Science & Technology Current Affairs 2026 for Government Exams

IIT Madras signed an agreement with UNESCO MGIEP — the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development — to build Artificial Intelligence-based immersive learning technologies for global education systems. The pact, signed in the presence of Obijiofor Aginam (Director, UNESCO MGIEP) along with Manu Santhanam and M Manivannan of IIT Madras, blends AI, Extended Reality (XR) and game design with Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). It promises personalised, gamified learning with real-time emotional feedback, reduced teacher workload, and low-cost, low-bandwidth delivery. The collaboration supports joint research in education technology and aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 on inclusive and sustainable education.

The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), an autonomous body under MeitY, together with Intel India, launched two Agentic AI skilling programmes at a National Leadership Dialogue held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The programmes are 'Agentic AI for Everyone', covering AI agents and automation through no-code platforms, and 'Engineering Agentic AI Systems', on designing and deploying AI systems using low-code and code-based frameworks. Speakers included NIELIT Director General Dr Madan Mohan Tripathi, Shashi Shekhar Vempati and Anshul Sonak of Intel India. The dialogue focused on AI's impact on jobs and education and on government-academia-industry collaboration.

Tata Elxsi and Bengaluru-based advanced air mobility startup Sarla Aviation signed an MoU to jointly develop Shunya, a six-seater-plus-one-pilot electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Tata Elxsi will provide engineering support for avionics, flight control systems, software integration, testing, verification, validation and certification, while Sarla Aviation leads design, development and type certification. Designed for flight operations exceeding 300 km, Shunya pairs VTOL capability with fixed-wing cruise efficiency for runway-independent urban and regional connectivity. The first flight is targeted within 18–24 months. The MoU was signed in the presence of Tata Elxsi CEO and MD Manoj Raghavan, strengthening India's Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) unveiled three indigenous micro and small gas turbine engines — NJ-05, NJ-50 and NJ-100 — at CSIR Headquarters, New Delhi in August 2026. Developed for defence unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missile systems, they deliver thrust of 5 kg, 50 kg and 100 kg respectively. The engines run on the Brayton cycle, in which air is compressed, mixed with fuel, combusted and expanded through a turbine to produce thrust. The NJ-100 builds on data from the NJ-05 demonstrator, showing progressive scaling within one engine family, and uses high-RPM turbomachinery and advanced combustion suited to lightweight, high-speed aerial platforms.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has established the Foundation for Quantum Computing Innovation (FQCI), a Section 8 not-for-profit company, to operate as the Quantum Computing Thematic Hub (QC T-Hub) under the National Quantum Mission (NQM) of the Department of Science and Technology. FQCI is one of four NQM thematic hubs and will work across photonic, superconducting, semiconductor, neutral-atom and trapped-ion platforms while building shared fabrication, testing and characterisation facilities. Its five programmes - QC Rise, QC Bridge, QC Leap, QC Accel and QC Quest - target skilling and start-ups, complementing C-DOT's parallel push on quantum-safe communication products.

C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics), the telecom research and development arm of the Department of Telecommunications, unveiled 14 indigenous quantum products at its 43rd Foundation Day function held on 25 August 2026 at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The products span Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), and are aimed at making India's communication networks quantum-safe against future attacks by quantum computers. Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and C-DOT Chief Executive Officer Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay released a Quantum Product Series booklet consolidating the portfolio, which complements the quantum-communication vertical of the National Quantum Mission.

The Digital India BHASHINI Division organised the BHASHINI Shilpi developer session at the Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Nepal on 31 August 2026, under the Digital India Corporation and MeitY. Local developers, students and innovators were introduced to BHASHINI's translation, speech-recognition and speech-synthesis APIs through the tracks 'Develop', 'Solve', 'Scale' and 'Innovate with BHASHINI'. CEO Amitabh Nag addressed the session. In parallel, the Division hosted the international BHASHINI SANGAM Workshop at the Embassy auditorium and signed a foundational MoU with Kathmandu University's Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure and AI. It follows the BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop: Sikkim Chapter held at Gangtok on 19 August 2026.

