Current Affairs - September 29, 2026 Current Affairs

Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest player to satisfy the criteria for the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title at the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The 11-year-old Indian-born chess player represented England on the first board and scored 8 points from 11 rounds. She secured her third and final WGM norm during the tournament, surpassing the previous age record held by Kateryna Lagno, who achieved the title at 12. Bodhana also earned her second International Master norm at the event. Her achievement highlights her rapid rise in international chess and establishes her as one of the notable young talents in the sport.

Neeru Dhanda, Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer won the silver medal for India in the women’s trap team event at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. The Indian team recorded a combined score of 328 points after the qualification round. China won the gold medal with 346 points, while Kuwait secured the bronze with 325 points. Neeru Dhanda also achieved an individual qualification for the women’s trap final after scoring 118 points and topping the qualification round alongside another shooter. Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer did not qualify for the individual final.

Abhiram Singh Yadav of Persatuan Cricket Indonesia was elected to the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) as an Associate Member representative on September 28, 2026. He fills one of the three seats reserved for Associate Members on the committee. Yadav succeeds Gurumurthy Palani, who vacated the position after being appointed to the ICC Board in July 2026. His term will continue until the next elections at the ICC Annual Conference, with the next round of elections scheduled for June 2027. The CEC oversees the management of cricket and the ICC’s commercial activities and includes representatives from Full and Associate Members.

Assam increased the monthly payout under the Orunodoi Scheme to ₹1,500 for October 2026 as a festival gift for women beneficiaries. The regular grant under Orunodoi is ₹1,250. Launched in 2020, the scheme focuses on poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment and is described as Assam’s largest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. It currently covers around 4 million beneficiaries. The Assam Cabinet also approved the SWIFT project with an outlay of ₹796.88 crore for restoring 102 community wetlands and sanctioned a ₹11,000 crore industrial investment by JK Lakshmi Cement Limited for cement manufacturing and grinding units.

Kolkata will host India Energy Week 2027 from January 28 to 31 at the New Town Convention Centre. This will be the first time that the major international energy conference is held in eastern India. The event is organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and will bring together policymakers, energy companies, investors, and technology innovators. The theme for 2027 is “Unlocking Innovation. Securing Energy. Shaping Tomorrow.” Key areas include hydrogen, biofuels, LNG, renewable energy, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and net-zero technologies. More than 75,000 energy professionals and 700 international exhibitors are expected.

September 29 is observed every year as World Heart Day to raise awareness about cardiovascular diseases, their risk factors, warning signs, and preventive measures. In 2026, the theme is “Don’t Miss a Beat,” emphasising the importance of recognising warning signs, detecting cardiovascular diseases early, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The campaign highlights major risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and abnormal cholesterol levels. World Heart Day is coordinated by the World Heart Federation with support from the World Health Organisation and serves as a global platform for promoting cardiovascular health and prevention.

Kerala has developed the AI-based Dengue Early Warning System (DEWS) through scientists at the Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV). The machine-learning system uses six years of dengue surveillance and weather data to forecast weekly dengue trends separately for each district. It considers four major parameters: reported dengue cases, rainfall, temperature, and average humidity. The system classifies dengue infection risk into four levels: very high, high, moderate, and low. By providing district-level forecasts, DEWS can help public-health authorities strengthen surveillance, testing, laboratory preparedness, and healthcare planning in areas expected to face higher dengue risks.

Dhiraj Bommadevara set a new Asian Games men’s recurve qualification record on September 27, 2026, in Okazaki City, Japan. He scored 698 points out of a possible 720, surpassing the previous record of 690 points held by South Korea’s Lee Woo Seok. Bommadevara also partnered with Kumkum Mohod as India secured the second seed in the recurve mixed team qualification. India qualified second in the men’s recurve team ranking behind South Korea. The 2026 Asian Games in Japan are the 20th edition of the multi-sport event and are governed by the Olympic Council of Asia.

IIT Delhi developed India’s first working, demonstrable indigenous micro Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) on September 28, 2026. The GPU was designed by researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering and built using Register Transfer Language (RTL), with implementation on a Spartan-7 Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform. It features a custom floating-point GPU engine and programmable architectures. The technology is intended for applications such as educational e-book readers, e-rickshaw dashboard navigators, navigation terminals, industrial control displays, and affordable human-machine interfaces. Future plans include an 8–16 core vector-style processor and migration to a 65nm ASIC process.

Neeru Dhanda won the women’s individual trap gold medal at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, securing India’s fifth gold medal at the Games. She scored 26 points in the eight-shooter final, finishing ahead of China’s Sun Yunong and Kuwait’s Hajar Abdulmalik, who each scored 21 points. Dhanda had also won a silver medal in the women’s trap team event alongside Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer. She scored 118 out of 125 points in the team competition. Dhanda also won her first ISSF World Cup gold in women’s trap at Lonato, Italy, in July 2026.