New Delhi is the venue for the 7th Agrivoltaics World Conference 2026, hosted by India and the first edition of the event to be held in the Global South. Agrivoltaics (AgriPV) means using the same land for both crop cultivation and solar photovoltaic power generation.
The Tuticorin International Container Terminal (TICT) at VOC Chidambaranar Port in Tamil Nadu earned green terminal status on 22 October 2026, after all of its operational equipment was converted to electric power. Earlier, on 10 August 2026, VOC Port became the first major port in India to be free of Scope 2 emissions.
Tamil Nadu will invest ₹180 crore from 2026–27 to 2030–31 to reduce human-wildlife conflict in vulnerable areas. The scheme covers 100 conflict-prone villages in 11 Western Ghats districts such as Coimbatore, Erode, Nilgiris, Salem, Theni, Tirunelveli and Tiruppur. A sum of ₹20 crore is earmarked for 2026–27 and ₹40 crore a year for the next four years.
Tamil Nadu has prolonged the tenure of special officers running rural local bodies in 28 districts and named special officers for 9 more districts, all until April 19, 2027. Elected members' terms ended on January 5, 2025 in the 28 districts and on October 19, 2026 in the other 9.
On 20 October 2026, three Indian sites were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List: Baratang's Karst-Mud-Volcano Complex, the Andaman Subduction Volcanoes and the Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape. The Baratang Complex in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands features limestone caves and active mud volcanoes, including the Jalki cave area.
Vummidi Ethiraj, one of the principal craftsmen who made the historic Sengol, died in Chennai aged 99. In 1947 he took part in crafting the gold-plated silver Sengol, which stood for the transfer of power from British rule to independent India. The Sengol was made by Vummidi Jewellers, a firm whose history spans more than 125 years.
Under the IndiaAI Mission, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released the World Bank Group's World Development Report (WDR) 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence. The report notes that ChatGPT drew half its traffic from middle-income countries within six months, showing AI is spreading quicker than electricity or the internet did.
Scientists at the Marine Biology Regional Centre of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Chennai, have identified two marine fish species new to science, a sandperch and an electric ray. The sandperch lives on the seabed over sand or rubble in shallow waters and eats crustaceans, polychaetes and young fish.
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