Onion prices more than double, retail inflation hits 5.54pc
NEW DELHI, 13 October — An onion bought in September costs more than double what it did a year earlier. Onion prices were up 108.09% year on year, according to the Ministry of Statistics
Garlic was up 54.62%, ginger 62.85% and lemon 36.41%. Silver jewellery, at 87.80%, is the one non-food item in the top five. Against that, potato was 11.50% cheaper than a year ago, tomato 8.62% cheaper, and cars and jeeps 4.51% cheaper.
At a glance
Retail inflation, September 2026: 5.54% (August: 4.83%) — rural 6.08%, urban 4.88%
Food inflation, September 2026: 7.74% (August: 5.97%)
Onion: +108.09% · Silver jewellery: +87.80% · Ginger: +62.85% · Garlic: +54.62%
Potato: −11.50% · Tomato: −8.62% · Cars and jeeps: −4.51%
Housing, water, electricity and fuel: +2.74%
What India gains
A clear map of which prices are rising, item by item and State by State.
India, UK open joint Genomics centre in Delhi
NEW DELHI, 13 October — A genomics laboratory built with a British sequencing company opened in India on 12 October. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh and UK Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds jointly inaugurated the BRIC-CDFD–ONT India Genomics Centre of Excellence. This is a joint venture between the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council’s Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics and Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
What India gains
:
A British partner for its space start-ups and its private nuclear sector, and a sequencing centre at home under the India–UK Vision 2035.
Rajnath felicitates army medal winners at Asian Games
NEW DELHI, 13 October — Havildar Sawan Barwal ran the Asian Games marathon in 2 hours 11 minutes 37 seconds, a national record, and won silver. He was one of 92 athletes from the armed forces whom Defence Minister Rajnath Singh felicitated on 12 October for winning medals at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.
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What India gains
A sports system in which the armed forces’ training model is producing nearly one Indian Asian Games medal in three.
Navy commissions INS Mangrol
MUMBAI, 13 October — The Navy commissioned INS Mangrol, the third anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on 12 October. Those present included Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsyayan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, presiding.
The ship more than 80% indigenous content, three diesel engines driving waterjets for shallow coastal water, the Abhay hull-mounted sonar, lightweight torpedoes.
AMNS India to upgrade 9 it is under PM-SETU
NEW DELHI, 13 October — ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India will hold 51% of two companies set up to upgrade nine government industrial training institutes, These include five in Surat and four in Visakhapatnam, under the PM-SETU scheme. The Centre and the State concerned hold 24.5% each.
Hospitals instructed to display service rates in English, local language
NEW DELHI, 12 October — Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava has written to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories asking that clinical establishments display the rate of each service in a conspicuous place both in English and the local language. The requirement comes from the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, and its 2012 Central rules, where the Act applies..
Rs 86 crore boost for AI-driven drug discovery
BENGALURU, 13 October — Peptris Technologies, a Bengaluru drug-discovery company, will receive ₹86 crore from the Technology Development Board to take four drug candidates found by its artificial intelligence platform from laboratory proof to the threshold of clinical trials
The project, named VIGOR, costs ₹172 crore, so the Board carries exactly half, through optionally convertible debt under the Research, Development and Innovation Fund.
What India gains
A home-grown AI drug pipeline funded to the edge of the clinic, in diseases where patients have few options.
