States Current Affairs September 2026

Starbucks Coffee Company signed an MoU with the Government of Tamil Nadu to establish its first Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India, at Chennai, expected to create around 800 high-value technology jobs in the first phase. The MoU was exchanged with Guidance Tamil Nadu, the state's investment promotion agency, in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. The Chennai hub will support Starbucks' global business and technology operations and bring in-house some work currently handled by third-party providers. The GCC will run independently of Starbucks' Indian retail joint venture with Tata Consumer Products, reinforcing Tamil Nadu's position as a leading destination for global capability centres.

The Government of Odisha signed agreements with the UAE-based International Holding Company (IHC) and the Adani Group to explore 14 projects carrying an indicative investment of Rs 2,10,500 crore (Rs 2.1 lakh crore). The agreements were signed in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at the Odisha Investors' Meet - UAE 2026 in Abu Dhabi. The proposals include a Rs 50,000 crore AI Data Centre Hub, a Rs 40,000 crore coal-to-chemicals complex, a Rs 25,000 crore mineral processing chain and a Rs 25,000 crore renewable energy platform, besides shipbuilding, petrochemicals, rare earths, ports and healthcare. Odisha also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Indian Business & Professional Group (IBPG).

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta launched the 'Delhi Udyog Mitra' portal under the Ease of Doing Business initiative, bringing more than 50 services from 15 departments onto a single window, with the scope set to widen to over 100 services across 21 departments. The portal is expected to benefit over 8 lakh traders and MSMEs in the capital by replacing department-by-department paperwork with one tracked online application. It is integrated with the National Single Window System (NSWS), the Centre's 2021 platform that links central and state clearances. The launch follows Delhi's recent DURGA scheme approval for 1,300 pink e-autos, part of the same governance-delivery push.

The Delhi Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, approved the DURGA scheme - Driving Upliftment and Rozgar for Women/Transgender Green E-Auto - to give women and transgender persons dignified self-employment while widening safe, clean last-mile transport. Phase one allots 1,300 pink e-autos: 1,170 to women and 130 to transgender persons, with up to 90 and 10 respectively per revenue district. Applicants must be Delhi-resident women aged 20-40 holding a voter ID, LMV licence and PSV badge, with family income up to Rs 5 lakh and no transport three-wheeler already owned. DURGA-branded e-autos carry a three-year lock-in and cannot be sold or transferred.

Mizoram ran its first 'Pluck & Pay' festival from 23 to 25 September 2026 in Khawzawl district, letting visitors harvest produce themselves and pay farmers directly with no intermediaries. The three-day event was held in Tualte and Chawngtlai villages. Its model routes tourist spending straight into farm households. Programming combines agriculture, horticulture, tourism, local cuisine, handicrafts, Mizo music and dance, and traditional games, and is designed to earn for farmers, homestay owners, guides, transport operators and artisans alike. The festival adds to the Northeast's wider experiential-tourism push and to India's effort to diversify agricultural incomes beyond crop sales.

Madhya Pradesh became the first state to launch a free rural property registration scheme, the Swamitva Adhikar Abhilekh Nispadan Evam Panjiyan Yojana. The scheme enables free registration of about 50 lakh rural properties, granting formal ownership records without registration charges, stamp duty or registration fees. Special camps are being organised at village and panchayat levels in three phases — 17-19 September, 24-26 September and 1-3 October 2026. It builds on the central Swamitva Yojana, under which 68.47 lakh rights records have been prepared across 41,568 villages in the state. Formal titles let rural households use property as bankable collateral, connecting the scheme to financial-inclusion and rural-credit objectives.

The Chhattisgarh cabinet approved the 'Chief Minister''s Startup and NIPUN Mission' - New-Age Industry Preparedness through Up-skilling of New Generation Youth - with an outlay of Rs 500 crore over five years to expand youth skilling, entrepreneurship and innovation. It will set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres in all 33 districts, 5 Centres of Excellence for industry training, and 100 Emerging Technology Labs focused on AI, IoT, Big Data and Blockchain. A NIPUN Job Engine will match trained youth to industrial workforce demand. The state has also allotted 10 acres at Tendua village, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar to the DGT under MSDE for a National Skill Training Institute.

