Science & Technology Current Affairs September 2026

Anthropic and Accenture announced a partnership on 18 September 2026 for independent evaluation of frontier AI models, each committing at least USD 1 billion over five years for a combined USD 2 billion. Accenture's specialist AI unit Faculty will lead the work, evaluating Anthropic's models through red-teaming, alignment assessments and safeguard testing. The deal backs embedded evaluation, where outside evaluators work inside an AI company with employee-level access to verify safety commitments. Accenture's shares rose 7% in extended trading, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged slower frontier development with wider access for independent evaluators.

QClairvoyance Quantum Labs Pvt Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the IITM-C-DOT Samgnya Technologies Foundation on 11 September 2026 to collaborate on quantum computing, quantum algorithms and quantum artificial intelligence. Samgnya is the quantum-technology joint venture of IIT Madras and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the telecom ministry's R&D arm. The tie-up adds to a widening domestic deep-tech push visible the same week in the India Photonics Association launch and the 37 startups showcased at the Bharat Innovates Exposition during the BRICS Summit, and feeds the National Quantum Mission approved in 2023.

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.

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.

India co-hosted the launch of OneSCD, a global partnership on sickle cell disease care and equity, on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly session in New York. Punya Salila Srivastava, Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, represented India and set out the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission — launched in 2023 with a target of eliminating sickle cell disease as a public health problem by 2047, the centenary of independence. Sickle cell disease is an inherited haemoglobin disorder concentrated heavily among India's tribal populations, which makes the mission as much a tribal-health programme as a genetic-disease one.

Scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science identified a population of DARE cells that begin programmed cell death, or apoptosis, yet survive and help rebuild damaged tissue; the work was published in Nature Communications on 18 September 2026. In fruit fly larvae these cells multiplied and replenished nearly half the damaged tissue within 48 hours, showing that caspases, the protease enzymes that normally drive apoptosis, can also support survival. A related study found DARE cell descendants became seven times more resistant to cell death, a pathway linked to cancer recurrence and treatment resistance.

Karnataka approved a five-year Marine Biotechnology Policy 2026-2031 on 18 September 2026 with an outlay of Rs 120 crore, targeting growth of the state's Blue Bioeconomy from about USD 2 billion to USD 6-8 billion by 2031. It sets up the Karnataka Institute of Marine Biotechnology and Blue Economy at the Government Fisheries College, with laboratories, a biobank and incubation centres in Udupi, plus dedicated Marine Biotechnology Zones with the fisheries department. A Seaweed Value Addition PLI (SVA-PLI) supports higher-value seaweed derivatives. The policy projects about 2,500 high-value technical jobs and 7,500 coastal livelihood opportunities.

A healthy female Badri calf was born on 11 September 2026 through Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro Fertilisation (OPU-IVF) at the Academic Dairy Farm of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. The embryo was produced in the laboratory and carried to term by a Sahiwal surrogate cow. It came out of a three-year programme begun in 2023 with ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, led by then Vice-Chancellor Dr M.S. Chauhan and funded by the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council, Haldi. Badri, the state animal of Uttarakhand, is a hardy hill breed; the team has also generated cloned Badri embryos.

On 18 September 2026 the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India amended its framework on Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), mandating AI-based detection of suspected spam, inter-operator sharing of suspect numbers and a consumer appeal mechanism. If five or more numbers linked to one sender are flagged within 10 days, graded action follows — KYC re-verification, barring of outgoing services and disconnection. TRAI also defined Application-to-Person (A2P) calls as those placed by automated systems without human dialling; entities must pre-declare them, and a termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute applies. In Q1 of FY 2026-27, AI systems flagged 22.99 billion calls as suspected spam.

NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India) and APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) signed an MoU on 8 September 2026 in Mumbai to strengthen internet infrastructure, technical capacity and internet security in India. It was signed by NIXI CEO Dr Devesh Tyagi and APNIC Director General Jia Rong Low during the 62nd APNIC Conference (APNIC 62), held 4-10 September and hosted by NIXI with ISPAI - the conference's return to India after 14 years. The MoU covers domestic hosting of an APNIC server instance for faster IP-address validation and lower latency, deployment of RPKI routing security, wider IPv6 adoption, and Train-the-Trainer programmes.

