Daily Current Affairs — September 15, 2026

India and the MERCOSUR bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) signed the landmark First Additional Protocol to the India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in New Delhi, institutionalising the exchange of Electronic Certificates of Origin (e-CoO).

The Protocol accords full legal validity and equivalence to digitally signed electronic Certificates of Origin (e-CoO), moving bilateral customs documentation to an entirely paperless ecosystem. The India-MERCOSUR PTA, which originally entered into force in 2009, covers tariff concessions across diversified industrial and agro-commodities. By eliminating physical authentication barriers, transaction costs and container dwell times at major Latin American ports are significantly reduced.

This agreement bolsters India's trade diversification towards the Global South and Latin America under the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, while advancing bilateral efforts to expand the PTA from roughly 450 tariff lines to a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement covering over 3,000 products.

The Union Ministry of Finance and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) issued formal clarifications on the updated Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework.

The framework explicitly reiterates that all Person-to-Person (P2P) transfers remain 100% free with zero fees. For Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions, a nominal MDR of 0.4% is applicable solely on commercial merchant settlements exceeding ₹2,000, capped at a maximum ceiling of ₹300 per transaction for high-value purchases (₹75,000 and above). Critical citizen utility services—such as Indian Railways ticket bookings, fuel purchases, and government tax payments—are ring-fenced with a flat MDR capped at ₹5.

This calibrated framework sustains the financial viability of acquiring banks and payment aggregators without burdening small retail vendors (kirana stores) or consumers, ensuring sustainable infrastructure investment in India's digital public infrastructure (DPI).

Raksha Mantri unveiled the groundbreaking 'VIMARSH' Defence Software Sharing Framework along with nine Licensing Agreements for Transfer of Technology (LAToT) to 13 domestic manufacturing partners.

Under the VIMARSH initiative, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will share proprietary software source codes, algorithmic libraries, and mission-critical firmware with licensed Indian defence industries and deep-tech MSMEs. This ends the conventional 'black-box' supply model, allowing private defence manufacturers to independently modify, upgrade, and maintain tactical combat management suites, radar algorithms, and avionics software.

The move eliminates foreign vendor lock-ins, slashes software maintenance lifecycle costs, and accelerates the indigenisation of next-generation weapon systems under Aatmanirbhar Bharat in Defence.

The Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) celebrated the 25th anniversary of its reconstitution as an 'Institution of National Importance' under the landmark ICWA Act, 2001 at Sapru House, New Delhi.

Founded originally in 1943 by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru and Pandit Hriday Nath Kunzru, ICWA is India's oldest foreign policy think tank. By parliamentary enactment in 2001, it was declared an Institution of National Importance. The Vice-President of India serves as the ex-officio President of ICWA, while the Minister of External Affairs functions as its Vice-President. It famously hosted the historic Asian Relations Conference in March 1947 under Jawaharlal Nehru.

ICWA serves as the apex institutional bridge between academia, diplomatic practitioners, and strategic foreign policy formulation, steering Track 1.5 and Track 2 strategic dialogues globally.

The Central Sector flagship PM Vishwakarma Scheme achieved its national enrollment target of over 30 lakh verified traditional artisans and craftspersons, recording 100% target fulfillment across all 18 designated trade categories.

Launched on September 17, 2023 with an outlay of ₹13,000 crore for a period of five years (2023-24 to 2027-28), the scheme provides end-to-end support to traditional artisans (Vishwakarmas) working with their hands and tools. Key benefits include recognition through the PM Vishwakarma Certificate & ID Card, skill upgradation (Basic 5-7 days & Advanced 15 days training with ₹500/day stipend), toolkit incentive of ₹15,000, and collateral-free enterprise credit up to ₹3 lakh in two tranches (₹1 lakh and ₹2 lakh) at a concessional interest rate of 5%.

The scheme integrates marginalized traditional craftspeople into modern domestic and global value chains, formalizing indigenous artisanal economies across tier-2, tier-3, and rural India.

India commemorated the 58th National Engineers' Day on September 15, marking the 165th birth anniversary of the legendary civil engineer, visionary statesman, and Bharat Ratna awardee Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.

Born on September 15, 1861, in Muddenahalli (Karnataka), Sir M. Visvesvaraya patented the revolutionary automatic floodgates (sluice gates) installed at the Khadakwasla Reservoir (Pune) and the Tigra Dam (Gwalior). As Chief Engineer and later 19th Diwan of Mysore (1912-1918), he designed the iconic Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam across the Cauvery River, founded Mysore Iron and Steel Works (Bhadravati), the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, and authored pioneer developmental texts including 'Planned Economy for India' (1934).

Visvesvaraya's emphasis on industrialization (coining the famous adage 'Industrialize or Perish') laid the foundational paradigm for early Indian economic planning and infrastructure engineering.