Kandla sets sail on India’s green methanol journey
Gandhidham, 30 September: The foundation stone for India’s first port-based e-methanol production facility was laid at Deendayal Port Authority in Kandla by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, according to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways press release of 26 September 2026.
The 150-tonne-a-day plant will use renewable power, water and biogenic carbon dioxide, and supply vessels on the Asia–Europe trade corridor. The ministry states it will produce green methanol at about US$750 a tonne against a global rate of about US$1,300 — a price 42.3% below the world figure, on our own arithmetic from the two numbers the release gives.
The ₹2,300 crore plant is a joint venture of the port authority and Namrup-based Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited, in a 76:24 capital ratio. Phase one adds 50 tonnes a day for ₹1,200 crore by January 2027; phase two adds 100 tonnes a day for ₹1,100 crore by March 2027. The port authority’s share includes ₹567.32 crore of equity, 75 acres of land, desalinated water and green hydrogen. The ministry expects more than 3,500 direct and indirect jobs.
India’s first LNG-powered train flagged off from Gujarat
Ahmedabad, 30 September: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah flagged off the country’s first LNG-powered train from Sabarmati railway station and dedicated railway development works worth ₹1,472 crore, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs press release of 27 September 2026. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was present.
The works include a WAG-12 locomotive maintenance shed built for ₹700 crore and the Kavach train protection system on the Sabarmati–Kalol section for ₹48 crore, with Kavach also begun on the Ahmedabad–Palanpur and Ahmedabad–Samakhiali sections and doubling started on the Sabarmati–Sarkhej route. The WAG-12 carries 12,000 horsepower in twin sections and, the release states, can haul the load of about 600 trucks on its own — some 20 horsepower for every truck’s worth of freight.
Two figures in the release deserve to be read together. Indian Railways used 293 crore litres of diesel in 2015-16 and 108 crore litres in 2024-25, a fall of 63.1%. Route electrification, which ran at 75 kilometres in 2010-11, reached 7,188 kilometres in 2023-24 — 95.8 times the earlier annual pace. The network now stands at 99.6% electrified.
Livestock insurance goes digital
New Delhi, 30 September: The Livestock Insurance Portal is being launched today by Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Panchayati Raj Rajiv Ranjan Singh, according to the ministry’s press release of 27 September 2026.
The portal handles policy issue, claim settlement, monitoring and reporting for animals insured under the department’s Livestock Insurance scheme, and will run in Hindi, English and 11 regional languages — thirteen in all. The point of the language count is narrow and practical: a herder filing a claim on a dead buffalo does it in the language the loss happened in, not in the language the scheme was drafted in.
Tarang Shakti takes to the skies with seven nations
Jodhpur, 30 September: The Indian Air Force has begun the operational phase of Exercise Tarang Shakti-2026 at Jodhpur Air Force Station, according to the Ministry of Defence press release of 27 September 2026. The multilateral exercise runs from 26 September to 12 October 2026 on the theme “Strength in Partnership”.
Seven friendly countries are taking part — Australia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Foreign aircraft at Jodhpur include the F-35 Lightning II, Rafale, F-16, A400M, MRTT, C-130, C-130J and KC-30A, flying combat, air transport and air-to-air refuelling missions alongside Indian squadrons. Several other countries are attending as observers.
This is the second edition, after the first in 2024. Beyond the flying, the exercise carries seminars, industry visits for the foreign contingents, the Sekhon marathon, heritage visits and yoga sessions — the part that lets visiting air forces see India’s own aerospace and industrial base rather than only its runways.
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Sitharaman takes India’s AIIB voice to Doha
Doha, 30 September: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman is on an official visit to Qatar from 27 to 29 September 2026, leading a delegation of finance ministry officials, according to the Ministry of Finance press release of 27 September 2026.
She attended the eleventh annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Doha as India’s Governor on the bank’s board. India is the bank’s second largest shareholder — which is the fact that makes the trip worth reporting, because a second shareholder’s vote is not a guest’s opinion. Bilateral meetings are listed with the AIIB President and with counterparts from Jordan, Switzerland, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Nepal, along with meetings with the Qatari leadership and Qatari business leaders and investors.
Six more medals add spark to India’s Asian Games
New Delhi, 30 September: Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated six Indian athletes on Asian Games 2026 medals in messages issued on 27 September 2026, each carried as a separate release by the Press Information Bureau.
Tejaswin Shankar took bronze in the men’s decathlon. Parul Chaudhary took bronze in the women’s 3000 metres steeplechase and Harita Bhadra bronze in the women’s 200 metres. Ancy Sojan won silver in the women’s long jump. In squash, Anahat Singh won silver in the women’s singles and Abhay Singh silver in the men’s singles.
Two of the six came from squash singles, a discipline in which India has been building quietly for a decade. Doordarshan News reported on 28 September 2026 that men’s cricket, javelin and the steeplechase headline India’s day nine schedule.
Nanomedicine takes centre stage in Delhi Congress
New Delhi, 30 September: The World Congress on Nanomedicine 2026 opened at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, hosted by the Institute of Nano Medical Sciences of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi, with more than 2,000 participants.
Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh told the session that the Department of Biotechnology is supporting 210 research and development projects in nanomedicine with ₹174 crore of assistance. That averages ₹82.86 lakh a project on our own division — small grants, spread wide, across targeted drug delivery, cancer and infectious-disease nanomedicine, nucleic-acid and vaccine delivery, nano-diagnostics and imaging, regenerative medicine, nanotoxicology and oral insulin nanoparticles.
Nobel laureate Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University chairs the congress and Nobel laureate T. M. S. Chang of McGill University is its honorary president. Where this reporting stops is worth saying plainly: the grant figures are as stated by the minister at the session, and the department’s own project-wise list was not available when this edition closed.
