Science & Technology Current Affairs August 2026

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.