Monthly current affairs for September 2026

The Ministry of Law and Justice (MoL&J) has notified the appointment of 8 High Court (HC) judges as Chief Justices (CJ) of various HCs across India.

The appointments include: Justice V Kameswar Rao as CJ of Patna HC, Justice Ravindra V Ghuge as CJ of Calcutta HC, Justice Sanjay Agrawal as CJ of Rajasthan HC, Justice Mahesh Tripathi as CJ of Bombay HC, Justice Ashwani Mishra as CJ of Punjab & Haryana HC, Justice Krushna Mohapatra as CJ of Chhattisgarh HC, Justice Alpesh Kogje as CJ of Madhya Pradesh HC, and Justice Pushpendra Bhati as CJ of J&K and Ladakh HC.

Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra (Retd.) has been appointed as the CEO of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The trust is the administrative body responsible for the management and oversight of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) has announced the winners of the 68th edition of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2026, which is frequently referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Asia”. The recipients include Tommy Koh from Singapore, Runa Khan from Bangladesh, and Bo Kyi from Myanmar.

The announcement was made on the occasion of the 119th birth anniversary of Ramon Magsaysay, the 7th President of Philippines. Each recipient of the award will receive a cash prize of $50,000.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have won the men’s doubles title at the 19th edition of the China Masters held in Shenzhen, China, defeating the Chinese pair He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu in the final.

With this, they become the first Indian pair to win the tournament. The winning pair was awarded a prize money of $92,500.

East Zone has won the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy title by defeating South Zone through a 372-run first innings lead at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. This victory ended a 13-year championship drought for the team.

The final match resulted in a draw after East Zone scored 708 runs in the first innings. Ishan Kishan (Captain of the East Zone) was named the Player of the Match for scoring a total of 350 runs (270 in the first innings and 80 in the second). Tilak Varma (Captain of the South Zone) was awarded the Player of the Tournament.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, an Italian national racing for Mercedes, has won the Formula One (F1) Italian Grand Prix (GP) 2026.

Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan has released a book titled “Bhupen Hazarika: Hundred Years of a Wandering Songs” (edited by Ankuran Dutta and Nani Mahanta) at Gauhati University, Assam.

During the ceremony, he also laid the foundation stone for infrastructure development projects worth ₹110 crore at the university. The VP also released the 5th revised and enlarged edition of “Chandrakanta Abhidhan”, a work of Assamese lexicography.

National Sports Day (Rashtriya Khel Divas)

Day - August 29

Observed since - 2012

Commemorating - The birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand, who has won 3 gold medals in Olympics for India. He is also known as “Wizard of Hockey”.

National Small Industry Day

Day - August 30

Observed since - 2001

Commemorating - The announcement of comprehensive policy package for Small Scale Industries (SSIs) during the 1st National Conference on SSI, by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000

Vice President CP Radhakrishnan has released a commemorative postage stamp in Chennai to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of ‘Dinamalar’, a Tamil daily newspaper.

The issuance of the stamp celebrates the 75-year history of the newspaper and its contributions to journalism and public service.

According to the first-ever district-level estimates of the “Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises” (ASUSE) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Haryana has emerged as the leading state in the informal non-agricultural sector.

It has 7 districts in the top 50 nationally ranked by Gross Value Added (GVA) per worker. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana follow with 6 districts each. The report highlights that 33% of the informal sector activity of India is concentrated in the 50 most productive districts, with 40 of these districts located in just 8 states.

The national average GVA per worker in the informal sector is ₹1.56 lakh. Satara (Maharashtra) recorded the highest productivity at ₹8.7 lakh per worker, followed by Fatehgarh Sahib (Punjab) and Tonk (Rajasthan). Telangana and the Northeastern states recorded the highest female participation in the informal workforce.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched the operational guidelines for the third phase of the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP 3.0). The initiative has an allocated outlay of ₹565.5 crore for the 2026-2031 period.

The programme aims to integrate land records, maps, and registration data through a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based digital framework. Under the initiative, every land parcel will be assigned a 14-digit Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN), also known as “Bhu-Aadhaar”, alongside the georeferencing of cadastral maps.

75 high-footfall sub-registrar offices will be modernized and rebranded as “registration seva kendras”. The government will also focus on scanning legacy land records, establishing a centralized registration repository, and computerizing revenue courts. Additionally, the NAKSHA initiative will be used for urban land mapping to prepare and issue urban property cards.

The RBI has included Coastal Local Area Bank Ltd in the Second Schedule of the RBI Act, 1934. Headquartered in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, it is the first Local Area Bank (LAB) of India.

Razorpay, in partnership with IndusInd Bank, has launched an AI powered account manager named “RAY” on WhatsApp.

The service enables enterprises to manage payments, transactions, settlements, and customer support through a chat-based interface. It is to be noted that Bajaj Finserv is among the first corporate entities to use the live functionalities of the platform.

Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has signed an agreement with the Jharkhand government , Jharkhand Digital Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (JDICL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), and Jharkhand Communication Network Ltd (JCNL) for the implementation of the Amended BharatNet Program (ABP) in Jharkhand.

Bisleri International Pvt Ltd has signed a Letter of Association (LoA) with the State Bank of India (SBI) to collaborate on the ‘Bottles for Change’ initiative, which focuses on responsible plastic waste management.

The partnership supports the transition of India toward a circular economy and aligns with the national objective of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2070. It is to be noted that SBI has established a target to achieve Net Zero status (encompassing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions) by 2055.

The Bharat Tex Trade Federation (BTTF) has signed an MoU with Premiere Vision SA at the Premiere Vision exhibition in Paris to strengthen India’s engagement with the global fashion and textile ecosystem.

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has signed an MoU with the Textiles Committee (TC) under the Ministry of Textiles (MoT) to promote recycled and upcycled textile products through government procurement.

PM Narendra Modi represented India at the 26th edition of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) Summit and the ‘SCO Plus’ meeting held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

The summit, marking the 25th anniversary of the organisation, was chaired by the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov under the motto “25 Years of the SCO; Together for Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity”.

The event concluded with the adoption of the ‘Bishkek Declaration’ and 28 other documents, including 4 MoUs. The declaration featured various initiatives led or supported by India. On the sidelines, the ‘SCO Plus’ meeting was organised under the theme “The UN as a Key Element of a Just World Order: The Contribution of the SCO Plus States to the Formation of a Multipolar World”.

The presidency of the SCO for the 2026-27 term was handed over to Pakistan, which will operate under the theme “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity”. Lahore (Pakistan) has been named the tourism and cultural capital of the SCO for the 2026-27 period.

The University of Bristol has inaugurated the Mumbai Enterprise Campus in Mumbai, marking the first international campus of the institution.

It is to be noted that this expansion is facilitated by recent regulatory amendments in India that permit foreign Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to establish and operate physical campuses within the country.