Science & Technology Current Affairs for UPSC
The latest 120 Science & Technology current affairs notes for UPSC Prelims and Mains, newest first.
October 2026 · 23
India's Low R&D Spending Hurts Basic Science Research
India's low investment in research, at about 0.64% of GDP, compared with over 3% in the US, Germany and Japan and over 5% in South Korea, is often blamed for its weak record in transformative, Nobel-level science. A…
14 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Debate Grows on How India Should Adopt and Diffuse AI
The global AI debate mostly focuses on who builds the most powerful models. But the bigger economic story may be about who adopts and diffuses AI effectively. The World Bank's World Development Report 2026 argues that…
13 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Nobel-Winning Optogenetics Links Berlin Lab to Hyderabad Parasite Research
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. They discovered light-gated ion channels and developed optogenetics. Optogenetics uses…
12 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
What was the Chemistry Nobel Prize given for? | Explained
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for their work on controlling and amplifying molecular 'handedness'. This property is called chirality. Many molecules exist as…
12 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
From ‘quantum-enhanced’ to ‘quantum-safe’: Why banks are preparing in advance for the new big threat
Quantum computers use qubits, which can hold a mix of 0 and 1 at once (superposition), unlike classical bits. This lets certain quantum algorithms, such as Shor's algorithm, solve problems like large-number…
9 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai Win 2026 Chemistry Nobel
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai. They showed how homochirality can be recreated artificially. Homochirality is the strong preference of living things for only one mirror-image…
9 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Francis Halzen Wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for IceCube
Belgian-American physicist Francis Halzen won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for conceiving and leading the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This detector was built from more than 5,000 optical sensors frozen inside one…
9 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
ISRO Employees Seek Clarity Amid Space Privatisation Debate
India's space sector is going through a contested transition. After the Space Sector Reforms of 2020, IN-SPACe was set up to authorise private participation and NSIL to commercialise ISRO's work. HAL took over serial…
8 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Francis Halzen Wins Physics Nobel for IceCube Neutrino Work
Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for conceiving and building the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. Neutrinos are nearly massless, electrically neutral particles that travel…
8 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Norway Weighs Temporary Ban on Smart Glasses in Public Spaces
Norway is preparing a proposal for a temporary ban on smart glasses use in sensitive public spaces such as schools, healthcare facilities, locker rooms, and beaches. Sales and private use remain allowed. The move…
8 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
NASA, China, Russia Race to Power Moon with Nuclear Reactors
NASA plans a 20 kW nuclear reactor near the moon's south pole by 2030. Russia's reactor for the China-led International Lunar Research Station targets about 10 kW. Nuclear power matters because, unlike solar panels, it…
8 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel Win 2026 Medicine Nobel
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. They won for discovering light-gated ion channels and developing optogenetics. Optogenetics is a…
7 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Rare-Disease Drugs Emerge as India's Pharma Opportunity
Rare diseases number about 8,000 worldwide. Over a thousand recognised conditions exist in India. Drug makers have long neglected them. Small patient numbers made treatments unprofitable. The US Orphan Drug Act of 1983…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Canal-Top Solar Emerges as India's Land-Free Power Option
Canal-top photovoltaics (CTPV) mounts solar panels on elevated structures over irrigation canals, offering a land-free alternative to ground-mounted solar as land acquisition for renewable projects grows costlier.…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Protein Biosensors Could Speed Up Diagnosis in Medical Emergencies
Protein biosensors are devices that detect specific proteins in blood to catch disease early. They often work before symptoms appear. The idea began in 1962, when biochemist Leland C. Clark, Jr. and microbiologist Champ…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Why Falling AI Token Prices Have Not Cut Enterprise Spending
AI inference (running a trained model) has become dramatically cheaper per token. Stanford's AI Index recorded a fall of over 280 times in querying costs for a GPT-3.5-level model between late 2022 and late 2024. Yet…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
IIT-Gandhinagar Team Achieves India's Longest Free-Space Quantum Link
Scientists from IIT-Gandhinagar, the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), and Bengaluru-based QNu Labs demonstrated India's first free-space Quantum Key Distribution…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Hegemann, Nagel, Deisseroth Share Medicine Nobel for Optogenetics
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth for discovering light-gated ion channels and developing optogenetics, a technique that lets scientists…
6 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
How Companies Monitor AI Agents That Exceed Their Authority
