Daily Current Affairs - 12th September 2026

Millions of SSC, UPSC, and banking aspirants sit for exams within days of each other in September 2026. Daily current affairs for 12 September 2026 carry extra weight this week, because the BRICS Summit, new UPI features, and fresh state government schemes all land in the same news cycle. This roundup gives you the facts you need, in the order exam setters tend to pick them.

TL;DR: Key Facts From 12 September 2026

• The 18th BRICS Summit runs in New Delhi through September 13, with 11 full member countries and Indonesia as the newest member.
• NSG commandos launched Operation BRICS Kavach to protect visiting world leaders during the summit.
• NPCI launched UPI Tap and Pay and the My UPI Platform, both allowing payments up to ₹5,000 without a PIN.
• Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, and the central government each rolled out new skill or coaching schemes for exam aspirants and job seekers.
• Bihar floods have affected 46 lakh people and displaced 11 lakh people across 15 districts.
• A Bengaluru startup became the first Indian company to win a US patent for satellite imaging technology.

BRICS Summit 2026 Puts India’s Security Machinery to the Test

India hosts the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, from now through September 13, 2026. This is India’s fourth time hosting the summit. World leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, attend in person. Exam questions often test the host venue, since Bharat Mandapam also hosted the 2023 G20 Summit. A government safeguarding this many foreign leaders at once faces a real security challenge, and that challenge produced a new named operation.

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NSG Commandos Launch Operation BRICS Kavach

NSG commandos, also known as Black Cat Commandos, launched Operation BRICS Kavach to secure the summit. This marks a rare peacetime deployment on this scale for the force, whose most cited historical role was Operation Blue Star in 1984. The distinction between routine VIP security and a named, publicized operation signals how seriously the government treats a gathering of this size, and exam setters like naming that gap in a question.

BRICS 2026 Summit at a Glance

The chairmanship rotates on a fixed cycle, so this table alone answers three or four exam questions at once: who holds the chair now, who takes it next, and how many members currently sit at the table.

India’s UPI System Adds Two New Ways to Pay

NPCI, working with the RBI, launched UPI Tap and Pay and the My UPI Platform at the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra inaugurated the services. A user can now tap a phone on a payment terminal and complete a transaction without opening an app, entering a PIN, or having an active internet connection, as long as the amount stays under ₹5,000. This removes friction at the exact moment a payment usually fails: patchy signal at a checkout counter.

New UPI Features at a Glance

NPCI operates under the RBI and runs from a Mumbai headquarters. The organization first launched UPI and the BHIM app in 2016, so this counts as its latest step in a decade-long digital payments push. For an aspirant, the launch venue, the inaugurating official, and the payment cap are the three data points most likely to appear in a question.

States Compete to Cut Coaching Costs for Exam Aspirants

Coaching fees remain one of the biggest costs an exam aspirant faces, and four separate announcements this month target that exact problem. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami launched the Mukhyamantri Yuva Bhavishya Nirman Yojana on September 5, 2026, offering free online coaching for SSC, Railway, and UPSC exams to students at state universities and colleges. The first phase covers 11,000 students, who will be known as “CM Yuva.” A reduction in coaching fees changes who can afford to prepare for a government job in the first place.

A Wider Push Beyond Uttarakhand

The Chhattisgarh cabinet approved the Mukhyamantri Startup evam Nipun Mission, a ₹500 crore scheme spread across five years, aimed at building entrepreneurship centers in all 33 districts. The central government’s PM-SETU Yojana allocated ₹735.70 crore to build three new ITIs, located in Telangana, Rajasthan, and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, as part of a plan to open 200 ITIs and five national skill training institutes by 2030. Karnataka took a different route with its Grama Anubhava scheme, which sends students in classes 8 through 12 on a two-day village immersion tour, funded at ₹25,000 per student.

New State-Level Skill and Coaching Schemes

For a reader budgeting private coaching against a free state scheme, the comparison matters. A private SSC or banking coaching course commonly runs from a few thousand to over ₹20,000 for a full batch, so a free state-run alternative can remove that cost entirely for eligible students.

Defense Diplomacy Expands With Malaysia and Sri Lanka

India and Malaysia began the fourth edition of Exercise Samudra Lakshman on September 9, 2026, hosted in Malaysia. INS Mysore, a Project 15 Delhi-class destroyer built at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai, represents India at the naval exercise. Separately, India signed three defense agreements with Sri Lanka in September 2026, including an upgrade of L70 air defense guns. Two different partner countries, in the same week, both centered on hardware upgrades and joint drills, point to a broader pattern of India using defense cooperation to deepen regional ties.

Kargil’s First Woman Army Officer

Standzin Angmo became the first woman from Kargil to join the Indian Army as an officer. She trained in Chennai and has an NCC background. She is 24 years old. Kargil sits in Ladakh, alongside Leh, and this appointment lands in the same month that the government proposes new constitutional protections for the region.

