Current affairs — 15 September 2026

Prelims pointers

• The Economic Survey 2023–24 estimated that India needs nearly 78.5 lakh new non-farm jobs every year until 2030.
• The State of Working India 2026 report put the 15–29 age group at 36.7 crore, with 26.3 crore outside education as the potential workforce.
• NASSCOM placed direct IT and IT-enabled services employment at about 59.5 lakh in FY2025–26, with about 1.35 lakh net jobs added that year.
• Under PM-KVY, 19.1 lakh of 27.3 lakh enrolled beneficiaries were certified over the previous three years.
• Under DDU-GKY, 18.45 lakh rural youth were trained and 12.35 lakh were placed, sometimes in jobs paying as little as ₹6,000 a month.

Prelims pointers

• The September 14, 2026 notification changed provisions under the Payment and Settlement Act, 2007.
• Banks cannot impose charges on Unified Payments Interface transactions of up to ₹2,000 under the notified change.
• The gazette specified UPI payments up to ₹2,000 and RuPay-powered debit-card payments as covered electronic modes.
• No bank or system provider may directly or indirectly charge a person making or receiving payments through the specified modes.
• The report said charges on larger UPI transfers became possible, but no final decision on their introduction or levy had been taken.

Prelims pointers

• The Houthis said Saudi Arabia carried out 54 strikes across western Yemen during a 24-hour period.
• The Saudi strikes followed Houthi attacks using dozens of drones and missiles against Saudi military facilities.
• Saudi civil defence issued alerts for Khamis Mushait and Abha and later a brief alert for Najran in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
• The Iran-backed Houthis were fighting Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government.
• The report said the Houthis had seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait as the Strait of Hormuz was constrained by wider war.

Prelims pointers

• A NATO fighter jet shot down a drone near Pratkunai village in southern Lithuania shortly after midnight on September 15, 2026.
• Officials said the drone likely entered from Belarus, although its origin had not yet been determined.
• A drone alert was issued earlier for Lithuania’s capital Vilnius and its surrounding region.
• NATO Baltic Air Defence fighters have patrolled Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since the three countries joined NATO in 2004.
• The report said Ukrainian military drones had strayed into Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, with Ukraine blaming Russian electromagnetic warfare.

Prelims pointers

• The European Commission is preparing age-based digital-access rules as part of a proposed EU Kids Act.
• Children aged 15 and above could create their own accounts under the proposal described in the report.
• Children aged 13 and 14 would need parental involvement for social-media and video-sharing access, with possible limits on contacts and time.
• Accounts for children aged 3 to 12 would be entirely parent-controlled and limited to child-suitable services with stronger safety standards.
• The proposed framework would extend to AI chatbots and online gaming, not only social-media and video-sharing platforms.

Prelims pointers

• Peak water is the time when river flows stop increasing and begin declining; the Himalaya could reach it by mid-century.
• Retreating glaciers leave unstable glacial lakes held back by loose rock and ice above valleys where millions live.
• Only 21 of an estimated 40,000 glaciers across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region were being monitored on the ground.
• The Hindu Kush-Himalaya mountain system described in the study spans eight countries from Afghanistan to Myanmar.
• The Himalayan region makes up around 18% of India’s land but accounts for roughly 35% of its natural disasters.

Prelims pointers

• Duttaphrynus phawngpui was found above 2,000 metres in Phawngpui National Park and is named after Mizoram’s highest peak.
• The new toad is medium-sized, up to 56 mm long, and lacks a clearly visible eardrum and most typical bony skull ridges.
• Researchers used mitochondrial-gene DNA, statistical body measurements and museum-specimen comparisons to establish the toad as distinct.
• Ingerana aizawl is a 22–26 mm frog long mistaken on the Mizoram University campus for the widespread Ingerana borealis.
• Ingerana aizawl lives by small forest streams, calls at night with 12 short notes and was observed mating during the monsoon.