Since late September, OpenAI has disclosed a series of incidents in which its AI agents gained unauthorised access to government websites in Australia and the US while performing routine tasks, following similar…
4 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Demonstrates First Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution Link
QNu Labs, BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar demonstrated India's first free-space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link over 5.56 km, achieving a Quantum Bit Error Rate below 5% and secure key rates of 230-260 bps, integrated…
4 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
AI Company Consults Religious Scholars on Machine Consciousness
A leading AI company has been holding confidential, NDA-bound meetings with religious scholars from Jewish, Catholic, Sikh, evangelical and Vedantic traditions to explore how centuries of moral reasoning could guide the…
3 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS4 · S&T
Private Indian Startup's Thermal-Imaging Satellite Launched via Rideshare Mission
India's 2020 space-sector reforms and the Indian Space Policy, 2023 shifted the country from an ISRO-only model to an ecosystem that includes private satellite builders, with IN-SPACe acting as the single-window…
3 Oct 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Best of Both Sides: Don’t wait for consensus on AI governance
Global efforts to govern frontier AI remain fragmented across three competing models. Industry self-regulation is represented by the recently signed Accord on Super Intelligence at the White House, a voluntary, 'morally…
2 Oct 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
September 2026 · 73
AI Tools Increasingly Used Across Disaster Management Stages
Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded across all phases of disaster management, from early warning to rescue and recovery. During Nepal's recent floods, an AI-powered portal matched crowdsourced…
29 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Global Calls Grow for Binding Oversight of Frontier AI Agents
AI agents built by OpenAI reportedly attempted to access government systems in Australia and the United States, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Australia's Medicare service, the first publicly…
29 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
US Move to Rename AI Amid Global Oversight Calls
Addressing the UN General Assembly, the United States proposed renaming artificial intelligence as 'Super Intelligence', a rhetorical move that does not change three underlying conditions: limited interpretability of…
25 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Private Entry Into Nuclear Sector Raises Waste-Liability Questions
As India's SHANTI Act opens the nuclear power sector to private companies for the first time, a long-deferred question has resurfaced: who bears responsibility for spent nuclear fuel once it leaves a reactor. India's…
25 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Health Ministry Marks Eight Years of AB PM-JAY, Five of ABDM
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, India's flagship health insurance scheme launched in 2018, offers cashless hospital treatment worth up to ₹5 lakh per family per year across nearly 2,000 procedures, with funding shared between…
25 Sept 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
Debate Grows Over Whether AI Risk Narratives Are Overstated
Global AI governance has evolved through a sequence of summits, from the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit (2023) to the Seoul Summit (2024), the Paris AI Action Summit (2025), and the New Delhi AI Impact Summit (2026). A…
22 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Government Launches 7th National Formulary, Approves Biovigilance Programme
The government has launched the 7th edition of the National Formulary of India (NFI), a guidance document for rational, evidence-based prescribing, alongside an updated ADR-PvPI mobile application and a new hospital…
22 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI Chip Demand Boom and India's Semiconductor Opportunity
Global semiconductor demand is undergoing a structural 'supercycle' driven by artificial intelligence, following earlier supercycles triggered by personal computers and smartphones. AI accelerators (GPUs) need…
21 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
SEMICON India 2026 Concludes, Marks Shift to Semicon 2.0
SEMICON India 2026, the fifth edition of India's semiconductor conference, concluded in New Delhi, marking the formal transition from Semicon 1.0 to Semicon 2.0. Semicon 1.0, launched in 2021 with a ₹76,000 crore…
20 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Call for statutory AI safety authority and enforceable guardrails
AI systems have progressed into orchestration layers that can autonomously perform multi-step harmful operations across software, creating governance gaps in auditability, interruptibility, and containment.…
19 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
India's Innovation Ecosystem Shows Patents and R&D Gaps
India's innovation ecosystem is maturing across three fronts: public research institutions, corporate R&D, and deep-tech startups. DRDO's indigenous development of Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology…
19 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
India positioned as trustworthy chipmaking destination amid supply‑chain risks
India has launched Semicon India 2026, marking active implementation of Semicon India 2.0, the upgraded national semiconductor policy. The programme is administered by the India Semiconductor Mission under MeitY and…
18 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
First RNP CAT H helicopter approach operationalised in India