Indian Railways approved Rs 170 crore to deploy Kavach Version 4.0 across the remaining 712 route kilometres of Northern Railway's Moradabad Division. Kavach is India's indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, designed to prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) by applying brakes automatically when a train overshoots a signal or exceeds permitted speed. Version 4.0 adds a direct interface with Electronic Interlocking, station-to-station optical fibre communication and better location accuracy. As of 31 July 2026, Kavach 4.0 was commissioned on 2,633 route km, including 1,423 km on Delhi-Mumbai and 1,210 km on Delhi-Howrah, with trackside work begun on 21,794 route km.

The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched seven Indian Pharmacopoeia Nitrosamine Impurities Reference Standards for the first time, at a meeting titled "IP 2026: Perspectives, Suggestions and Way Forward" held with the Central Drugs Laboratory and Central Cosmetics Laboratory in Kolkata, West Bengal. The seven standards are NDMA, NDEA, NEIPA, NDBA, NMPA, NDIPA and NMBA. Nitrosamines are genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds that can arise unintentionally during manufacturing, storage or packaging. The standards will support analytical method validation, quality assurance and self-reliance in critical reference materials.

Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan launched India's first indigenous non-GMO high-expansion popcorn maize (Zea mays) hybrid seed in August 2026 at the Gourmet Popcornica facility in Musunuru, Eluru district, Andhra Pradesh. AP Governor S. Abdul Nazeer and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu attended the event. The hybrid was bred through a scientific and commercial collaboration between the ICAR–Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR) and Gourmet Popcornica, begun in February 2021, using conventional non-GMO breeding — controlled cross-pollination of selected parent lines to combine desirable traits. The seed is expected to cut India's dependence on imported popcorn maize technology and boost domestic production, value-added processing and exports.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has prohibited the manufacture, sale and distribution of fixed-dose combinations of the antihistamine Chlorpheniramine Maleate and the decongestant Phenylephrine Hydrochloride for children below four years, covering syrups and drops alike. The order invokes Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, which empowers the Centre to restrict a drug in the public interest, and follows assessment by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB). Packs, labels, inserts and promotional material must now carry the warning that the FDC is not for under-fours. It widens a 15 April 2025 notification and follows June 2026's ban on 16 irrational FDCs.

Delhi has recorded 1,777 confirmed swine flu cases, with hospitals reporting a spurt in illness across all age groups over the past two weeks. Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses, the most common subtypes being H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2. The H1N1 strain caused the 2009 pandemic, and H1N1, H3N2 and some Influenza B strains have circulated worldwide since. It spreads mainly through coughing and sneezing, or by touching a contaminated surface. Treatment is largely supportive — antibiotics do not work on viruses — while the antiviral oseltamivir, taken early, reduces severity.

The Centre is preparing a support scheme for polysilicon manufacturing, targeting 30 GW of domestic capacity by 2030 with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore, to plug the biggest gap in India's solar value chain. Polysilicon (polycrystalline silicon) is a highly purified form of silicon and the base raw material for solar photovoltaic manufacturing; it is the most electricity-intensive, upstream stage of the chain, which runs polysilicon to ingots to wafers to cells to modules. China accounts for about 94% of global polysilicon output, followed by Germany and the United States. India currently has no significant commercial-scale capacity and depends almost entirely on imports.

Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, led by Dr. Asis Bala, along with Dr. K.P. Bhabak of IIT Guwahati, announced a "smart" cancer drug named RK-251 on 19 August 2026. RK-251 remains chemically inactive in healthy tissue and is triggered only inside cancer cells, which typically contain elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). On detecting high ROS levels, the compound releases a potent anticancer agent called NBDHEX directly inside the tumour cell. In preclinical laboratory studies, RK-251 showed targeted activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, and toxicity studies in zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos found no obvious signs of toxicity. The findings were published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a journal of the American Chemical Society; researchers caution that extensive further testing, including human clinical trials, is required before RK-251 could become a treatment option.

Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, secured approval for six biomedical research grants worth about ₹15 crore under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scheme on 20 August 2026, covering gallbladder cancer detection, antimicrobial resistance, post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), paediatric septic shock, and precision oncology for renal cell carcinoma. The work runs through BHU's Institute of Medical Sciences, with support from the Institute of Science and engineering departments, using cohort studies, precision trials and multi-omics biomarker discovery. ICMR, established in 1911, funds the projects under the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A pilot project at NTPC Simhadri Thermal Power Station (Andhra Pradesh) will evaluate an indigenous Iron-Air Battery for Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES), implemented by the Atal Incubation Centre - Anna University (AIC-AU) with technology partner Meine Electric. The 'Made in India' battery is designed for a 6-hour charge / 18-hour discharge cycle to support 24x7 clean, dispatchable power and enhance grid flexibility. The pilot will generate operational data to benchmark the technology for future commercial-scale deployment.

