India strikes a silver and two bronze in Asian Games
Aichi-Nagoya, 26 September A silver on the track, a bronze in the throwing circle and a bronze off a fibreglass pole. In the space of one evening at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, the Prime Minister’s Office issued three separate congratulatory messages, each naming an Indian athlete, each timed within minutes of the last.
Gulveer Singh took silver in the men’s 10,000 metres. The Prime Minister’s Office, in its release noted that this followed a bronze he had already won at the same Games — two podiums in one competition, in two different distance events. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the run would inspire young distance runners across India.
Manpreet Kaur won bronze in the shot put. Baranika Elangovan won bronze in the women’s pole vault. Each was the subject of its own message from the Prime Minister’s Office, issued on 25 September 2026.
At a glance
Indian medals : 3
Silver: 1 — Gulveer Singh, men’s 10,000m
Bronze: 2 — Manpreet Kaur, shot put; Baranika Elangovan, women’s pole vault
What India gains
Medals in three unrelated disciplines on one evening are evidence of breadth, not luck; breadth is what converts into Olympic qualification slots.
RBI, Centre roll out H2 borrowing blueprint
NEW DELHI, 26 September The Union government will raise ₹7,86,000 crore from the market between October 2026 and March 2027, the Finance Ministry said in its borrowing calendar of 25 September 2026, press release ID 2315024, settled in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India.
The second half will be raised through 23 weekly auctions, across securities of 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 30, 40 and 50 years. The ministry’s own distribution of the eight maturity buckets sums exactly to 100%, with the 10-year at 26.3% the single largest and the 15-year next at 17.6%.
Two figures in the release deserve to be read against each other. Full-year dated-securities borrowing is now expected at ₹15,99,506 crore against a Budget Estimate of ₹17,20,000 crore. That is ₹1,20,494 crore less than budgeted — 7.01% below the estimate, on this desk’s arithmetic from the two figures the ministry printed.
Treasury bills will raise ₹23,000 crore a week over 13 auction weeks in the third quarter: ₹8,000 crore at 91 days, ₹8,000 crore at 182 days and ₹7,000 crore at 364 days. The three legs sum to the published weekly total.
The Reserve Bank has set the Ways and Means Advances limit for the second half at ₹50,000 crore.
Shaunak leads India’s next maritime Quad chapter
CHENNAI, 26 September Indian Coast Guard Ship Shaunak sailed from Chennai for Perth on 25 September 2026 under the Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission, the Ministry of Defence said in its press release of that date, release ID 2315065.
Photograph — place here: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2315065
Six officers, embarked as Sea Riders, are aboard: two each from India and Japan, one each from Australia and the United States. The count is worth reading closely. India and Japan, the two Asian members, carry two officers apiece; Australia and the United States carry one each. The berths were not split four ways. They were split by where the mission is being run.
The ministry places the sailing under the Quad Foreign Ministers’ joint statement of 26 May 2026 and under India’s own maritime doctrine of MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. The news agency ANI reported the sailing on 25 September 2026, and records that the first such mission, in 2025, was run aboard a United States Coast Guard cutter.
That is the part that matters for India. The observer mission has moved from an American deck to an Indian one in a single cycle.
Nearly one lakh public grievances filed in August
NEW DELHI, 26 September: States and union territories received 98,997 public grievance cases in August 2026 and disposed of 79,639, according to the 49th monthly report on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System, released by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances on 25 September 2026, press release ID 2314962.
That is a disposal rate of 80.45%, recomputed here from the two figures the department printed. Against it stands the stock: 2,53,040 cases were pending across states and union territories on 31 August 2026 — 2.56 months of August’s own inflow, on the same arithmetic. Twenty-three states and union territories each carried more than 1,000 pending cases.
At a glance
Grievances received by states and union territories, August 2026: 98,997
Grievances disposed of, August 2026: 79,639
Pending on 31 August 2026: 2,53,040
States and union territories with more than 1,000 pending: 23
New portal registrations, August 2026: 1,38,801
What India gains
A grievance system that publishes its own pendency every month, state by state, is a citizen’s only reliable way of knowing whether a complaint filed today will be looked at.
IITs, IIMs to audit minority welfare schemes
Bengaluru, 26 September 2026 — The Ministry of Minority Affairs signed a set of memoranda with four institutions at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, on 25 September 2026, placing the independent evaluation of two of its largest programmes in academic hands, according to the ministry’s press release of that date, release ID 2315015.
Under the first, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore will carry out independent third-party monitoring of training delivered under the PM VIKAS scheme in the southern region — checking training quality, infrastructure, attendance, certification and placement outcomes through field verification.
Under the second, the Centre for Urbanisation, Buildings and Environment at IIT Madras will evaluate infrastructure built under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram, covering completed and continuing projects in education, health, skilling and women and child development, on quality, functionality, access, use and maintenance.
Two tripartite agreements were also signed by the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation with the Foundation for Science Innovation and Development at IISc Bengaluru and with IIMB Innovations, the incubation centre at IIM Bangalore, under the Prime Minister’s Minority Venture Fund.
Ministry of Minority Affairs Secretary Srivatsa Krishna, speaking at the signing, said the aim was to “select, nurture and fund startups that can create employment through entrepreneurship, and to ensure that the quality and use of the infrastructure built for minority communities is of the best standard”.
Greater Noida hosts biggest UP manufacturing showcase
Greater Noida, 26 September The fourth Uttar Pradesh International Trade Show opened at Greater Noida on 25 September 2026, inaugurated by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath present.
The date carries its own weight. The Make in India mission was announced on 25 September, twelve years earlier, and the trade show’s fourth edition opened on the anniversary. It is also the 110th birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhyaya.
The Home Minister said the 2025 edition drew more than 5 lakh visitors and produced over 2,400 memoranda of understanding. He set out the state’s target of a one-trillion-dollar economy and named the six defence corridor nodes at Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh and Kanpur.
On national figures, he said defence production has crossed ₹1,78,000 crore, that defence exports now reach 80 countries, that 12 semiconductor projects are under way in six states carrying more than ₹1.64 lakh crore of investment, and that capital expenditure has crossed ₹12.2 lakh crore. A One District, One Cuisine website was launched at the event alongside the existing One District, One Product programme.
Uttar Pradesh runs metro services in seven cities, more than any other state, the Home Minister said.