India and the United States convened an Undersea Cables Workshop in September 2026 under the TRUST (Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology) Initiative, bringing government and industry experts together on protecting subsea communication infrastructure. Talks covered network resilience, repair capacity and uninterrupted digital connectivity across the Indo-Pacific, through which the overwhelming majority of intercontinental data traffic runs. The workshop advances the critical-technology pillar of the India-US partnership and runs parallel to India's engagement with the EU on cable resilience in the Indian Ocean - the same maritime-security theme behind the Colombo Security Conclave table-top exercise that ended at Visakhapatnam on 12 September.

India joined the Call to Action for 6G Leadership and Security, a multilateral framework led by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), becoming the 26th signatory alongside the United States and 24 other nations. The decision followed a meeting between Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on the sidelines of the G20 Innovation Ministerial. The grouping seeks secure, interoperable and innovation-driven next-generation telecom networks. India is pursuing the same goal domestically through the Bharat 6G Mission, which targets global leadership in 6G intellectual property and affordable telecom products by 2030.

Researchers at IIT Delhi's Electrical Engineering Department built India's first working, demonstrable indigenous micro-Graphics Processing Unit (micro-GPU) on 24-25 September 2026. The project was led by M.Tech students Nammi Akash and M. Ravi Teja under Professors Jayadeva and Kaushik Saha. The design uses a custom floating-point GPU engine written entirely in Register Transfer Language and was mapped to a Spartan-7 FPGA platform. Pitched as a scalable programmable graphics IP block for embedded systems, its target uses include industrial control displays, e-rickshaw dashboard navigators and e-book readers. The team is now exploring an 8-16 core vector architecture for migration to a 65nm ASIC node.

Tata Electronics announced multiple MoUs at SEMICON India 2026 on 17-18 September 2026 covering manufacturing, materials, infrastructure, packaging and skilling for its Dholera (Gujarat) fab and Jagiroad (Assam) assembly-and-test plant. Nexperia will work on front-end MOSFET wafer fabrication at Dholera and discrete-device assembly at Jagiroad; Japan's Sumitomo Chemical will supply and possibly localise high-purity chemicals; Malaysia's Kelington will handle critical infrastructure and systems integration; and Japan's Enomoto will strengthen advanced packaging and lead-frame localisation. Tata also tied up with the Semi-Conductor Laboratory and Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya for chip design services and workforce skilling.

L&T Semiconductor Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, unveiled its first silicon carbide (SiC) product platform on 18 September 2026 at SEMICON India 2026. Silicon carbide is a wide-bandgap compound semiconductor that withstands higher voltages, temperatures and switching frequencies than conventional silicon, making it central to electric-vehicle powertrains, solar inverters and industrial power electronics. The launch adds indigenous chip-design capability to an Indian semiconductor push so far dominated by fabrication and packaging plants under the India Semiconductor Mission, whose second phase was approved in 2026. It came a day after TCS launched custom system-on-chip design services for automotive OEMs.

A dataset released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in September 2026 showed Karnataka leading semiconductor design support under the ChipIN Centre initiative, with 81 organisations, 73 chip tape-outs and 88 lakh hours of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool usage. Tamil Nadu followed with 79 organisations and 33 tape-outs, then Telangana (42 and 28), Maharashtra (32 and 24) and Uttar Pradesh (24 and 21). Launched by MeitY on 24 February 2023 at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), ChipIN is a centralised national hub offering design infrastructure, tools and expertise for domestic chip development.

Hyderabad-based spacetech start-up TakeMe2Space announced plans to launch India's first networked orbital data centre aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 in late 2028, under a launch agreement with the French firm RIDE! Space. Two 100 kg satellites will go into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit as part of the Waymaker 2 rideshare mission operated by SEOPS. Each satellite will carry 10 NVIDIA Thor GPUs, 100 TB of storage and 1.5 kW of power, linked by optical inter-satellite links so that data can be processed in orbit instead of being downlinked first. The company plans to grow this into a six-satellite constellation, adding to India's fast-expanding private space sector.

The Technology Development Board (TDB) under the Department of Science and Technology signed an agreement on 25 September 2026 with Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos providing Rs 200 crore from the government's Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund to build the Agnibaan Reusable Launch Vehicle. The support comes as optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) and aims to lift the technology from Technology Readiness Level 4 to TRL-8, the stage of system qualification. Agnibaan's design goes beyond first-stage recovery to a reusable upper stage with descent and recovery systems, a lightweight upper stage and a semi-cryogenic engine with deep throttling and restart capability.