The inaugural India-Israel Hackathon concluded on 14 August 2026 with the theme Restorative Healthcare, bringing ~1,300 young innovators from both nations to tackle 14 problem statements in rehabilitation technology. Thapar University (Patiala) was the nodal academic partner and India's Ambassador to Israel J.P. Singh felicitated the winners. Winning ideas included an electricity-free wheelchair-based limb-mobilisation system and an AI-assisted movement-analysis tool, underscoring low-cost frugal health innovation.

The National e-Governance Division (NeGD), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI), launched 'AAERI Verify', a digital platform, at the AAERI Annual Convention in New Delhi. The platform streamlines document verification for Indian students applying to Australian universities through a two-stage process - an initial check before university application, followed by post-admission verification of the sponsor's financial details. It is integrated with DigiLocker for secure, paperless, consent-based verification, reducing manual verification from 5-9 days to around 120-240 seconds. DigiLocker has over 72 crore registered users.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Chief Guest at the 57th convocation of IIT Delhi, inaugurated 'Param Pragya', an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled high-performance supercomputing facility, at the institute's Sonipat campus, Haryana. The facility is expected to strengthen IIT Delhi's capabilities in AI, data science, advanced computing and interdisciplinary research. At the ceremony, PM Modi presented the President's Gold Medal, Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold Medal, Director's Gold Medal and Perfect Ten Gold Medals to graduating students. The event was attended by the Union Education Minister, with IIT Delhi Director Prof. Rangan Banerjee and Board of Governors chairperson Harish Salve felicitating the guests.

On 27 July 2026, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) celebrated its 20th Foundation Day at Prithvi Bhawan, New Delhi, marking two decades of work in weather forecasting, oceanography, seismology and polar research. The event was presided over by MoES Secretary Dr N. Kalaiselvi. Key launches included: the India Meteorological Department (IMD) establishing 13 Centres of Excellence, upgrading the Thiruvananthapuram Cyclone Warning Centre to an Area Cyclone Warning Centre, and launching IMD NOVA for thunderstorm nowcasting; the NCMRWF's WINGS mobile app and a National Doppler Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaic; and the National Centre for Seismology releasing the Strong Motion Atlas of India (2010-2020).

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) celebrated its 20th Foundation Day at Prithvi Bhawan, New Delhi, presided over by Secretary Dr. N. Kalaiselvi. Key launches include: the India Meteorological Department (IMD) established 13 Centres of Excellence, upgraded the Thiruvananthapuram Cyclone Warning Centre to an Area Cyclone Warning Centre (ACWC), and launched IMD NOVA for thunderstorm nowcasting. The NCMRWF introduced the WINGS mobile app for numerical weather prediction and a National Doppler Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaic. The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) released the Strong Motion Atlas of India (2010–2020), and the CMLRE released marine taxonomic manuals.

NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology) will establish two Centres of Excellence in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Guwahati (Assam) to train talent in OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly & Test) and ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking & Packaging). It supports India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, approved with an outlay of Rs 1.28 lakh crore. NIELIT has partnered with Tata Electronics, Infineon and SCL Mohali, and will offer BTech, MTech and diploma programmes in semiconductors.

VK Saxena, Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, commissioned India's first and deepest two geothermal wells (1,000 m each) at Puga Valley, Ladakh, executed by the ONGC Energy Centre. The wells are critical to a planned 1 MW pilot geothermal power plant at Puga (altitude over 14,000 feet) — India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project. At 400 m depth, the wells recorded a maximum temperature of 135°C.

VK Saxena, Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, commissioned India's first and deepest two geothermal wells, each 1,000 metres deep, at Puga Valley in Ladakh in July 2026. The wells were executed by the ONGC Energy Centre of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). Significance: The wells are critical to implementing a 1 Megawatt (MW) Pilot Geothermal Power Plant at Puga Valley, situated at an altitude of over 14,000 feet above sea level. This will be India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project. Technical findings: At a depth of 400 metres, the wells recorded a maximum temperature of 135 degrees Celsius. Purpose: The pilot will evaluate drilling, fluid behaviour, thermal profiles and energy-conversion mechanisms before full-scale deployment. Successful completion enables reservoir evaluation, power plant planning and eventual commercial development of geothermal resources in Ladakh.