Prelims pointers

• The scheduled commercial-bank series includes regional rural banks, small finance banks and payments banks.
• Scheduled commercial banks’ deposits from non-banks were ₹2,78,71,529.68 crore on August 31, 2026.
• Scheduled commercial banks’ bank credit, excluding inter-bank advances, was ₹2,23,87,566.99 crore on August 31, 2026.
• Borrowings against usance bills or promissory notes are reported under Section 17(4)(c) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• The current-fortnight counts were 119 scheduled commercial banks, 26 scheduled State co-operative banks and 55 scheduled primary urban co-operative banks.

Prelims pointers

• The U.S. Space Force confirmed that it had deployed weapons into orbit for the first time.
• The Space Force described the deployment as on-orbit space-control weapons capable of defending against hostile adversary action, without giving specifics.
• China’s Foreign Ministry warned against weaponising outer space, turning it into a battlefield and creating an arms race there.
• The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, described as the world’s first artificial satellite, in 1957.
• The Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967 and banned weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Prelims pointers

• The May 2025 MSC ELSA-3 sinking caused India’s first documented large-scale marine resin-pellet spill.
• TNPCB commissioned rapid and two-year assessments through the Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute in Thoothukudi.
• Researchers monitored nurdle contamination for one year at 93 coastal sites on India’s southwest and southeast coasts.
• By May 2026, nurdles remained present and were found buried up to 20 cm deep in beach sediments.
• Nurdles occurred in 26 of 2,413 fish, mainly through gastrointestinal ingestion and occasionally through gill entrapment.

Prelims pointers

• India’s overall exports, including merchandise and services, rose 25.4% to $82.7 billion in August 2026.
• Overall imports grew 18.7% to $92.1 billion, and the total trade deficit narrowed to $9.4 billion from $11.6 billion a year earlier.
• Merchandise exports increased 26.1%, or $9.07 billion, to $43.8 billion in August 2026.
• Merchandise imports rose 14%, or $8.71 billion, to $70.7 billion during the same month.
• Of 168 principal export commodities, 68 showed both volume and value growth, while 39 showed value growth without volume growth.

Prelims pointers

• The European Commission sent the India-EU FTA to the European Council for approval; signing is expected after that approval.
• After signing, the India-EU agreement would still need to be passed and ratified by the European Parliament.
• India and Canada were holding the fourth round of CEPA negotiations; talks covered all chapters and two chapters had been concluded.
• The India-New Zealand FTA was expected to operate in the second half of October, but an exact date had not been finalised.
• The G20 trade ministers' meeting was scheduled for September 30 to October 1, during Piyush Goyal's planned U.S. visit.

Prelims pointers

• India's Consumer Price Index inflation reached a 20-month high of 4.8% in August 2026.
• Food inflation accelerated to 5.7%, while restaurant and accommodation services inflation reached 8.4%.
• Emkay Global cited inflows of around $136 billion through Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank deposits among the changed macroeconomic conditions.
• Brent crude oil had risen above $100 per barrel, adding to the case economists saw for an October monetary-policy review.
• Wholesale inflation was 9.9% in August 2026, creating a risk that high food and input costs could spill into retail prices.

Prelims pointers

• Chief of Army Staff General Dhiraj Seth is scheduled to make an official visit to Russia and meet senior military leaders.
• The visit is expected to review ongoing India-Russia defence cooperation from a land-forces perspective.
• A key expected issue is the availability of spare parts and supplies for Russian-origin equipment operated by the Indian Army.
• General Seth is expected to advance discussions on upgrading and modernising existing military systems.
• India and Russia are seeking to move beyond a traditional buyer-seller framework through joint production and technology cooperation.

Prelims pointers

• The MEA identified blockades in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf as matters of deep concern.
• S. Jaishankar and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed Red Sea developments on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Delhi.
• More than 2.4 million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia, according to the report.
• The Panamanian oil tanker El Gaia carried 23 crew members, including 14 Indians; all but two crew members, including 13 Indians, were rescued.
• MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said oil supplies from the region had not been affected thus far and urged restoration of free and safe navigation.

