attacker and characterised the pipeline closure as a precautionary measure.
• The East-West pipeline was built in the 1980s and is a major cross-country oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
• The pipeline helped Saudi Arabia continue oil exports after disruption of the Strait of Hormuz during Iran’s war with the U.S. and Israel.
• Houthi rebels seized coastal territory near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, threatening Saudi oil exports through key shipping lanes.

Prelims pointers

• The Supreme Court’s August 4, 2026 order directed the RBI to adopt and circulate an SOP for temporary debit holds linked to money-mule activity and cyber-enabled fraud.
• The draft proposes to amend the instructions on “Operations of Bank Accounts and Money Mules” in the RBI’s KYC Directions, 2025.
• The consolidated draft applies to all commercial banks, including Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Local Area Banks.
• Urban Cooperative Banks are also covered by the consolidated draft issued for public consultation.
• Comments are due by October 2, 2026 and may be submitted through “Connect 2 Regulate” or by email with the specified subject line.

Prelims pointers

• The draft seeks to amend instructions on “Operations of Bank Accounts and Money Mules” in RBI’s KYC Directions, 2025.
• A Supreme Court order dated August 4, 2026 directed RBI to adopt and circulate a Standard Operating Procedure for temporary debit holds.
• The proposed SOP concerns amounts or accounts linked to money-mule activity and cyber-enabled financial fraud.
• The consolidated draft applies to all commercial banks and Urban Cooperative Banks, including specified categories such as SFBs, Payments Banks, RRBs and Local Area Banks.
• Comments are due on or before October 2, 2026 through RBI’s “Connect 2 Regulate” section or the specified email channel.

Prelims pointers

• The BRICS finance-track joint statement did not propose a common BRICS currency or formally call for replacing the U.S. dollar.
• The statement backed work on interoperable payment and messaging channels and settlement using BRICS local currencies.
• The BRICS Payment Task Force was encouraged to continue work on fast, low-cost, accessible, transparent and safe cross-border payments.
• The New Development Bank was asked to expand local-currency financing, diversify funding and strengthen project-preparation facilities.
• The BRICS Multilateral Guarantees initiative is intended to improve project creditworthiness, lower financing costs and attract private capital.

Prelims pointers

• The 15-member UN Security Council held a briefing marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• The Council adopted its first presidential statement on counter-terrorism in five years.
• The statement said terrorism should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or group.
• A 2021 presidential statement marked the 20th anniversary of resolution 1373, which established the UN Counter Terrorism Committee.
• Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abbottabad in May 2011.

Prelims pointers

• Gegeneophis chandgadi is a newly described subterranean, legless amphibian, commonly called a caecilian.
• The species was found at Buzawade in Chandgad, part of Maharashtra's Kolhapur region in the northern Western Ghats.
• Its name honours the Chandgadi dialect and local residents whose traditional ecological knowledge helped locate the species.
• Researchers used molecular data together with morphological and meristic analysis to establish the species' distinctiveness.
• India records 41 caecilian species among 458 amphibians; Gegeneophis now has 12 Indian species, 11 endemic strictly to the Western Ghats.

Prelims pointers

• Russia said its delegation would attend the G20 energy-ministers’ meeting in Houston from September 14 to 16, 2026.
• The Russian delegation would include representatives from the energy, foreign and natural-resources ministries.
• The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union.
• The report says the G20 was established after the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis to promote economic and financial stability.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would meet Vladimir Putin at the December G20 summit in Miami if both leaders were invited.

Prelims pointers

• Masoud Pezeshkian made the remarks while meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the BRICS summit in India.
• The report dates the start of the war to February 28, when U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader.
• Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil had previously flowed.
• Iran now requires vessels transiting the strait to obtain permission and is considering a mechanism for service fees.
• More than six months into the war, the blockade continued and oil prices rose above $100 a barrel that week.

Prelims pointers

• India and Brazil set a goal of reaching $30 billion in bilateral trade by 2030 during President Lula’s 2026 India visit.
• Mauro Vieira said bilateral trade was around $15 billion in the previous year and could approach $20 billion in 2026.
• Vieira described BRICS as a forum for negotiation, dialogue and consensus-building rather than an anti-Western bloc.
• Brazil has had a local-currency payment agreement with Argentina since 2004, covering only a limited part of bilateral trade.
• BRICS has no permanent structure; its rotating presidency organises meetings, prepares agendas and maintains meeting documents.

Prelims pointers

• Donald Trump said in Dublin on September 12, 2026, that the Houthis had asked the United States not to intervene.
• The Houthis had taken control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast after capturing three strategic islands.
• The Red Sea coastal area described in the report lies on a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia.
• Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had choked off Saudi oil shipments through the Gulf.
• The report says the Houthis targeted Saudi oil facilities that week with a large drone and missile attack.