On 17 July 2026, PM Narendra Modi flagged off India's first hydrogen-powered train from Jind railway station, Haryana. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh and CM Nayab Singh Saini were present. The train runs the 89-km Jind-Sonipat route, covering it in about two hours with 12 intermediate stops, at an operating speed of 75 km/h (design speed 110 km/h). The 10-coach train can carry nearly 2,600 passengers, uses a 3,200-horsepower propulsion system, and its hydrogen fuel cells emit only water vapour. It is reportedly the largest-capacity hydrogen train in operation worldwide; a hydrogen refuelling facility has been set up at Jind.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, approved the Semicon 2.0 programme — a new semiconductor incentive scheme with a total budget outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore — to deepen India's semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem. It builds on Semicon 1.0 (the India Semiconductor Mission, ISM 1.0) and reaffirms India's goal of becoming a global hub for chip design, manufacturing and innovation. Semicon 2.0 is structured around six pillars: Design; Machines & Materials; Setting up more Fabs; ATMP/OSAT (assembly, testing, marking & packaging); Research & Development (R&D); and Talent development. Under ISM 1.0, the government has approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects with cumulative investment of over Rs 1.64 lakh crore, plus 24 design projects from startups/MSMEs, and provided EDA-tool access to 105 startups and MSMEs.

<b>India</b> recorded its best-ever performance at the <b>56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2026)</b>, held in <b>Bucaramanga, Colombia</b> (4-12 July 2026), with all <b>five</b> Indian participants winning <b>gold medals</b>. India secured <b>joint first place</b> in the overall medal tally alongside Russia, China, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Taiwan. The gold medallists were Kanishk Jain, Riddhesh Anant Bendale, Rishit Garg, Shresth Suraiya and Svarit Joshi. It was India's <b>27th participation</b>; the team was trained by the <b>Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE)</b>, a centre of TIFR under the Department of Atomic Energy. IPhO was established in <b>1967</b>.

China's 'LineShine' was named the world's fastest supercomputer at the 2026 ISC High Performance conference, displacing the US-based 'El Capitan' from the top spot. LineShine achieved the leading double-precision performance on the High-Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark, the standard test used to rank supercomputers by floating-point operations per second (FLOPS). Global supercomputer rankings are tracked by the biannual TOP500 list. The Linpack benchmark measures a computer's raw mathematical processing speed.

Researchers at IIT Guwahati developed ''E-Eye'', a portable, point-of-care optical sensing device that instantly detects multiple toxicants in water and biological samples on-site and wirelessly transmits data to water-treatment facilities. It works via a chemical reaction producing a coloured compound whose intensity indicates toxicant concentration. E-Eye has detected arsenic, lead, iron, chromium, fluoride and E. coli bacteria. Built for about Rs 3,500, it analyses each sample for roughly Rs 2; the team validated it on 2,700+ samples. Aligned with the Jal Jeevan Mission, it can also test food, soil, milk, tea and herbal products.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) developed India's first fully annotated Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) reference genome of the pigeonpea (*Cajanus cajan*) variety 'Asha', which was approved as the global reference genome to accelerate climate-resilient, high-yielding pigeonpea varieties. The genome comprises 752.65 million DNA base pairs across all 11 chromosomes, with 36,557 genes identified. It supports the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, targeting about 35 million tonnes of pulses by 2030-31. ICAR-NIPB had earlier developed the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop in 2011.

A new species of freshwater catfish, Pseudolaguvia khairii, was discovered in the Budhabalanga river in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha, and described in the international taxonomic journal Zootaxa. Pseudolaguvia is a genus of hillstream/torrent catfish of the family Sisoridae.

On 24 July 2026, HCLTech announced it will set up its first AI Data Centre in the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park, in partnership with AI startup Sarvam and the Government of Odisha, with a planned capital outlay of Rs 14,257 crore (total project ~Rs 15,000 crore across the three entities). It will provide secure, scalable digital infrastructure for government, research bodies, startups and enterprises. HCLTech will also set up a Global Delivery Centre (GDC) in the state, creating about 5,000 jobs, with operations expected to begin by 2028. It forms part of HCLTech's entry into the full-stack AI market.