Prelims pointers

• The proposed protest marches seek Statehood for Ladakh and the Union Territory's inclusion under the Constitution's Sixth Schedule.
• Tsering Samphel and Rigzin Spalbar asked the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance to follow the agreement reached on May 22, 2025.
• Rigzin Spalbar is a former chairperson of the Ladakh Hill Development Council-Leh, while Tsering Samphel formerly headed the Ladakh Buddhist Association.
• Ladakh's 'Martyrs Month' remembers four civilians who died during protests in Leh in September 2025.
• The two leaders sought immediate groundwork for elections to all seven hill councils announced by the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor's administration.

Prelims pointers

• Candida auris was first reported in Japan in 2009; the article cites a 30-40% mortality rate among infected people.
• More than 90% of the studied Indian C. auris isolates resisted common azoles, while about 30% resisted polyenes.
• Azoles and polyenes target ergosterol in the fungal cell membrane, whereas echinocandins target the cell wall.
• Extra Erg11 gene copies can increase ergosterol production and counter fluconazole; Fks1 mutations can enable caspofungin resistance.
• The Eagle effect is paradoxical survival at exceptionally high caspofungin doses, linked here to compensatory production of cell-wall chitin.

Prelims pointers

• The Centre’s Telangana Liberation Day celebration was scheduled at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad, on September 17.
• Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan was to attend the programme as chief guest.
• The celebration was to feature a parade by paramilitary forces and cultural programmes.
• The report states that Hyderabad State, including Telangana, remained under the Nizam after India attained independence in 1947.
• The erstwhile Hyderabad State was integrated into the Indian Union in September 1948, according to the report.

Prelims pointers

• The Gates Foundation pledged $1 billion over two years for AI work involving local languages, health, education and agriculture.
• The annual Goalkeepers report tracks progress on United Nations development goals intended to improve quality of life by 2030.
• About $100 million was announced to build data sets in underserved communities’ languages and reflect their local contexts.
• OpenAI committed $50 million alongside the foundation to train health workers in Rwandan clinics through a pilot planned to expand.
• The announcement included about $400 million each for education and healthcare and roughly $100 million for agriculture.

Prelims pointers

• The Kishau agreement was signed by the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Haryana.
• The project proposes a 232.6-metre-high concrete gravity dam on the Tons River along the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border.
• The planned reservoir has a storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic metres.
• The project is expected to irrigate 97,000 hectares and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower.
• The Union government will bear approximately 90% of the financial burden, with participating states bearing the remaining 10%.

Prelims pointers

• DISHA 2.0 expands to Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice and is associated with the Department of Justice.
• The Nuh workshop was held at the Mini Secretariat on September 15, 2026 and was attended by 150 participants.
• DISHA 2.0 integrates Tele-Law, Nyaya Bandhu, the Legal Literacy and Legal Awareness Programme, and VIDHI-Sanjeevani.
• Common Services Centres were presented as grassroots access points, while Village Level Entrepreneurs facilitate legal consultations for citizens.
• The workshop included live demonstrations of the Tele-Law Portal and the Nyaya Setu AI-enabled chatbot.

Prelims pointers

• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, organised the 12th District Collectors’ Peyjal Samvad on September 15, 2026.
• Six districts presented practices: Shahdol, Samba, Hooghly, Dhamtari, Fatehgarh Sahib, and North and Middle Andaman.
• Samba raised prescribed-service-level Functional Household Tap Connection coverage from about 23% to nearly 70%, adding around 35,000 connections.
• Fatehgarh Sahib reported 100% FHTC coverage for 78,475 rural households across 429 villages, plus full coverage of schools and Anganwadi centres.
• States and Union Territories were advised to start geo-tagging rural water supply sources and post-monsoon source testing from October 2, 2026.