The Industries Department of Bihar signed an MoU in Dubai with the UAE-based AIM Global Foundation in September 2026 to set up a dedicated food processing park in the state. The aim is an integrated agro-food and processing cluster that attracts investment from the UAE and the wider Gulf region and strengthens Bihar's role in global food supply chains. Bihar will provide land, infrastructure, Single Window clearance support and policy incentives, while AIM Global Foundation mobilises UAE-based investors and companies. The project is expected to lift value addition, exports and employment, and link local farmers and processors to Gulf markets.

Samagra Shiksha, Government of Assam, signed Memoranda of Understanding with six organisations to introduce artificial intelligence, digital technology and innovative learning into the state's school system. The partners are Google AI, IIT Madras-Bodhan AI, LEHS-Wadhwani AI, Educate Girls, EkStep Foundation-AXL and Canva Education. IIT Madras-Bodhan AI will train around one lakh teachers of Classes VI-XII by May 2027; Wadhwani AI supplies assessment tools to spot learning gaps; Educate Girls works on enrolment and retention of out-of-school adolescents. Bodhan AI is the same IIT Madras centre that days earlier released four multilingual foundational AI models with AI4Bharat as digital public goods for the Bharat EduAI Stack.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced the creation of a world-class Tamil Nadu Olympic City at Semmencheri in Chennai, replacing the earlier Global Sports City plan with a larger and more comprehensive project aimed at strengthening sports infrastructure and improving India's medal prospects. The Olympic City will house world-class arenas, a High-Performance Training Centre, a Sports Science Centre, a Sports Medicine Centre and residential facilities for athletes and coaches. The state will also set up a Talent Research Wing, establish Olympic Centres of Excellence in 10 locations and develop a dedicated Motor Sports City for Formula racing, extending Chennai's long association with Indian motorsport.

Mandar, a traditional folk percussion instrument of Jharkhand, received a Geographical Indication tag from the GI Registry in Chennai on 28-29 September 2026. The instrument has a cylindrical body of red clay with leather-covered openings of different sizes at each end and is central to Jharkhand's tribal and folk music. The applicant was Raidih Mandar Producer Company Limited of Jarjatta village, Gumla district, which filed on 24 September 2021, with the final hearing in Delhi in January 2025. Supporting evidence included archival records dating to 1915 and the works of Sarat Chandra Roy, Tarak Chandra Das and W.G. Archer.

The Karnataka Cabinet, meeting in Mangaluru on 18 September 2026, approved Tulu as the state's second additional administrative language for Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, with an annual allocation of Rs 82 lakh for translation work and staff training. Tulu is a Dravidian language with a recorded history of more than 2,000 years, spoken by about one crore people, mainly in coastal Karnataka. The decision follows a long-standing regional demand and the work of a committee headed by academician Mohan Alva. The status applies only to the two coastal districts and not to the whole state, covering official communication, translation and public service delivery.

Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Vinai Kumar Saxena declared Kumik village as Ladakh's first Heritage Village during the 11th Ladakh Zanskar Festival 2026, held in the Zanskar Valley on 15-16 September 2026. Kumik lies in the Zanskar region of Kargil district, a remote high-altitude cold desert known for Tibetan Buddhist monastic traditions. The recognition rests on its rare Kanjur manuscripts, traditional mud architecture, sacred spaces and continuing agricultural customs. The designation follows a "living heritage" approach, protecting practices and knowledge systems still in daily use rather than static monuments, and aims to promote heritage tourism under the "Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi" vision.