In July 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released the second edition of the Digital Threat Report 2025-26 for the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and payments ecosystem. It was jointly released by MeitY, CERT-In, CSIRT-Fin and SISA. The report sets an 18-month roadmap for financial institutions and introduces a new Anatomy of Cyber Failure — 4-Layer Gap Archetype Framework explaining how a cyberattack progresses from initial weakness to a full-scale breach.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) signed an MoU with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) during the 9th TSDSI Technical Deep Dive 2026, under the TDIP Scheme (outlay ₹203 crore for 2026–31) supporting the Bharat 6G Mission. DPIIT-recognised startups/MSMEs get up to 98% support, plus travel assistance for participation in global bodies like 3GPP, ITU and oneM2M.

China successfully recovered the first-stage booster of its new Long March-10B (CZ-10B) carrier rocket during its maiden flight on 10 July 2026, becoming only the second nation after the United States to recover an orbital-class rocket. Launched from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site at Wenchang, the booster was caught at sea using a novel wire-arrestment 'net-capture' system rather than SpaceX-style landing legs - the world's first net-based recovery of a carrier rocket. Built by CASC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), the reusable Long March-10B can lift about 16 tonnes to low-Earth orbit and supports China's crewed lunar programme (a Moon landing is targeted before 2030). Reusable first stages sharply cut the cost of reaching orbit.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched Awiqli (insulin icodec) in India - the world's first once-weekly basal (long-acting) insulin approved for clinical use - for adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. It reduces injections from 365 to 52 per year. India is the seventh country to launch the drug (after the US, EU, Canada and others). A 70-unit weekly dose is priced at about Rs 261. India has over 101 million people living with diabetes and another 136 million with prediabetes. A single weekly injection replaces a full week of daily basal insulin doses.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda launched Aarogya Setu 2.0 and linked digital health initiatives at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, upgrading the citizen health platform first launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Panacea Biotec, overseen by ICMR, advanced Phase III clinical trials of its indigenous dengue vaccine candidate DengiAll, enrolling over 10,000 volunteers across India.

ICMR's indigenous multi-stage malaria vaccine AdFalciVax - developed at RMRC Bhubaneswar to target Plasmodium falciparum - was licensed to five companies: Indian Immunologicals, TechInvention Lifecare, Panacea Biotec, Biological E and Zydus Lifesciences.

The 79th WHA met under the theme 'Reshaping global health', adopting 13 resolutions and over 20 decisions. Dr Victor Elias Atallah Lajam of the Dominican Republic was elected President of the Assembly.

Countries approved the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP-AMR) 2026-2036, using a One Health approach to preserve effective antimicrobials worldwide.

WHA79 adopted a first-of-its-kind resolution on precision medicine with health equity at its core, calling on WHO to develop a global strategy so genomics and personalised therapies benefit all nations.

Member states approved the first-ever World Health Assembly resolution on stroke, calling for integrated prevention, acute care and rehabilitation, noting one in four adults is expected to suffer a stroke in their lifetime.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda chaired the national World TB Day launch at Greater Noida (theme 'Yes! We Can End TB!'). The intensified 100-day TB Mukt Bharat campaign covers 1.58 lakh villages and urban wards; TB incidence has fallen 21% since 2015.

The Government launched a nationwide HPV vaccination programme for cervical-cancer prevention, offering the vaccine free at government facilities to about 1.15 crore girls aged 14 across all States/UTs.

Telangana CM A. Revanth Reddy inaugurated the 23rd BioAsia 2026, Asia's premier life-sciences forum, at the HITEX Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad.

The WHO reiterated the case for coordinated financing and equitable access for the first new tuberculosis vaccines in over a century, now in advanced clinical trials.

The report estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 deaths globally in 2024 and flagged growing artemisinin resistance; India cut cases and deaths by over 80% (2015-2023) and exited WHO's High Burden to High Impact group in 2024.

The CSIR RISE Conclave (Research, Industry, Start-up and Entrepreneurship) was held at the HAL campus, Bengaluru, covering aerospace technologies, AI ethics, the agri-food nexus and lab-to-market commercialisation.

ICMR invited Expressions of Interest for technology transfer and commercialisation of SHetA2, an investigational drug candidate for HPV-induced cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer, with a 20 May applications deadline.

