Current affairs — 28 September 2026

On 27 September 2026, the Tamil Nadu government led by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay (TVK) revoked G.O. Ms. No. 57, Human Resources Management (R) Department, dated 21 September 2026, which had specified the State's Public (Law and Order) Department as an “intelligence and security organisation” under Section 24(4) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 — placing the entire department outside the Act. Law Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar announced the withdrawal within hours of the Gazette-notified order surfacing, after objections from CPI(M) MP Su Venkatesan, VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan, AMMK founder T.T.V. Dhinakaran, the anti-corruption movement Arappor Iyakkam and environmental group Poovulagin Nanbargal.

As of 27 September 2026, 46 days had passed since the Eighth Session (Monsoon Session) of the 18th Lok Sabha — which began on 20 July 2026 and was adjourned sine die on 13 August 2026 — without the House being prorogued or reconvened. Parliament records reported by The Indian Express on 28 September make this the third-longest gap after an adjournment sine die in Parliament's history, behind two Bofors-era stretches in the Eighth Lok Sabha, and the longest since 2014. The open session has fuelled speculation of an October sitting on a constitutional amendment linked to delimitation and women's reservation, though no such decision has been announced.

On 24 September 2026, at a one-day high-level plenary meeting held during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA81) in New York, Member States approved by consensus the Declaration on Sea-Level Rise — the first UN-wide political declaration devoted to the phenomenon. It affirms a presumption in favour of continued statehood, so that low-lying states such as Fiji, Tuvalu and Vanuatu keep their statehood, sovereign rights and UN membership even if territory is lost, and that maritime zones fixed under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) continue even as coastlines retreat. States also committed to another high-level meeting before the 84th session ends.

The Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, notified by the Department of Consumer Affairs on 27 August 2026 (Gazette publication 29 August), make Indian Standard Time (IST) the only permissible time reference for legal, administrative, commercial and official purposes and require it to be drawn from an authorised Indian source; they come into force in the last week of February 2027. On 28 September 2026, The Hindu examined how IST is generated at the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi, and flagged the hurdles to compliance — industry readiness and a NavIC constellation down to three working navigation satellites.

On 28 September 2026, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said India had underscored whale and cetacean conservation at the 70th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC70) in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia), held from 28 September to 2 October 2026. In its opening statement, India called for continued collaboration among range countries, scientific institutions and international organisations, and for better scientific information on the population status, distribution, movements, breeding ecology and threats of cetaceans, so that conservation rests on evidence-based approaches. The meeting coincides with the 80th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), signed on 2 December 1946.

On 28 September 2026, The Indian Express reported that Uttar Pradesh, India's top cane-growing State, saw sugar output fall from 126.4 lakh tonnes (2019-20) to 89.5 lakh tonnes (2025-26), while cane crushed by its 120-odd mills fell by over a fifth. The main cause is the collapse of Co-0238 (Karan 4), the variety that once dominated UP fields, to red rot, a fungal disease caused by Colletotrichum falcatum. Hopes now rest on Co-20016 (Karan 20), bred by ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR-SBI), Coimbatore, which is resistant to the virulent CF13 pathotype and awaits the Central Varietal Release Committee in October 2026.

On 28 September 2026, a data analysis of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports (rape cases under the general criminal law, excluding POCSO Act cases) showed that while rape registrations have stayed broadly steady since 2018 — an average of about 84 cases a day — court pendency keeps mounting. Of 2,06,777 rape cases before trial courts in 2024, nearly 90% were still pending at year-end, and only 421 cases — about 2% of those sent to trial that year — ended in conviction within the same year. The analysis followed the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl at Astha Kunj Park near Kalkaji Mandir, southeast Delhi, on 21 September 2026 by three men posing as police personnel, and videos from Jamui and Samastipur (Bihar) showing harassment of girls in public spaces.

On 23 September 2026, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) released a consultation paper titled “Recalibrating Economics of Insurance Distribution”, proposing hard, product-wise commission ceilings — first-year commission on long-term life policies capped at 20% of premium for distribution entities and 25% for individual agents — and a phased cut in insurers' Expenses of Management (EoM) to 12.5% (life) and 20% (general) of gross direct premium over five years. Shares of insurance distributors, insurers and banks fell sharply on the proposal. Comments are invited till 25 October 2026.

An 18-day underwater exploration off Poompuhar (ancient Kaveripoompattinam), the early Chola port at the mouth of the Kaveri in Mayiladuthurai district, Tamil Nadu, concluded on 22 September 2026. Conducted by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) with the Indian Maritime University (IMU) as the third phase of the State's offshore programme, it recovered a fragment of a West Asian 'torpedo jar', terracotta ring wells on the seabed and a large haul of pottery. The Indian Express (28 September 2026) examined what the finds reveal about Tamil links with West Asia.

The Railway Board has informed Northern Railway that the proposed 40-km Baramulla–Uri new line — an extension of the Kashmir line towards the Line of Control (LoC) — and the 74-km doubling of the Qazigund–Srinagar–Budgam stretch have been 'returned by Cabinet Secretariat and are no longer under consideration'. The Indian Express reported on 28 September 2026 that the Uri line was shelved amid ecological concerns; Baramulla MLA Javid Hassan Baig had moved a resolution in the ongoing session of the J&K Legislative Assembly seeking that the project be held in abeyance until an independent geological, geotechnical and seismic assessment of the corridor.