NIT Srinagar has become the first National Institute of Technology in India to set up a dedicated campus-based astronomical observatory. The NIT Srinagar Observatory for Astronomy and Astrophysics (NSOAA) was inaugurated on 22 September 2026 by NIT Srinagar Director Prof. Anurag Misra along with University of Kashmir Registrar Prof. Nasir Iqbal. The facility is built around a 14-inch Celestron C14 EdgeHD Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a computerised equatorial mount, with planetary and cooled deep-sky cameras, LRGB filters and a 2.5x Barlow lens. It was developed with scientific guidance from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, and will support observational astronomy research, student training and public outreach.

Data from ISRO's EOS-06 (Oceansat-3) has recorded a marked fall in surface chlorophyll-a across the equatorial Pacific Ocean during June 2026, an early marker of weakening marine productivity as El Nino strengthens. The decline coincided with a reversal of surface winds, from the usual east-to-west trade flow to west-to-east. The readings came from two payloads - the Ocean Colour Monitor-3 (OCM-3) and the Scatterometer (SCAT-3). They complement the World Meteorological Organization's July outlook that El Nino would intensify through August-October 2026, a pattern historically linked to a weaker southwest monsoon over India.

NIT Rourkela (Odisha) signed a tripartite MoU in Kolkata with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO and the Tea Board of India for Project CHAYANKAN - Comprehensive AI-based Geospatial Data Analytics for Tea Plantation Monitoring. The three-year R&D project (April 2026 - March 2029) will build an AI-based geospatial system for tea plantation mapping, yield estimation, crop-health assessment and pest and disease forecasting. It combines satellite imagery, UAV-based hyperspectral data and ground observations with machine-learning models. The Tea Board of India is a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, set up on 1 April 1954 under the Tea Act, 1953.

Bengaluru-based space-tech startup Pixxel, founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, closed a $100 million Series C round on 7 September 2026 — the largest single private funding round in India's space sector — taking its total funding to $195 million. The round was co-led by Singapore's Temasek and the UK's Seraphim Space, with 360 ONE Asset, IMM Investment, Radical Ventures and growX ventures also participating. Pixxel already operates six Firefly satellites delivering global hyperspectral imagery at 5-metre resolution, and will use the capital to expand satellite manufacturing in India and the United States and to build the Honeybee constellation, whose first launch is scheduled for 2027.

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.

Premier Energies commissioned a 7 GW N-type TOPCon G12R solar cell manufacturing facility at Naidupeta in Andhra Pradesh on 21 September 2026, described as India's largest single solar cell plant. TOPCon (Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact) cells deliver higher conversion efficiency than conventional PERC cells, and domestic cell capacity is the weakest link in India's solar chain, where module capacity has long outpaced cell output. The plant supports the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) regime, which from 2026 extends to solar cells and not just modules, and complements the PLI scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules. It advances India's 500 GW non-fossil capacity target by 2030.

Tata Steel commissioned a Coke Oven Gas (COG) injection project at Blast Furnace 1 of its Meramandali plant in Odisha - a first-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian steel industry. COG is a hydrogen-rich by-product of coke making containing more than 55% hydrogen, traditionally used for power generation, heating or flaring. The project purifies and injects it into the blast furnace through tuyeres, creating a three-fuel operating system that cuts dependence on carbon-based reducing agents while improving process stability and efficiency. It was implemented with Paul Wurth (SMS group) technology and Kobelco (Kobe Steel) equipment, and supports Tata Steel's Net Zero by 2045 target.

Maruti Suzuki switched on a 300 kW green hydrogen electrolyser at Manesar on 24 September 2026 — its first — turning otherwise-wasted holiday solar power into a manufacturing process fuel. The pilot plant at the Manesar facility in Haryana makes hydrogen that is blended with natural gas and burned as a process fuel on the shop floor, cutting fossil-fuel use in manufacturing. Its design point is storage-by-conversion: it absorbs solar electricity generated on plant holidays, when that captive renewable power would otherwise go unused. Maruti Suzuki will use the pilot's operating data to judge wider green hydrogen adoption across its plants in Haryana and Gujarat.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified on 21 September 2026 that BIS certification will be mandatory for smartphone screen protectors from 1 April 2027, under Indian Standard IS 19348:2025. The standard prescribes requirements for glass quality, dimensions, strength, optical clarity, adhesives, anti-shatter films, oleophobic coatings, anti-glare treatment, blue-light filtering and privacy films. Both domestic manufacturers and importers must comply, with a transition window for testing and certification running to 31 March 2027. The order brings a widely sold but unregulated accessory under a compulsory registration framework, extending the Quality Control Order approach India already applies to chargers, power banks and other electronics accessories.

