India, Japan fly a new defence chapter
JODHPUR, 21 September An Indian Air Chief and a Japanese Air Chief climbed into the same Indian-built aircraft over the Thar and flew it together. The aircraft was the Tejas, designed and assembled in Bengaluru. The passenger, in effect, was the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh and General Takehiro Morita, Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, flew a formation sortie in the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas at Jodhpur, according to Akashvani News in its report of 20 September 2026. The sortie came during Veer Guardian 2026, the bilateral air exercise the two air forces are running at the Jodhpur base.
What makes this edition different is not the flying. It is the parking. Japanese fighter aircraft are operating from Indian soil for the first time in a bilateral exercise, Akashvani News reported that Japan had sent F-2A fighters to Jodhpur, where they are flying alongside the Tejas, the Su-30MKI and the Rafale.
Japan has been careful about where its combat aircraft go. Its post-war constitution, and the political habits built around it, kept the Air Self-Defense Force close to home for decades. An F-2A on an Indian runway is therefore a political fact before it is a military one.
Air Chief Marshal Singh told reporters at Jodhpur that the first-ever operation of a Japanese fighter jet on Indian soil marks a major milestone in bilateral defence ties, Akashvani News reported. General Morita described the Tejas as a symbol of India’s technological innovation and of the Make in India initiative.
Blitz Data Card : NEW DELHI · 21 September 2026
At a glance
Veer Guardian 2026, Jodhpur: 14-day India–Japan bilateral air exercise
Indian aircraft flown: Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Su-30MKI, Rafale
Japanese aircraft flown: F-2A fighter
First Japanese fighter operation from Indian soil: 2026
What India gains
An operational endorsement of an Indian-built fighter by a foreign air chief, and a partner air force that now knows how to fly from Indian bases.
Project NETRA expands its orbit into Assam
GUWAHATI, 21 September — India is building a new place to watch its own sky. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma laid the foundation stone of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Advanced Radar Research Centre at Chandrapur near Guwahati, in an announcement carried by DD News on 21 September 2026.
The centre belongs to Project NETRA, ISRO’s space situational awareness programme. Its work is to track objects in orbit, follow debris and protect India’s satellites from collision, according to the Chief Minister’s statement reported by DD News on 21 September 2026. The Assam government has allotted 200 bighas for it.
The location is the point. Radar coverage of the low-earth orbits Indian satellites use improves with the geographic spread of the stations watching them, and India’s tracking assets have clustered in the south and the west. A site in the Northeast widens the arc.
India spins a global silk dream
BENGALURU, 21 September India wants to be the world’s largest silk producer, and it has put a year on it. Union Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh said the country has resolved to reach the No. 1 rank in global silk production by 2028-29, speaking at the 77th Foundation Day of the Central Silk Board in Bengaluru, according to the Ministry of Textiles release of 20 September 2026.
The ministry’s own numbers set the distance. Silk output stood at 26,000 tonnes in 2014 and is 42,000 tonnes now, with a target of 60,000 tonnes by 2030-31. Blitz calculates the rise so far at 61.5%, and the remaining climb at 42.9% over about five years.
The minister said demand for Indian silk is rising abroad at a time when China’s production is falling — which is the real reason a target of this kind is being set now. Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje said Karnataka holds the leading position in the country’s silk output.
Blitz Data Card: Bengaluru At a glance
Silk production 2014: 26,000 tonnes
Silk production 2026: 42,000 tonnes
Target 2030-31: 60,000 tonnes
Target for global rank: No. 1 by 2028-29
What India gains
A higher place in a market India already competes in, and an income floor for sericulture households that the ministry has put at ₹10 lakh to ₹12 lakh a year.
Gwalior bags Asia’s telecom capital
GWALIOR, 21 September Twenty-four companies have applied for land in a zone that does not yet exist. Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia inspected the site identified for Asia’s first Telecom Manufacturing Zone at Gwalior, according to the Ministry of Communications release of 20 September 2026.
The ministry puts the proposed investment at about ₹5,500 crore and the employment at over 18,000. Roughly 170 acres have been identified for the first phase — about 90 acres in the Special Area Development Authority land and about 70 in the IT Park.
The minister said applications already exceed the land available, and that more land will be identified. He also said the companies that expressed interest at the Delhi and Mumbai roadshows were asked to enter the formal application process rather than leave a commitment on paper — 24 of them have done so.
Jaishankar to echo India’s voice at UN high table
NEW YORK, 21 September External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has arrived in New York to lead the Indian delegation at the High-Level Week of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. He is scheduled to address the High-Level Session on 26 September.
The session carries the theme “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all”, and the general debate runs from 22 to 28 September. Representatives of all 193 member states are expected. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends his final General Assembly.