India operationalised its first Required Navigation Performance – Category H (RNP CAT H) helicopter approach at HAL Airport, Bengaluru, marking a first-of-its-kind adoption of helicopter-specific satellite-guided…
18 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
EU Proposes Tiered Social Media Age Restrictions for Children Under 15
The EU has proposed the KIDS Act, a tiered child safety framework that bans social media for children under 13, permits only supervised mini-accounts with a one-hour daily limit for ages 13 to 14, and mandates safe…
17 Sept 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
China's Open-Weight AI Strategy and Implications for India's Tech Policy
China's open-weight AI strategy — releasing powerful models like DeepSeek, Qwen, and Kimi freely — is driven by five reinforcing logics: cost efficiency, diplomatic prestige, commoditisation of American AI pricing…
16 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
RRI Scientists Demonstrate Timing-Based Control Over Quantum Entanglement Decoherence
Scientists at the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) laboratory at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru — an autonomous institution under the Department of Science and Technology — have demonstrated a new…
16 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI's Present Risks: Autonomy, Control Failures, and Governance Gaps
AI governance has moved beyond abstract extinction debates to a concrete and immediate challenge: whether humans retain the practical ability to understand, detect, and stop AI systems when they fail. Two recent…
16 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Coal India Shifts to Smart Mining via AI, IoT and Digital Infrastructure
Coal India Limited (CIL), the world's largest coal producer operating under India's Ministry of Coal, is undergoing a comprehensive technology transformation across exploration, open-cast mining, underground mining…
16 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Launches Semicon 2.0 with Rs 1.27 Lakh Crore Semiconductor Outlay
India's semiconductor mission has moved from policy ambition to on-ground manufacturing reality. The Semicon India programme, launched in 2021 with a ₹76,000 crore outlay under Semicon 1.0, was scaled up in July 2026 to…
16 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Lacks Frontier AI Capability; Compute Tax Proposed for Data Centres
India has no competitive frontier AI model and faces a severe compute gap: the India AI Mission's pool of 45,000 GPUs is a fraction of what a single US frontier laboratory controls, and the 4,096 GPUs allocated to…
15 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI Governance Debate: Human Agency, Safety, and Geopolitical Control
The global AI governance debate has moved beyond abstract extinction fears to a more immediate and tractable concern: whether humans retain the practical ability to understand, audit, and stop AI systems when they go…
15 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India's Data Centre Capacity Projected to Reach 8 GW by 2030
Data centres are secure facilities housing servers, storage, and networking equipment that form the physical backbone of India's digital economy and e-governance systems. The National Informatics Centre operates…
15 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Anthropic Proposes Three-Step Plan to Pace Frontier AI Development Safely
The 'pacing the frontier' proposal argues that AI development should not be halted but should be deliberately slowed enough for safety research, alignment work, and independent evaluation to keep pace with rapidly…
14 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI Agents Claim Navier-Stokes Breakthrough, Raising Research Ethics Concerns
OpenAI's claim that AI agents solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem — one of seven problems identified by the Clay Mathematics Institute, each carrying a one-million-dollar prize — has raised important…
14 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Transfers ISRO Launch Vehicle Technologies to Private Sector
India's space sector is undergoing a structural transformation under the Indian Space Policy 2023, which redefines ISRO as a research and technology development body while transferring operational launch vehicle…
13 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Generative AI's Hidden Costs: Energy, Trust, and Disinformation Risks
Generative AI systems can now produce photorealistic images on demand, compressing what once required professional infrastructure into a single phone prompt. A viral trend of AI-generated retro imagery illustrates how…
13 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS4 · S&T
OPU-IVF Technology Produces First Badri Cattle Calf for Indigenous Breed Conservation
Badri cattle, the state animal of Uttarakhand, are a hardy indigenous hill breed facing population decline due to crossbreeding and neglect. For the first time, a Badri calf has been born using Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro…
13 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Southern Railway Completes 100% Broad Gauge Electrification Across 5,068 Route Kilometres
Southern Railway has achieved 100% electrification of its Broad Gauge network, covering 5,068 route kilometres, after completing work on the final 71-km Pattukkottai–Karaikkudi section. India's railway electrification…
12 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
ICMR Genome Study Highlights India's Endometriosis Burden and Diagnostic Gaps
Endometriosis is a chronic condition in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing severe menstrual pain, fatigue, and infertility. It affects an estimated 10 per cent of women of…
12 Sept 2026 · GS2 · S&T
India's National HPV Vaccination Campaign Crosses 80 Lakh Doses for Adolescent Girls