Ladakh’s Push for a New Constitutional Article

The Union Home Ministry proposed adding Article 371K to the Constitution to give Ladakh special protections over its land, employment, culture, and natural resources. Ladakh became a Union Territory without a legislature on October 31, 2019, and residents have pushed for an elected governing body since. Parliament would need to pass a constitutional amendment under Article 368 before the provision takes effect. Articles 371A through 371J already grant similar protections to Nagaland, Assam, Sikkim, Mizoram, and other states, so 371K would extend a pattern that already exists, rather than create a new one.

Bihar Floods Displace Lakhs Across 15 Districts

Bihar is experiencing severe flooding, with 46 lakh people affected and 11 lakh people displaced from their homes across 15 districts. Heavy rainfall, combined with water flowing down from Nepal, has overwhelmed the Gandak, Kosi, and Punpun rivers. The Gandak River is also known as the Narayani River in Nepal, and both the Gandak and Kosi are tributaries of the Ganga. The NDRF and the state disaster response force are both active in the flood zones.

Innovation Watch: A Bengaluru Startup Wins a US Patent

Galaxy Eye, a Bengaluru-based space technology startup founded in 2021, became the first Indian startup to win a US patent for satellite imaging technology. The patent covers OptoSAR, a system that combines optical imaging with Synthetic Aperture Radar. Optical imaging alone fails at night or through cloud cover. Radar imaging works in both conditions but produces different detail. Combining the two into one system lets a satellite capture clear images of the earth at any time of day, in any weather, which matters for defense, agriculture, and disaster management. Galaxy Eye launched its first OptoSAR satellite mission, named Mission Drishti, in May 2026 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Belgium Builds the World’s First Artificial Energy Island

Belgium is building the world’s first artificial energy island, named Princess Elizabeth Island, in the North Sea about 45 kilometers from its coast. The island will act as a collection hub for electricity generated by offshore wind farms, then send that power to the Belgian mainland through underwater cables. The project is expected to finish by 2028. No country has built a dedicated offshore hub of this kind before, which is why exam questions frame it as a global first rather than a regional one.

Awards, Appointments, and a Salary Check

Justice Dipak Misra, a former Chief Justice of India, received the Kalinga Ratna Award 2026. Kishore Makwana, chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes under Article 338 of the Constitution, received the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Jan Seva Puraskar 2026. Justice Alpesh Yashwant Kogje took oath as the 30th Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, an appointment made under Article 217, which governs how the President appoints High Court judges. Every one of these appointments ties back to a specific constitutional article, which is the detail most likely to show up in a question.

How Much Do World Leaders Earn

A recent global pay comparison ranked national leaders by yearly salary. The comparison places Singapore at the top of the list.

The gap between the top-ranked salary and India’s figure is large, but Singapore’s compact city-state economy and its compensation structure for top officials differ sharply from India’s system, so the comparison works better as a trivia fact than as a policy argument.

Sports Roundup: New Records on Both Tracks

Nirbhay Chaudhary set a new national record in the men’s hammer throw, reaching 71.02 meters at the Indian Athletics Series final in New Delhi on September 10, 2026. His throw broke a 10-year-old record of 70.73 meters, set by Neeraj Kumar in Hyderabad in 2016. Tanya Chaudhary set the corresponding women’s record at 68.35 meters. Separately, spinner Sreecharani became the fastest Indian, across both the men’s and women’s game, to take 50 wickets in T20 cricket, reaching the mark in 29 matches during the Women’s Asia Cup 2026 in Dubai. She broke a record Kuldeep Yadav had set in 30 matches.

Common Questions on 12 September 2026 Current Affairs

Which edition of the BRICS Summit is India hosting in 2026? India is hosting the 18th edition, its fourth time as host overall.

What is the payment limit for UPI Tap and Pay without a PIN? A user can pay up to ₹5,000 without entering a PIN.

Which state launched the Mukhyamantri Yuva Bhavishya Nirman Yojana? Uttarakhand launched the scheme, covering 11,000 students in its first phase.

How many districts in Bihar are affected by the current floods? Floods have affected 15 districts, displacing 11 lakh people out of 46 lakh affected overall.

Who will chair BRICS after India in 2027? China takes over the BRICS chairmanship in 2027.

What This Means for Your Exam Preparation

Exam setters draw current affairs questions from events with a clear number, a clear name, and a clear “first” or “biggest” attached to them. This week supplies several: a first woman army officer from Kargil, a first artificial energy island, a first US patent for an Indian satellite startup, and a first-ever BRICS Sherpa. Build a short daily list of these superlatives rather than trying to memorize every detail of every story, and revisit that list the night before your exam.