Tariyal bags India’s First MMA medal at Asian Games
AICHI-NAGOYA, 21 September Suchika Tariyal became India’s first Asian Games medallist in mixed martial arts, taking bronze in the women’s traditional -60kg category at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, DD News reported on 21 September 2026. Her semi-final against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo went to overtime and was lost by the narrowest margin.
Tariyal is 36 and has arrived here by an unusual road — a national-level judoka, a Commonwealth Games competitor at Birmingham in 2022, a kurash player at the 2023 Asian Games, and a world title in fighting Jiu-Jitsu in 2024. Mixed martial arts is making its Asian Games debut at this edition.
India also took silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event, where Sonam Uttam Maskar, Elavenil Valarivan and Vidarsa K. Vinod shot 1,897 points to finish behind China, according to the Prime Minister’s Office post of 20 September 2026. Elavenil added an individual silver, finishing 252.4 to Japan’s 253.0 — a margin, by Blitz’s calculation, of 0.6 of a point.
Nagaland movie Angh wins big title in Toronto
TORONTO, 21 September A film in a tribal language from Nagaland has won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. Angh, directed by Theja Rio, took the 2026 prize, Akashvani News reported on 21 September 2026, from a field of 12 films in the festival’s only competitive section.
The award matters beyond the trophy. From the 2026 edition, the Platform Prize gives a non-English-language film a direct pathway to eligibility for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Jury president Pablo Trapero praised the film’s perspective and the strength of its filmmaking.
Theja Rio said in his acceptance that the recognition was special because it highlights a film from an Indigenous region in a tribal language, and dedicated it to the people at home. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio called the win a proud moment for Nagaland and India.
India, Sri Lanka deepen maritime bond
VISAKHAPATNAM, 21 Septmber — The 13th edition of SLINEX, the annual India–Sri Lanka bilateral maritime exercise, is being conducted at Visakhapatnam from 17 to 21 September 2026, according to a Ministry of Defence release.
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India has sent INS Kavaratti, an indigenous anti-submarine warfare corvette, and the fleet tanker INS Jyoti. Sri Lanka is represented by SLNS Sindurala. The harbour phase, run under the Eastern Naval Command, is followed by a sea phase focused on coordinated operations.
SLINEX was conceptualised in 2005. Twenty-one years of it is the answer to anyone who asks what continuity in maritime diplomacy looks like.
National film awards find a new stage in Kevadia
EKTA NAGAR, 21 September — President Droupadi Murmu began a three-day visit to Gujarat and will preside over the presentation of the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar, Kevadia, according to Akashvani News of 21 September 2026 and the President’s Secretariat release of 20 September 2026.
The awards recognise Indian cinema for 2024 and the winners were announced on 18 July 2026. Instituted in 1954, they are presented annually by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting across feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema, with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award decided by a separate committee.
Four lakh voices unite against addiction
NEW DELHI — The Rashtriya Sankalp Samaroh was held at more than 1,000 locations across India with the participation of over 4 lakh young people and citizens, according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports release of 20 September 2026.
The ministry’s own breakdown of the locations is the useful part: 460 MY Bharat districts, 240 locations of MY Bharat partner organisations, and more than 300 run by spiritual organisations, industry associations and university associations. The event sits inside the 100 Weeks Nasha Mukt Yuva Abhiyan.
CAG’s September audit blitz across states
NEW DELHI, 21 September — Eight reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reached State legislatures in the first three days of September 2026, according to the audit report register published on cag.gov.in and read on 21 September 2026.
They are, by the auditor’s own listing: two reports on Manipur dated 02 September 2026, on State Finances for 2024-25 and on the General, Social, Economic and Revenue Sectors for the year ended 31 March 2024; two on Nagaland dated 03 September 2026, Report No. 2 of 2026 on State Finances for 2024-25 and Report No. 1 of 2026 on the Social, Economic, General and Revenue Sectors; three on Himachal Pradesh dated 03 September 2026, Reports No. 1, 2 and 3 of 2026; and Report No. 5 of 2026 on Haryana dated 01 September 2026, a compliance audit of revenue.
What the Haryana report contains
The CAG’s own description of the Haryana report is specific: it contains 21 audit paragraphs relating to non-levy or short levy of taxes. That is the figure the Public Accounts Committee of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha will work from, paragraph by paragraph.
The constructive reading is about the calendar, not the contents. Four States had their 2024-25 finances independently assessed and laid before their legislatures within three days of one another, and the Nagaland and Himachal reports cover the year ended 31 March 2024. An audit that arrives while the decisions it examines are still live is an audit a legislature can act on.
