Current affairs — 27 September 2026

Addressing the 81st UN General Assembly on 25 September 2026, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said any Indian attempt to “stop, impede or divert Pakistan's share” of the Indus waters would be “treated as an act of war”, that India's decision on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) had “no legal basis whatsoever”, and that “water must never be weaponized”. India answered the same day through a right of reply by Petal Gahlot, First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN.

In an affidavit filed in August 2026, reported on 27 September 2026, the Andhra Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that the constitutional validity of the 2026 amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 is “primarily a matter for the Union of India”, that it had no role in enacting the law, and that it has “not taken any independent action that is discriminatory towards transgender persons” — in effect declining to defend the amendment. The Court is hearing at least a dozen petitions against the law; Uttarakhand has defended it, and the Centre is yet to respond.

On 17 September 2026, a Supreme Court bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi, in Sumitra v. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (SLP (C) No. 19874 of 2026), held that the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had discriminated on the ground of sex when it refused, in 1988, to appoint Sumitra as a casual khalasi (helper) at its LPG bottling plant in village Guda, Karnal (Haryana), and awarded her ₹12 lakh in compensation in lieu of appointment.

On 23 September 2026, Justice Sanjeev Narula of the Delhi High Court dismissed a petition to quash an FIR registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against a man who had married a girl aged 16 years and three months under Muslim personal law. The Court held that such a marriage confers no immunity from prosecution where the wife is below 18: personal law “may determine whether a marriage has been contracted”, but cannot create an exception to a criminal law “where Parliament has provided none”.

On 26 September 2026, after meeting Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at the State secretariat in Bhubaneswar, Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal said “Niyamgiri would be reopened immediately” — the bauxite mining project in the Niyamgiri Hills shelved in 2013 after resistance from the Dongria Kondh, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). He said the company had been told “all the necessary permissions currently required will be granted”, and committed ₹1 lakh crore of investment in aluminium smelters, refineries and power plants in the State.

The Ministry of Mines has notified two more offshore mineral blocks near Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman Sea, covering a combined 1,632 sq km, for the grant of composite licences for polymetallic nodules and crusts, The Indian Express reported on 27 September 2026. The blocks are West Sewell Ridge-01 (1,000 sq km, off Great Nicobar) and Sewell Rise-01 (632 sq km, in the southern part of the Sewell Rise).

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has notified Deendayal (Kandla), Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), Paradip and Mundra as India's first mega ports under the Indian Ports Act, 2025, by a notification dated 25 September 2026 that came into force on publication in the Gazette of India.

On 26 September 2026, the foundation stone was laid for India's first port-based e-methanol production facility at Kandla, Gujarat, a joint project of the Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) and Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APCL). The ₹2,300 crore plant will make 150 tonnes per day of methanol from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide from biogenic sources, aimed at ships on the Asia–Europe trade corridor.

Data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) late on 25 September 2026 showed net foreign direct investment (FDI) of $7.35 billion in July 2026 — the highest monthly figure since May 2021 ($8.80 billion). Gross FDI was $14.58 billion, the third-highest in six years; against July 2025, net FDI was up 64% and gross FDI 24%.

Students at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have been protesting since the death by suicide of a 20-year-old Dalit second-year B.Tech student on 18 September 2026. His parents allege caste discrimination and have registered an FIR against IIT-Bombay faculty under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989; the Mumbai Crime Branch is investigating.