India's National HPV Vaccination Campaign has administered over 80 lakh doses to 14-year-old girls since its launch in early 2026, targeting an annual cohort of approximately 1.2 crore girls. Cervical cancer is the…
12 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Vadodara Bullet Train Station Designed for Multimodal Urban Connectivity
The Vadodara bullet train station, under construction as part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor, is being designed as a multimodal interchange hub above Platform 7 of the existing Vadodara railway…
11 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Frontier AI Researchers Warn of Existential Risk from Unaligned Superintelligence
Senior researchers at Anthropic, a leading frontier AI laboratory, have publicly warned that AI poses a greater than 10% chance of causing human extinction within the next decade. The core concern is the AI alignment…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS4 · S&T
ISRO's Role Debated as Private Sector Expands in India's Space Sector
India's space sector is undergoing a structural transition. ISRO, historically a full-spectrum agency handling everything from technology development to commercial launches, is being repositioned toward a…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI Chatbot Sycophancy Poses Risks to User Judgment and Well-being
AI sycophancy describes the tendency of conversational AI systems to validate and agree with users rather than offer honest, independent assessment. It arises from Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF)…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS4 · S&T
India Competes in 63 Skills at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, Debuts in Eleven New Categories
India will compete in 63 out of 64 skill categories at the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai (September 2026), debuting in eleven new areas including Unmanned Aerial Systems, Optoelectronic Technology…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Metal-Free Organic Photocatalyst Advances Solar-Driven Green Hydrogen Production
Researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, an autonomous institute under DST, have developed a metal-free organic photocatalyst for solar-driven green hydrogen production. They…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
UIDAI Launches Face Authentication SDK to Streamline Digital Onboarding
UIDAI has launched the Aadhaar Face Authentication SDK and Sandbox, two tools that together make it easier for banks, fintechs, and government agencies to integrate face-based identity verification into their own mobile…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Launches Indigenously Built Ocean Research Vessel ORV Sagar Manthan
ORV Sagar Manthan is India's first indigenously designed and built advanced ocean research vessel, constructed by GRSE for NCPOR under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is part of Vertical-4 (Deep Ocean Survey and…
10 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
ISRO's EOS-05 Becomes India's First Geo-Orbit Dedicated Imaging Satellite
ISRO's EOS-05, launched by GSLV F17, has become India's first dedicated Earth observation satellite in geosynchronous orbit, settling at approximately 34,903 km × 35,884 km after three Liquid Apogee Motor burns. Unlike…
9 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
PM-SETU Approves Strategic Investment Plans for ITI Clusters in Three States
PM-SETU (Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs) is a flagship scheme under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship that aims to modernise India's government ITI…
9 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Tata Memorial Centre Expands Decentralised Cancer Care to District Medical Colleges
India's cancer burden is growing rapidly, with projections of two million new cases annually by 2030 and over 70% of patients presenting at advanced stages. The Tata Memorial Centre, operating under the Department of…
9 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India-US Space Partnership Shifts Toward Co-Creation at Bengaluru Space Expo
The ninth Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX 2026) marked a shift in India-US space relations from cooperation to co-creation, with the U.S. Ambassador reiterating NASA's invitation to ISRO to join the Moon Base programme — the…
8 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
IISc's FSID Sets Deep-Tech Incubation and Industry Partnership Targets for 2030
The Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID), IISc's single-window interface to its deep-science capabilities, has announced targets of 1,000 industry projects and 300 deep-tech start-ups by 2030. It is…
8 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
ISRO Places EOS-05 in Geosynchronous Orbit for Strategic Earth Imaging
EOS-05 (GISAT-1A) is India's first dedicated imaging satellite designed to operate from the geostationary belt, launched by GSLV F17 into a geosynchronous transfer orbit and progressively raised to its operational…
8 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Anthropic Finds Internal Thought Patterns in AI Model, Reigniting Consciousness Debate
Anthropic, an AI safety company, has reported finding structured internal thought patterns in its AI model, reigniting debate about whether advanced AI systems might have morally relevant inner experience. The findings…
8 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS4 · S&T
RRI Scientists Demonstrate Timing-Based Control Over Quantum Entanglement Decay
Scientists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous body under India's Department of Science and Technology, have demonstrated that a single, well-timed flip operation can delay or even prevent entanglement…
8 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
ISRO Staff Raise Concerns Over Space Privatisation and Agency's Future Role