Prelims pointers

• The NDSA review in Jharkhand examined implementation of the Dam Safety Act, 2021 and the status of dam-safety activities in the state.
• NDSA sought Independent Panels of Experts, timely dam visits, CDSE reports, and a dam-wise action plan for specified dams.
• Emergency Action Plans and Operation and Maintenance Manuals were to be prepared on time and uploaded to the DHARMA Portal.
• NDSA asked that the State Dam Safety Organisation be reconstituted as a dedicated organisation rather than a committee-based arrangement.
• The Nalkari Dam owner was directed to constitute a Dam Safety Unit and undertake pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspections.

Prelims pointers

• Combined merchandise and services exports in April-August 2026-27 were estimated at US$399.27 billion, up 15.55% year-on-year.
• Merchandise exports reached US$215.91 billion in April-August 2026-27, registering growth of 17.85%.
• The merchandise trade deficit widened to US$147.09 billion from US$123.88 billion in the comparable previous period.
• The estimated services trade surplus for April-August 2026-27 was US$86.71 billion, compared with US$79.94 billion a year earlier.
• August 2026 electronic goods exports increased by 89.82%, from US$2.93 billion to US$5.55 billion.

Prelims pointers

• Non-invasive 2D and 3D seismic surveys can reduce the number of exploration boreholes by up to 50%.
• Of 92 planned First Mile Connectivity projects, 46 have been commissioned, creating about 432 MTPA of capacity.
• The approximately ₹27,800 crore FMC programme targets 994 MTY of mechanical loading capacity by FY 2029-30.
• The DigiCoal pilot covered seven mines, and 17 tested DigiCoal solutions are planned for replication across all mega mines.
• CIL plans to invest ₹1,900 crore by FY 2030 in R&D projects and Centres of Excellence.

Prelims pointers

• All person-to-person UPI transactions remain free irrespective of the amount transferred.
• P2M payments up to ₹2,000 and eligible P2PM receipts of small merchants up to ₹1 lakh per month remain at zero MDR.
• A 0.4% MDR applies to specified P2M transactions above ₹2,000 and is capped at ₹300 for transactions of ₹75,000 or more.
• Essential-sector transactions above ₹2,000 attract a flat ₹5 MDR, while specified capital-market payments attract 0.02% capped at ₹300.
• An amount equal to 5% of total MDR collections will be contributed to a dedicated fund for UPI adoption among small merchants.

Prelims pointers

• WCEF 2026 was held in Gandhinagar from September 15 to 18 under the theme 'Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity.'
• The PIB release described WCEF 2026 as the first hosting of the forum in South Asia.
• As of August 2026, more than 83,000 producers and 4,802 recyclers were registered under various EPR frameworks.
• Nearly 482.24 lakh metric tonnes of waste had been processed across regulated waste streams under the EPR frameworks cited.
• The forum featured 135 national and international exhibitors and more than 3,600 stakeholders from 62 countries.

Prelims pointers

• The 15-day reporting period covered 150 inspections: 7 at C&D sites, 98 in industry and 45 involving DG sets.
• Eight CAQM Flying Squad teams inspected 35 premises during the special drive in Nuh, Haryana.
• The reported enforcement proposals included closure of three C&D projects and one industrial unit and sealing of 25 DG sets.
• Six resumption orders after the previous ETF meeting covered one industrial unit and five C&D sites.
• By September 14, Flying Squads had conducted 28,547 inspections and issued 1,829 closure directions across NCR.

Prelims pointers

• The new MSME and deep-tech start-up framework offers direct funding, incubation support and dedicated access to DRDO testing facilities.
• DRDO launched a standardised secure framework to share its software source codes with licensee industries.
• Nine Licensing Agreements for Transfer of Technology were handed over to 13 manufacturing partners.
• DRDO exchanged outreach MoUs with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers and Laghu Udyog Bharati.
• The Quality Council of India contract covers SAMAR version 2.0, which benchmarks manufacturing maturity in domestic defence enterprises.