India's 51st Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) was inaugurated at Jamadarpali in Sambalpur, Odisha, on 16 September 2026. A Make in India installation under Mission Mausam, it provides data within a 250 km radius at 150-metre resolution, updating every 10 minutes. It is Odisha's third such radar after Paradip and Gopalpur, and covers 13 districts of western Odisha, extending into parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh said 40 to 50 more radars are planned, taking India close to 100 radars within two years. Around 50 projects worth ₹960 crore were launched the same day.

IIT (ISM) Dhanbad has been granted an Indian patent for "An Electrochemical Reactor for Cathodic Recovery of Copper from Wastewater". The patent was granted on 30 July 2026 on an application filed on 29 November 2023. The technology was developed by Prof. Vipin Kumar of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, with PhD scholars Nishant Pandey and Ankur Singh as co-inventors. In the reactor, copper ions in an effluent stream migrate to the cathode and are deposited on the electrode surface, allowing the metal to be recovered instead of discharged. It targets metal-bearing effluents from mining and metallurgical industries and supports circular-economy resource recovery.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dr Jitendra Singh, Ministry of Earth Sciences, launched ORV Sagar Manthan, India's first advanced Ocean Research Vessel, at a Kolkata shipyard in West Bengal in September 2026. Built at about Rs 840 crore by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), it comes under Vertical-4 (Deep Ocean Survey and Exploration) of the flagship Deep Ocean Mission. The all-weather, multidisciplinary vessel has a projected service life of 30 years and will replace the 43-year-old ORV Sagar Kanya, procured from Germany in 1983. Commissioning is scheduled for 2028.

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.

India's Kaveri dry engine, also called the Kaveri Derivative Engine, recorded a peak dry thrust of 48.5 kilonewtons during high-altitude and flight trials in Russia in September 2026, above its target of about 46 kN. Developed by DRDO's Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bengaluru, the non-afterburning turbofan is intended for the Ghatak stealth Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle. Trials were held at the Central Institute of Aviation Motors and the Gromov Flight Research Institute using a modified Ilyushin Il-76 flying testbed. The Ministry of Defence targets certification in 2026 by CEMILAC. Kaveri 2.0 is planned at 55-60 kN dry and 90-100 kN with afterburner.

India's first LNG-powered train was flagged off from Sabarmati Railway Station in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on 27 September 2026. The locomotive runs on a diesel–LNG dual-fuel system, in which liquefied natural gas substitutes a share of diesel, cutting fuel costs as well as carbon and particulate emissions on non-electrified sections. The step supports Indian Railways' target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and its wider push into hydrogen, solar and biofuel traction. It follows Indian Railways' hydrogen-train trials and complements the near-complete electrification of broad-gauge routes, where LNG offers a transition fuel for the diesel operations that remain.

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 Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India facilitated India's first tokenised corporate bond issuance under the SEBI Demat 2.0 pilot on 11 September 2026, with IIFL Finance as the issuer. Demat 2.0, a joint SEBI-RBI initiative unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai on 10 September, records bonds as digital tokens on a distributed ledger while ownership stays with the depositories NSDL and CDSL. Settlement is linked to the RBI's wholesale CBDC (e-Rupee), enabling atomic settlement and same-day transfer against the usual two to three days. REC Limited and L&T raised Rs 500 crore each earlier, taking the pilot to Rs 1,025 crore.

The India Photonics Association (IPA), India's first independent, ecosystem-led industry body for the photonics sector, was launched at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, in the presence of Sarin Sundar, Chief Technology Officer of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM). IPA will act as a neutral platform connecting industry, researchers and policymakers to accelerate innovation, collaboration and policy support, and to lift India's global competitiveness. Photonics - the science of generating, manipulating and detecting light - underpins telecom, semiconductors, defence, healthcare, satellites and advanced manufacturing. India's photonics market was estimated at USD 78.4 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 155 billion by 2034, with silicon photonics growing at nearly 29% CAGR.

ISRO successfully conducted a flight acceptance hot test of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine at 220 kilonewton (kN) thrust at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, for LVM3 missions. CE20 burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) and powers the upper stage of India's heavy-lift launch vehicle; the uprated C32 stage integrates the engine at 220 kN to raise payload capacity. Besides validating engine performance at the 22-tonne thrust level, the test also successfully demonstrated the LOX Tank Pressurisation Module (LTPM) developed for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, making it a dual-purpose qualification run for both heavy-lift and crewed mission hardware.