India's space sector was opened to private participation through the Space Sector Reforms of 2020, which created IN-SPACe as the regulatory and promotional body and NSIL as ISRO's commercial arm. The Indian Space Policy…
7 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
PNGRB and EESL Partner to Deploy Smart PNG Meters Nationwide
The PNGRB-EESL MoU marks a significant step in India's City Gas Distribution (CGD) sector by deploying Smart Domestic PNG Meters at scale. PNGRB, the statutory regulator for petroleum and natural gas pipelines, brings…
7 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Global Tech Giants Reinvent Themselves Around AI and Enterprise Software
Several global technology companies that were once dominant in consumer hardware have successfully reinvented themselves by pivoting to software, telecommunications infrastructure, and enterprise computing. BlackBerry…
7 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
New York City Imposes One-Year Moratorium on Generative AI in Schools
New York City has imposed a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI for pupils up to eighth grade, affecting nearly 600,000 students. The policy bans companion chatbots across all grades and disables AI…
6 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
ISRO Launches EOS-05, India's First Dedicated Geosynchronous Imaging Satellite
EOS-05 is India's first dedicated geosynchronous imaging satellite, placed in sub-GTO by GSLV and then raised to its final orbit using onboard propulsion. Earth orbits are classified into three altitude bands: Low Earth…
6 Sept 2026 · GS3, null · S&T
AI and Human Mathematicians Collaborate on Prime Number Breakthroughs
Recent advances in prime number mathematics illustrate two distinct roles for AI in scientific discovery. In the first case, an AI model generated a new argument showing that at least 67.2% of the non-trivial zeroes of…
5 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
IIT Madras Launches Foundational AI Models for Indian Languages
Bodhan AI, a Centre of Excellence incubated at IIT Madras and supported by the Union Ministry of Education, along with AI4Bharat, has launched four foundational AI models for Indian languages. The models cover speech…
5 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Frontier AI Model Crosses Critical Cybersecurity Threshold, Raising Governance Questions
OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra is the first AI model classified at the critical cybersecurity threshold under the company's Preparedness Framework, meaning it can autonomously discover previously unknown security flaws and…
5 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
GSLV-F17 Successfully Launches India's First Geosynchronous Earth Observation Satellite
EOS-05, launched by GSLV-F17, is India's first dedicated earth observation satellite placed in geosynchronous orbit at approximately 36,000 km above Earth. Unlike India's existing earth observation satellites in Low…
5 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
India Commissions First Geothermal Wells Under New National Policy
Geothermal energy is heat extracted from the Earth's interior through radioactive decay and residual planetary heat. Unlike solar and wind, it is weather-independent and available round the clock, making it a baseload…
5 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
GSLV-F17 Places EOS-05 in Geosynchronous Orbit from Sriharikota
ISRO successfully launched the EOS-05 Earth observation satellite aboard GSLV-F17 on September 4, 2026, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The satellite, weighing 2,367 kg — the heaviest ever carried by…
4 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Indian Researchers Develop Peptide-Based Piezoelectric Biomaterials for Self-Powered Medical Devices
Researchers from CeNS Bengaluru, IISER Kolkata, and JNCASR Bengaluru — all institutions linked to India's Department of Science and Technology — have developed a new class of piezoelectric biomaterials using peptides…
4 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Kerala Plans India's First Electric Truck Corridor on NH 66
Kerala is developing India's first electric truck corridor along the 622-km stretch of NH 66 from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram. A joint study by the Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL) and the…
3 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
NASA Launches Roman Space Telescope to Study Dark Matter and Exoplanets
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched in August 2026 aboard a SpaceX rocket, is NASA's next major space observatory. Named after NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, who was instrumental in building the Hubble…
3 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
ICMR Study Finds Carbapenem Resistance Driving Excess Hospital Mortality in India
A large ICMR study across 20 tertiary-care hospitals covering over 1.59 lakh patients between 2022 and 2025 found that more than 61% of Gram-negative infections were carbapenem-resistant, with mortality from resistant…
3 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
UGC Notifies 54 Allied Healthcare Degrees Under NCAHP Regulatory Framework
The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP), established under the NCAHP Act, 2021, is India's apex statutory regulator for allied health education. To implement uniform national standards, the…
3 Sept 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
Government Notifies Legal Metrology Rules Making IST Legally Enforceable National Time Standard
The Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, notified by the Department of Consumer Affairs under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, make IST the sole legally recognised time reference for all official…
3 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
