Reports & Indices Current Affairs October 2026

The Henley Passport Index 2026, released on 17 October 2026 and built on exclusive IATA travel data, kept Singapore at number one with visa-free access to 193 of 227 destinations. Japan, South Korea and the UAE shared second place with 188, and Sweden was third with 187. India rose one place to 84th, tied with Algeria and Mauritania, even though its visa-free count slipped from 57 to 55 destinations, so the rank improved while actual access narrowed. Afghanistan remained last at 106th with 22 destinations, below Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. The index ranks 199 passports.

The 2026 Global Hunger Index, titled *No Security Without Food Security*, was released on 14 October 2026 at Berlin by Welthungerhilfe with IFHV and Helvetas, ahead of World Food Day. India scored 24.1 and ranked 100th of 122 countries, tied with Ethiopia, in the serious hunger band. The global score was 18.1, up from 17.6 in 2018, with hunger worsening in 32 countries and 57 off track for low hunger by 2030. Somalia had the highest score at 47.0, ahead of the DR Congo (39.5), Chad (38.0) and Madagascar (36.5).

The World Bank released its flagship World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, launched in New Delhi by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with MeitY's IndiaAI Mission as India launch partner. It advises developing countries to adopt and adapt open-access models for local languages rather than chase costly frontier models. It finds just over 4% of Indian jobs at immediate automation risk against over one-third in advanced economies, places India's AI talent pool second-largest globally at about 50,460 professionals, and notes a net loss of 200 elite AI researchers (2011-2024). Only 1 of 25 low-income economies has an active national AI strategy.

MoSPI released its first sub-sectoral trial Index of Services Production (ISP) on 29 September 2026, covering 19 services sub-sectors with 2024-25 as the base year. Seventeen of the 19 grew year-on-year in July 2026 and ten posted double-digit gains, led by administrative and support services (20.9%), retail trade (18.5%), real estate (14.4%), accommodation and food services (12.6%) and banking (12.3%). Only air transport (-8.4%) and repair services (-5%) contracted. The ISP remains an experimental series being tested for data quality, and builds on the first headline trial index released in July 2026.

India's unemployment rate for persons aged 15 and above stayed at 5.0% in September 2026, unchanged from August and down from 5.2% a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Office's monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey bulletin. Rural unemployment edged up to 4.2% and urban to 6.9%. The male rate held at 4.9% while the female rate rose to 5.2%; rural female unemployment fell to 3.9%, its lowest in 2026, even as urban female unemployment climbed to 9.2%. The labour force participation rate was 55.5% and the worker population ratio 52.7%, both up year-on-year. 3,70,513 persons were surveyed.

The Ministry of Ayush released the Ayush Services Sector Report 2026, prepared by the research body RIS, around Ayurveda Day 2026. It values India's Ayush services economy at US$36.92 billion in FY2024-25, growing at a 16.91% CAGR and supporting about 1.76 million direct livelihoods, with a projection of US$216-318 billion by 2047. Women form 43% of the workforce overall, rising above 60% in spas and wellness resorts, 58% in educational institutes and 53% in hospitals. Ayurveda alone contributes US$17.73 billion, roughly 48% of the total, while medical value travel is worth US$1.77 billion.

The World Health Organization released 'State of inequality: noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors' on 20 October 2026. Drawing on national data collected over the past decade, it examines four NCDs - cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes - alongside risk factors including tobacco and alcohol use, obesity, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and air pollution. The report finds hypertension and diabetes more common among less-educated groups in low- and middle-income countries, rural populations less likely to be diagnosed and treated than urban ones, and poorer, less-educated women least likely to receive cervical cancer screening.

The National Statistics Office under MoSPI released in October 2026 the findings of India's first National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), built to inform urban-mobility and transport planning. It finds 66.4% of students aged 6 and above travel more than 1 km daily to their educational institution (65.6% rural, 68.1% urban), with walking at 37.0%, buses 29.5% and bicycles 15.8% as the main modes. Among workers, 42.6% use two-wheelers to reach a fixed workplace (37.1% rural, 52.3% urban), and the average monthly commute cost is Rs 785 per worker — Rs 1,044 urban and Rs 612 rural. It lands alongside MoSPI's new environmental accounts strategy.

HSBC's Global Entrepreneurial Wealth Report 2026 finds 74% of Indian entrepreneurs considering relocating their business or personal base abroad. Singapore is the single most favoured destination at 14%, with France, the United Kingdom and the United States drawing 11% each. On technology the picture is near-universal: 99% of Indian founders have adopted or plan to adopt artificial intelligence and 65% already use it, while 54% are putting 11-30% of turnover into AI spending. The barriers they cite most often are data privacy (44%), employee resistance (38%) and integrating legacy systems (35%).