On National Technology Day, CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee transferred 13 indigenous technologies to industries and start-ups, targeting fire safety, green construction and energy-efficient infrastructure.

Merck Life Science India signed an MoU with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, to strengthen collaboration in scientific research, innovation and academia-industry engagement.

A collaboration between IIT Delhi and Optimist announced an air conditioner that delivers full performance at 50 degrees C ambient heat, entering pilot testing for India's extreme summers.

IIT Bombay scientists reported (in the journal Nature) a new catalytic strategy converting fatty acids into complex molecules for drug development, enabling faster synthesis of compounds with potential anticancer activity.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London reported creating the first lab-grown oesophagus, showing it could replace a full section of the organ and restore swallowing without immunosuppression in an animal model.

Around the AI Impact Summit, India set a Guinness World Record for the most pledges received for an AI-responsibility campaign in 24 hours, with over 2.5 lakh validated pledges.

CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology developed 'BIRSA 101', India's first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy for sickle cell disease, with technology transferred to industry for affordable deployment.

Meta announced it will lease an AI-enabled data centre in India with 168 MW capacity from Reliance Industries. The government has announced a 20-year tax exemption for hyperscalers using Indian data centres to serve global clients.

India's aggregate supercomputing capacity reached about 44 petaflops, with IndiaAI targeting beyond 200 petaflops; a shared compute facility with over 45,000 GPUs forms the national AI backbone for startups and researchers.

Indian AI startup Sarvam raised $234 million in its Series B round, pushing its post-money valuation to about $1.5 billion, underscoring India's sovereign-AI push under the IndiaAI Mission.

The government signed an MoU between IndiaAI (MeitY) and the Indian Council of Medical Research to integrate AI into healthcare delivery, biomedical research and public-health management.

Over 38,000 GPUs had been onboarded to the IndiaAI common-compute facility (rising toward 45,000+), offered to startups and academia at subsidised rates, with a target of 100,000 public GPUs by December 2026.

Under MeitY, the IndiaAI Mission ran the IndiaAI Innovation Challenge 2026 to develop deployment-ready AI solutions for public service delivery, with selected solutions eligible for a two-year contract of up to Rs 1 crore.

Gnani.ai unveiled a 5-billion-parameter voice-to-voice foundational model, 'Inya VoiceOS', for natural spoken interaction across Indian languages, launched at the AI Impact Summit.

The Amaravati Quantum Valley was inaugurated at Uddandarayunipalem, Andhra Pradesh, with IBM, TCS and L&T as partners. It is anchored by an IBM Quantum System Two, described as India's largest quantum computer to date.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda launched SAHI (Safe and Accountable Healthcare AI) and BODH, a health-AI benchmarking platform developed by IIT Kanpur and the National Health Authority.

At the Summit, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced 20,000 additional GPUs for the national AI compute pool under the IndiaAI Mission (sanctioned outlay Rs 10,371.92 crore).

Sarvam AI open-sourced two foundation models under the IndiaAI Mission - Sarvam 30B (32-billion-parameter Mixture-of-Experts) and Sarvam 105B (106-billion-parameter) - trained on Indian compute and optimised for 22 Indian languages.

The IndiaAI Innovation Centre's call for proposals drew 67 submissions from startups, researchers and entrepreneurs for building indigenous foundation models across healthcare, education and finance.

Under the IndiaAI Mission (Rs 10,371.92 crore outlay), more than 38,000 GPUs were onboarded via the AI compute portal, offered to Indian startups and academia at affordable rates.

The IndiaAI Mission (under MeitY) launched the IndiaAI Innovation Challenge 2026 in collaboration with the Ministry of AYUSH and the Ministry of MSME to build deployment-ready AI solutions.

IIT Delhi researchers (with Denmark and Germany) unveiled AILA, an autonomous AI system that designs, runs and interprets experiments and directly controls instruments such as an atomic force microscope.

By December, the IndiaAI Mission had onboarded over 38,000 high-end GPUs (about Rs 65/hour), and 12 startups (including Sarvam AI, Soket AI, BharatGen and Fractal) were selected to build indigenous foundation models.