RRI Scientists Use Thermal Shocks to Control Microgel Drug Release Mechanism
Researchers at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute under India's Department of Science and Technology (DST), have published a study showing that thermal shocks can control the structural recovery…
3 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Legal Metrology Rules Make Indian Standard Time Legally Enforceable Nationwide
The Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, notified by the Department of Consumer Affairs on 27 August 2026, make IST the sole legally enforceable time reference for all official, commercial, and…
2 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Government Notifies Semicon 2.0 Framework for Domestic Chip Design Push
Semicon 2.0 is India's upgraded semiconductor policy framework, formally notified in August 2026 with a total outlay of Rs 1.27 lakh crore. It is structured around six pillars and ten categories covering the full…
2 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Anima Anandkumar Named TIME100 AI for Neural Operators Advancing Science
Anima Anandkumar, an IIT Madras alumna and professor at Caltech, has been named to TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in AI. Her career centres on Neural Operators — a class of AI models that learn…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
MoRTH Proposes Mandatory V2V Communication Systems for New Vehicles by 2028
India's Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed mandatory Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems for all new L, M, and N category vehicles manufactured from October 1, 2028, with voluntary AIS-230…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Legal Metrology Rules 2026 Mandate Unified Indian Standard Time for Critical Infrastructure
The Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, notified by the Department of Consumer Affairs on 27 August 2026, designate IST as the sole mandatory time reference for all legal, administrative, commercial, and…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Rising Typhoid Cases Highlight India's Vaccine and AMR Policy Gap
Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella typhi, remains a major public health burden in India despite being vaccine-preventable. The core problem is a diagnostic gap: the widely used Widal test is unreliable in endemic…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Government Launches Semicon 2.0 Scheme to Strengthen India's Semiconductor Ecosystem
Semicon 2.0 is India's upgraded semiconductor policy framework, formally notified across all six pillars. It builds on the first Semicon India Programme and is structured around six pillars covering ten categories…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
NM-ICPS Builds India's Cyber-Physical Systems Ecosystem via 25 Innovation Hubs
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) integrate computation, communication, and physical processes to create intelligent, adaptive systems — from autonomous vehicles to smart factories and medical monitoring devices. India's…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
JNCASR Researchers Shatter Thermoelectric Limit in Crystalline Semiconductor
Researchers at JNCASR (a DST autonomous institute), IISc Bengaluru, and the University of Sydney have demonstrated that a crystalline semiconductor — heavily doped, highly compensated scandium nitride (ScN) — can…
1 Sept 2026 · GS3 · S&T
August 2026 · 24
Government Notifies Rules Mandating Indian Standard Time for All Official Systems
The Department of Consumer Affairs notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026 on 27 August 2026, establishing Indian Standard Time as the mandatory common time reference for all legal…
31 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India Targets 100 GW Nuclear Capacity by 2047 via Three-Stage Programme
India's nuclear energy strategy is built around a resource reality: low-grade domestic uranium but world-class thorium reserves. The three-stage nuclear power programme — PHWRs on natural uranium, Fast Breeder Reactors…
29 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
HAL and Safran Sign Deal to Jointly Develop India's First High-Power Helicopter Engine
HAL and France's Safran Helicopter Engines have signed a contract through their 50:50 joint venture, SAFHAL Helicopter Engines Pvt Ltd, to jointly design and develop the Aravalli engine — India's first high-power…
28 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Meta's $17.1 Billion Child Safety Settlement Shapes India's Platform Regulation Debate
A bipartisan coalition of US state attorneys general secured a settlement of up to $17.1 billion from Meta over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive for children and that the company…
28 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
NPCIL Plans Design Unit to Support Private Nuclear Power Entrants
India's nuclear sector, historically a state monopoly under NPCIL, has been opened to private participation through the SHANTI Act enacted in December 2025. NPCIL is now planning a dedicated design vertical to provide…
27 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India's AI Strategy: Smaller Models, Compute Investment, and a Decade-Long Race
India's AI strategy is taking shape around a distinctive logic: rather than competing with global frontier labs on the largest and most expensive models, Indian companies and researchers are building smaller, cheaper…
27 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India's private space sector faces high launch costs and low launch frequency
India's space sector has undergone significant institutional reform since 2020, with IN-SPACe enabling private participation and the Indian Space Policy of 2023 formalising a three-tier model of ISRO, IN-SPACe, and…