Prelims pointers

• Rohit Choudhury asked the Supreme Court-appointed High-Powered Committee to halt four proposed transfers from Assam to Tamil Nadu.
• Five-year-old Durga had already been moved from Assam to the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple.
• Hiralal, aged eight, and Shiva, aged six, are male elephants bound for the Arulmigu Arunachaleshwarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai.
• Rupsing is a 13-year-old male bound for Sri Vaidyanatha Swamy Temple at Vaitheeswaran Koil in Nagapattinam.
• The article says Chief Wildlife Wardens may grant elephant travel permits only on the High-Powered Committee’s recommendation.

Prelims pointers

• IIT Madras and Spark Minda Foundation signed a non-exclusive technology-licence agreement for Kadam.
• Kadam is a prosthetic knee designed to support mobility across uneven terrain.
• The partnership aims to move Kadam from research and development to wider access for people with limb loss.
• Spark Minda Foundation seeks to achieve 50,000 prosthetic-limb fitments by 2030 through the partnership.
• Sujatha Srinivasan heads IIT Madras's National Centre for Assistive Health Technologies and TTK rehabilitation centre.

Prelims pointers

• V.D. Satheesan said Kerala needed a modern power policy with solar energy as one of its key components.
• The Kerala government views the solar-energy sector as an industry and intends to extend the required assistance.
• The Chief Minister linked rising demand and power shortages with the need for self-sufficiency in electricity generation.
• He said regulations promoting renewable energy would be introduced in the month following the September 2026 announcement.
• He proposed community-level battery storage across neighbourhoods, institutions and residents' associations for evening use.

Prelims pointers

• Narendra Modi met leaders of the UAE, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Malaysia during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
• India-UAE discussions covered IMEC, investment, defence, space, nuclear energy, technology and innovation.
• The UAE's International Holding Company announced an $11.5 billion investment in an integrated greenfield aluminium project in Odisha.
• India-Vietnam ties were elevated to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during To Lam's May 2026 State visit.
• Malaysia concurred with the establishment of a Consulate General of India in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Prelims pointers

• Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram is the only shrine dedicated to Shiva among the four Char Dham temples.
• The other three Char Dham shrines named in the article are Dwaraka, Puri and Badrinath, all in northern India.
• Ramanathaswamy is the only southern shrine among the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines described in the article.
• In the 15th century, King Udayan Sethupathi of Ramanathapuram and a Vaisya from Nagore built the western tower and compound walls.
• The 126-foot, nine-tiered eastern rajagopuram was completed between 1897 and 1904 by a Devakottai zamindar’s family.

Prelims pointers

• In 2017, the government removed bamboo from its earlier classification as a tree, freeing it from the restrictive forestry regulations described in the source.
• The National Bamboo Mission supports bamboo cultivation, processing, market access and nurseries for quality planting material.
• NECTAR-supported bamboo interventions reportedly generate about 30 million man-days annually and raise value addition from 10% to as high as 70%.
• Engineered bamboo is a composite made by binding and compressing raw bamboo fibres, strips or particles.
• By 2020, the Gadchiroli Agarbatti Project had 32 production centres employing about 1,100 people, nearly 90% of them women.

Prelims pointers

• Modi met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed on September 12, 2026.
• The meeting occurred on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit.
• The leaders recalled UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s January 2026 India visit.
• UAE’s International Holding Company announced a USD 11.5 billion aluminium project in Odisha.
• L’Imad was identified in the release as the UAE’s newest sovereign investment fund.

Prelims pointers

• The 18th BRICS Summit met in New Delhi from September 12 to 13, 2026.
• Expanded BRICS cooperation is organised around political-security, economic-financial and cultural-people pillars.
• India’s 2026 chairship convened more than four hundred meetings and engagements across 30 Indian cities.
• The declaration invokes UN Charter Article 101 while discussing inclusive and geographically broad UN recruitment.
• It supports Ethiopia and Iran’s WTO accession bids and restoration of a two-tier WTO dispute-settlement mechanism.

Prelims pointers

• Modi and Xi met in New Delhi on September 12, 2026, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.
• Their preceding meeting cited in the release had taken place in Tianjin in August 2025.
• The three mutuals identified by Modi were mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest.
• Both leaders treated peace and tranquillity in border areas as essential to developing bilateral relations.
• Economic concerns discussed included structural trade imbalance, supply chains and predictable market access.