As BRICS Chair, India (ISRO and the Department of Space) hosted the BRICS Heads of Space Agencies Meeting in Bengaluru with all 11 BRICS members participating, and India proposed a 'BRICS Space Economy' concept.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla - India's first astronaut to visit the ISS via Axiom-4 in 2025 - authored his memoir 'The Second Orbit' recounting his space experience.

For the first time in 16 years, the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel was updated, now explicitly including care workers and clarifying rules during emergencies.

India's full immunisation coverage rose from 62% in 2015 to 98.4% by January 2026, alongside plans for a nationwide HPV vaccination drive and an indigenous Td (tetanus-diphtheria) vaccine in 2026.

Jupiter reached opposition on 10 January 2026, appearing at its brightest for the year, while the Quadrantid meteor shower peaked on 3 January (visibility limited by a near-full Moon).

As of June 2026, 12 projects worth around Rs 1.64 lakh crore had been approved under the Semicon India Programme, including one fabrication unit, two compound-semiconductor fabs and nine packaging units.

The government approved an outlay of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for ISM 2.0, a sharp rise from Rs 76,000 crore under ISM 1.0, to deepen India's chip fabrication, design and packaging ecosystem.

Tata Electronics and Netherlands-based ASML signed a strategic agreement under which ASML supplies advanced lithography technology for Tata's first front-end semiconductor fab; Tata plans to invest about $11 billion in the fab at Dholera, Gujarat.

India held the groundbreaking of its first advanced 3D semiconductor packaging unit in Odisha, aimed at boosting AI, 5G and defence technology applications.

Under the India Semiconductor Mission, 12 chip projects worth ~Rs 1.64 lakh crore had been approved (one fab, two compound-semiconductor fabs, nine packaging units); 'ISM 2.0' was announced in Union Budget 2026-27.

PM Modi inaugurated the Kaynes Semicon plant at Sanand, Gujarat, advancing the India Semiconductor Mission; as of March 2026, 10 semiconductor units had been approved, including two fabs.

PM Modi inaugurated Micron Technology's semiconductor Assembly, Test and Packaging facility at Sanand, Gujarat - India's first operational semiconductor facility - which handed over its first shipment of made-in-India memory modules to Dell.

The foundation stone was laid for a Rs 3,700 crore semiconductor unit, 'India Chip Private Ltd' - a Foxconn (Taiwan)-HCL Group joint venture - at Jewar, Uttar Pradesh.

The Budget announced the launch of India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 to strengthen domestic chip manufacturing and supply chains, building on ISM 1.0.

As of January 2026, the Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme supported 24 semiconductor design startups; 122 designs were taped out with 56 chips fabricated at 180 nm at SCL Mohali, alongside advanced-node tape-outs.

MeitY announced DHRUV64, India's first fully indigenous 64-bit, 1.0 GHz dual-core microprocessor, developed by C-DAC on the RISC-V open-source architecture and fabricated on a 28 nm node.

India observed its 28th National Technology Day, marking the 1998 Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti) nuclear tests. The 2026 theme was 'Responsible Innovation for Inclusive Growth'.

India observed National Immunization Day (National Vaccination Day) on 16 March, alongside Pulse Polio rounds, reinforcing India's polio-free status.

Observed on 28 February with the theme 'Women in Science: Catalysing Viksit Bharat', commemorating C.V. Raman's discovery of the Raman Effect in 1928.

Observed on 4 February under the multi-year (2025-2027) theme 'United by Unique', centring people and their stories in cancer care.

MeitY notified the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, specifying the Online Gaming Authority's composition, criteria to identify 'online money games' and a 10-year registration certificate for e-sports.

India outlined a plan to expand nuclear power capacity more than tenfold - from about 8.8 GW to 100 GW by 2047 - as part of its clean-energy and net-zero roadmap.

SKUAST-Srinagar successfully cultivated the prized Morchella (morel) mushroom under controlled conditions for the first time, a potential boost for high-value agriculture in Kashmir.

MeitY proposed requiring intermediaries to comply with all MeitY advisories and directions, and extending the rules to news and current-affairs content shared by non-publisher users.

India released a national Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) roadmap to protect critical infrastructure and digital assets against future quantum-computing threats.

The Department of Telecommunications released NFAP-2025 (effective 30 December), governing spectrum from 8.3 kHz to 3000 GHz, identifying the 6425-7125 MHz band for 5G/6G and allocating Ka/Q/V bands for satellite services.