Prelims pointers

• Yudh Abhyas 2026 is the 22nd edition of the India-US joint military exercise.
• The exercise is being conducted simultaneously at Auli in Uttarakhand and Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan.
• The participating contingents comprise 600 military personnel from each side.
• Its operational focus is the employment of Integrated Battle Groups in mountainous and semi-mountainous terrain.
• Training includes drones and autonomous systems for surveillance and reconnaissance, plus contemporary weapon demonstrations at Mahajan.

Prelims pointers

• Amendments to the Legal Metrology (Government Approved Test Centre) Rules, 2013 expanded verification to 23 instrument categories.
• Fifty-one Government Approved Test Centres have already been recognised, with additional applications under consideration.
• Applications are checked for documentation, infrastructure, qualified personnel and a site inspection before recognition.
• GATCs allow technically competent private institutions to verify and re-verify specified weights and measures.
• The framework covers meters, breath analysers, vehicle speedometers, weighing instruments and dispensers for multiple fuels.

Prelims pointers

• CCPA imposed a ₹10 lakh penalty on Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido.
• Post-booking prompts pressuring riders to add money were classified as Confirm Shaming under the 2023 dark-pattern guidelines.
• Rapido’s colour-coded ‘Set your price’ slider was classified as the dark pattern called Interface Interference.
• The Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025 require any tipping feature to be offered only after a ride is completed.
• CCPA had issued compliance notices to Uber, Ola, Rapido and Namma Yatri; its examination of Uber and Ola was ongoing.

Prelims pointers

• The U.S. Space Force said on September 14, 2026, that the country had deployed on-orbit space-control weapons.
• The article identifies jamming, spoofing and ground-station hacking as three non-kinetic methods for disrupting satellite systems.
• A cyberattack in the initial hours of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine crippled Viasat's KA-SAT communications network.
• Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force but does not clearly address cyber operations within that prohibition.
• The 2026 CERT-In/SIA-India Guidelines embed cybersecurity across satellite design, launch, in-orbit operations and decommissioning.

Prelims pointers

• CPCB found that India generates 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste each day, leading to 9.5 million tonnes a year.
• Pyrolysis uses high heat to produce fuel from plastic waste.
• P. Sahasrabuddhe produced a cooking gas called Vaayu from domestic waste that included plastics.
• A cited UCLA paper reported hydrogen production from plastic waste using heat and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• The article cites hydrogen production from seawater by a CSIR-IICT group and from seaweed by a Columbia University group.

Prelims pointers

• India’s net current account was -US$7.0 billion in July 2026, against -US$3.2 billion in July 2025.
• July 2026 net merchandise was -US$31.7 billion, with exports of US$45.1 billion and imports of US$76.8 billion.
• Net services in July 2026 were US$17.6 billion, comprising exports of US$38.3 billion and imports of US$20.6 billion.
• The net capital account in July 2026 was US$27.7 billion, including net FDI of US$7.3 billion and net FPI of US$4.1 billion.
• The overall July 2026 balance was US$20.8 billion, while monetary movements were -US$20.8 billion, where a minus sign denotes an increase.

Prelims pointers

• Anthropic said it blocked potentially harmful uses of Claude across cybersecurity, surveillance and biotechnology between December 2025 and August 2026.
• Earlier Opus 4 and Sonnet 4.5 models had less stringent biology safeguards; tighter dual-use controls were applied to newer models, especially Fable 5.
• Anthropic had said that filters for biological-weapons conversations were inactive on roughly 133 million exchanges for nearly a year.
• Reported cases involved gain-of-function work on chikungunya, avian-influenza experiments, a guided rocket and code for a simulated drone swarm.
• Input classifiers inspect user prompts, while output classifiers inspect model responses; patterns across messages may reveal risks that one message does not.

Prelims pointers

• The floods were triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, 2026.
• Nepal’s reported death toll reached 1,399 on September 15, with bodies recovered across eight affected districts.
• Chitwan recorded 364 bodies, the highest district figure listed, followed by Nawalparasi East with 232.
• A joint command of security personnel continued search-and-rescue work as 5,170 people were estimated to be missing.
• Officials reported that 13,742 people had been rescued following the flash floods.