Prelims pointers

• Processed steel slag, a by-product of steel production, is converted into aggregate for road construction under the indigenous technology.
• The 1.85-km Raigarh road by CSIR-CRRI and Jindal Steel received the record for the world’s longest road built with processed steel-slag aggregates.
• The Minister said the technology can reduce road-construction costs by around 40% and deliver four times the strength of conventional roads.
• Around 80,000 tonnes of steel slag were processed for a one-kilometre, four-lane section of the NH-66 Mumbai-Goa Highway.
• CSIR-CRRI received a work order for a 40-km steel-slag road in Odisha from Jindal Steel’s Angul plant.

Prelims pointers

• The BOCW conference was held in Mumbai on September 11–12, 2026 and was organised by the Union Labour Ministry with Maharashtra.
• Participants included Central, State and Union Territory governments, BOCW Welfare Boards and other stakeholders.
• Worker mobility, occupational health and physical safety were identified as considerations for social-security and welfare design.
• Rajasthan presented Digital Labour Chowks, Bihar highlighted Shram Seva Suvidha Kendras and Assam presented the Nirman Sakhi Portal.
• Conference sessions covered BOCW Welfare Boards under the new labour codes, Labour Stack and CPI-IW for the construction sector.

Prelims pointers

• The Health Minister inaugurated 10 Critical Care Blocks and 12 Integrated Public Health Laboratories in Andhra Pradesh.
• PM-ABHIM was conceived to improve response to pandemics and public-health emergencies without interrupting routine healthcare.
• The Government of India has sanctioned 631 Critical Care Blocks across States and Union Territories under PM-ABHIM.
• Andhra Pradesh has 24 sanctioned Critical Care Blocks with an estimated investment of about ₹606 crore.
• All 26 sanctioned Integrated Public Health Laboratories in Andhra Pradesh had completed civil works; 14 were functional and 12 were inaugurated.

Prelims pointers

• The Digital India BHASHINI Division operates under Digital India Corporation in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• BHASHINI is described as India’s national platform for AI-powered multilingual digital inclusion.
• BHASHINI’s Shrutlekh provided real-time language translation and transcription during the Lattice 2026 session.
• PIB reported that BHASHINI powers over 800 government websites and has enabled more than 9 billion cumulative AI inferences.
• BHASHINI supports 36 Indian text languages, 23 Indian voice languages and 35 international languages.

Prelims pointers

• The three-day Colombo Security Conclave Table Top Exercise ran from September 9 to September 11, 2026 at Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam.
• The exercise focused on developing a coordinated response to illicit maritime activities in the Indian Ocean Region.
• Member-state and observer-nation experts engaged in simulated operational scenarios for more than 72 hours.
• Scenarios addressed maritime terrorism, narcotics smuggling, human trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
• Participants reviewed Standard Operating Procedures and streamlined information sharing to improve collective Maritime Domain Awareness.

Prelims pointers

• Narendra Modi met Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung during the BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
• Vietnam participated in the BRICS Summit in the capacity of a Partner Country.
• Bilateral ties were elevated to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in May 2026.
• That elevation occurred during Vietnamese leader To Lam’s state visit to India.
• The release identifies Vietnam as a key pillar of India’s Act East Policy.

Prelims pointers

• India’s chairship organised more than 350 BRICS meetings in nearly 30 cities.
• The 2026 summit marked the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation.
• Modi proposed a BRICS Continuity and Implementation Mechanism operating through the Troika.
• The proposed reform roadmap rests on representation, responsiveness and rule-making.
• The proposed seafarers’ network would support distress alerts, medical aid, family contact and evacuation.

Prelims pointers

• SECL is a Mini Ratna subsidiary of Coal India Limited operating across coalfields in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
• SECL’s coal production rose from 124.26 MT in 2013-14 to 176.28 MT in FY 2025-26.
• Gevra, Kusmunda and Dipka, the three mega mines in Korba, together represent 185 million tonnes of capacity.
• Eleven operational First Mile Connectivity projects have a combined annual capacity of 156 million tonnes and involved about ₹2,700 crore.
• As of August 2026, SECL had completed scientific closure of 28 abandoned mines, the highest number among Coal India subsidiaries.

Prelims pointers

• Badri cattle are an indigenous cattle genetic resource and are recognised as the state animal of Uttarakhand.
• The Badri female calf was born on September 11, 2026 after a Badri embryo was transferred into a Sahiwal recipient cow.
• The programme is a collaboration between ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, and G. B. Pant University, Pantnagar, supported by the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council.
• Oocytes were collected from selected Badri donor cows by ultrasound-guided ovum pick-up and fertilised in vitro with semen from a superior Badri bull.
• OPU-IVF enables multiple embryos to be produced from genetically superior female animals, accelerating multiplication of elite germplasm.