Maharashtra declared 265 of its 358 talukas drought-affected on 26 September 2026, covering roughly 74% of the state's landmass, following a review of rainfall, sowing and water-storage data. A drought declaration is the trigger for relief measures such as revenue-recovery suspension, crop loan restructuring, fee concessions and drinking-water supply by tanker, and it also opens the route to central assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund. The scale of the declaration underlines how uneven the 2026 monsoon has been across the Deccan plateau, where the rain-shadow districts of Marathwada and western Maharashtra are chronically drought-prone.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched Bharat Taxi in Lucknow, a cooperative-based ride service on a zero-commission model open to two-wheeler, taxi and three-wheeler drivers, with a Rs 5 lakh social security cover. Operations have begun in Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj, and MoUs were signed with the Airports Authority of India, Lucknow Metro Rail and Lucknow Police to support the ecosystem. At the same event the CM launched the Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana, cutting interest on Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Gramya Vikas Bank farm and machinery loans from 11% to 6%, with the state targeting 5 lakh small and marginal farmers.

Uttar Pradesh launched a portal for long-term farm loans at a 6% effective interest rate for small and marginal farmers, along with two cooperative-sector apps, at Lucknow on 23 September 2026. The Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana e-portal gives farmers digital access to the loan application process. Alongside it, the Cooperation Department launched Urvarak Setu, an app to improve availability of and access to fertilisers and seeds, and the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Database Centre (UPCDC) app to strengthen digital cooperative services. Together the three move farm credit and input delivery onto digital rails, extending the state's wider cooperative-sector digitisation push.

Former Justice R. C. Chavan resigned on 19 September 2026 from Maharashtra's seven-member Uniform Civil Code committee, constituted in July 2026 and chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai. Chavan quit after the panel's second online meeting, citing differences over its functioning, meetings that ended without substantive discussion, and the circulation of a chairperson-finalised questionnaire that ignored members' suggestions. He said he resigned quickly so the government could fill the vacancy. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has indicated a UCC Bill could come in the winter session once the panel reports. A UCC is envisaged under Article 44 of the Directive Principles.

The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has facilitated the refund of Rs 139.68 crore to 24,189 cyber fraud victims during 2026, among the largest restitution drives by any state police force. The Bureau used the Lok Adalat mechanism to obtain quick, court-approved release of money frozen in fraudsters' accounts, avoiding the delays of regular criminal trials. Rapid reporting through the national cyber financial fraud helpline 1930 and the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal allows banks to freeze transfers before the money is withdrawn. Telangana was the first Indian state to establish a dedicated cyber security bureau, set up in 2023.

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh launched 'Pehchaan', a statewide digital portal to trace unidentified and unclaimed deceased persons lying in government mortuaries, making Punjab the first state in India with such a system. Built on Punjab's MedLEaPR medico-legal reporting platform by the National Informatics Centre on directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the free, publicly searchable portal records photographs, physical traits and identification marks within 48 hours and automatically alerts investigating officers for verification. MedLEaPR links police, courts, health institutions and nine forensic science laboratories, and integrates with CCTNS to match missing-person and unidentified-deceased records — complementing the national mortuary standards notified earlier this month.

The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) signed two MoUs — with the UNDP and CivicDataLab — at Bhubaneswar in September 2026 to strengthen the state's disaster risk management ecosystem. Under the UNDP pact, a Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (HRVA) will be conducted across all 30 districts of Odisha to build a digital evidence base for mitigation, preparedness and climate-resilient planning. CivicDataLab will implement the Intelligent Data Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDS-DRR) platform, integrating government data with real-time analytics for OSDMA and District Disaster Management Authorities. The GIS-enabled platforms will focus initially on floods, coastal flooding and heatwaves, supporting Odisha's "Zero Casualty" goal.

NMDC Limited commissioned a ₹5,427-crore integrated iron ore project in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. It combines a new iron ore processing plant at Bacheli, a 135-km, 15 MTPA slurry pipeline, and a 2 MTPA pellet plant at Nagarnar using Straight Grate Induration technology. The pipeline runs through 61 villages in Bastar and Dantewada districts and replaces road haulage of ore concentrate. The project allows NMDC to convert iron ore fines and slimes from the Bailadila mines into concentrate and then into pellets, feeding the Nagarnar steel plant and raising value addition in a district long affected by left-wing extremism.