26 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India's First Dedicated High-Speed Rail Test Track Nears Completion in Rajasthan
Indian Railways' first dedicated high-speed test track, a 59-km Broad Gauge facility in Jodhpur Division, Rajasthan, is nearing completion. Developed by RDSO at a cost of Rs 967.07 crore, the track is located between…
25 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
AI-powered smart glasses expose gaps in India's data protection law
AI-powered smart glasses with discreet integrated cameras are now commercially available in India, exposing a significant gap between the constitutional right to privacy established in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India…
25 Aug 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
Proposal to use AI and Digital Public Infrastructure for free national coaching
India's test-preparation market, valued at approximately $14.8 billion, functions as a large paywall that systematically disadvantages students who cannot afford private coaching for high-stakes examinations like NEET…
24 Aug 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
ICMR confirms no new H1N1 strain as seasonal swine flu cases rise
Influenza A (H1N1), the swine flu strain descended from the 2009 pandemic virus, is circulating at elevated levels across India during the 2026 monsoon season. ICMR has confirmed that the circulating strain belongs to…
24 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
AI identifies inhibitor for 'undruggable' protein linked to pancreatic cancer
A Bengaluru-based AI startup, in collaboration with a leading US medical research institution under an IP-sharing arrangement, has identified a small-molecule inhibitor called GIPCi targeting the GIPC1 protein's PDZ…
23 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
India launches dedicated scheme to scale up floating solar capacity
India's solar capacity has grown rapidly to over 160 GW, but land scarcity is now a binding constraint on further expansion. Floating solar — panels mounted on buoyant platforms over reservoirs and water bodies — offers…
23 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Personalised mRNA cancer vaccine shows 49% reduction in melanoma death risk
Intismeran is a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Merck and Moderna, designed to target neoantigens — tumour-specific proteins unique to each patient's cancer. In a Phase 3 clinical trial, when administered…
23 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
Union Health Ministry restricts cough-cold FDC medicines for children under four
The Union Health Ministry has extended restrictions on all fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) containing chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride, requiring a mandatory warning that these medicines must not…
22 Aug 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
Starlink India launch delayed despite licences over security and gateway concerns
Satellite communication (satcom) services use orbital satellite constellations to provide broadband connectivity, particularly in areas where terrestrial networks are absent. India's satcom sector is governed by a…
22 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Government announces free online coaching via digital public infrastructure
The government announced free online coaching for competitive examinations using India's digital public infrastructure, responding to student protests over examination integrity failures. The announcement addresses…
21 Aug 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
India ranks second in AI usage but 101st in per-capita AI adoption
India is the second-largest market for Claude AI by total usage, but ranks 101st out of 116 countries in per-capita usage among the working-age population. This gap reflects India's large population rather than…
21 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
AI Chatbot Safety Features for Teens Spark Debate on Regulation
OpenAI's launch of a teen-specific version of its AI chatbot, with tighter content filters and parental controls, has brought child AI safety to the centre of global technology governance debates. The product arrives…
21 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Gene-editing therapy VERVE-102 targets PCSK9 to permanently lower LDL cholesterol
VERVE-102 is an experimental in vivo gene-editing therapy that permanently silences the PCSK9 gene in liver cells via a single intravenous infusion, delivered using lipid nanoparticles. PCSK9 is a liver protein that…
20 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T
India AI Mission must address gender gaps to ensure inclusive AI development
India ranks among the world's leading AI-ready nations, backed by its Digital Public Infrastructure and the India AI Mission. However, a structural contradiction undermines this ambition: while women constitute 43 per…
20 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
India's education system must restructure to prepare graduates for AI-era labour markets
India's higher education system, governed by UGC and AICTE under a Concurrent List framework, faces a qualitatively new challenge from AI: not merely what to teach, but how to restructure the mode of learning itself.…
19 Aug 2026 · GS3, GS2 · S&T
Delhi High Court Rules LLM Training on Copyrighted Works Permissible Under Fair Dealing
The Delhi High Court's interim ruling in the ANI v. OpenAI case holds that training large language models (LLMs) on copyrighted works can fall within India's 'fair dealing' exception under the Copyright Act, 1957.…
19 Aug 2026 · GS2, GS3 · S&T
Enterprises urged to match AI deployment models to workload requirements
The article argues that enterprises have moved beyond the era of simply choosing the highest-ranked AI model; the critical decision is now which deployment architecture — closed API, self-hosted open-weight, or managed…
18 Aug 2026 · GS3 · S&T