10 October 2026 

Awards and Honours 

• Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist: The End of Everything (M. John Harrison), The Disappearers (Marlon James), Black Bag (Luke Kennard), May We Feed the King (Rebecca Perry), The Things We Never Say (Elizabeth Strout) and John of John (Douglas Stuart). 

• Israel’s Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism: Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar to receive the award from President Isaac Herzog for resisting a cockpit attack aboard a flydubai flight and ensuring passenger safety. 

Appointments and Persons in News 

• First IUSF President: Professor Achyuta Samanta, founder of KIIT and KISS, elected first President of the Indian UniSport Federation at its inaugural Annual General Meeting in New Delhi. 

• Deputy Election Commissioner: Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of 2010-batch Indian Administrative Service officer Prakash Rajpurohit. 

• External Affairs Minister’s Africa Tour: Dr. S. Jaishankar completed a five-day visit to Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia from 6–10 October 2026 to strengthen trade, defence and development partnerships. 

Government Schemes, Policies and Welfare Initiatives 

• DDU-GKY 2.0: Ministry of Rural Development commenced skill-training preparedness for 34,920 rural youth across 14 States and Union Territories under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya–Grameen Kaushalya Yojana 2.0. 

• DRISHTI Project: Central Government approved the ₹65-crore project under PM-UDAY for geographic information system-based property verification and ownership rights for residents of Delhi’s unauthorised colonies. 

• PMCSPY: Welfare infrastructure projects under Pradhan Mantri Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana are being implemented for tea-garden workers across plantation districts. 

Sports and Games 

• Asian Para Games 2026 Flag Bearers: Pramod Bhagat (para-badminton) and Bhavina Patel (para-table tennis) named Indian contingent flag bearers at the opening ceremony in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. 

• Formula One Singapore Grand Prix 2026: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won at Marina Bay Street Circuit on his 250th Formula One start. 

• Kisan Cricket League: Prasar Bharati and In-Dot Sports launched the league in New Delhi, using artificial intelligence-enabled screening to discover rural cricketing and singing talent. 

Science, Space and Technology 

• Multilingual DST and MoS&T Portals: Dr. Jitendra Singh launched redeveloped websites offering single-window access in 22 regional languages through BHASHINI artificial intelligence. 

• Unified Agentic AI Platform: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology awarded CoRover.ai, developers of BharatGPT, a contract to build a government-services AI assistant, starting with DigiLocker. 

• India’s Space Economy: Official reports valued India’s space economy at USD 9 billion, supported by 440 registered space startups and expanding private satellite operations. 

 Summits, Bills and International Affairs 

• Dr. Jaishankar’s Ethiopia Visit: On concluding his five-day Africa tour on 10 October, Dr. S. Jaishankar visited Ethiopia’s Science Museum and announced an Indian Jaipur Artificial Limb Fitment Camp in Ethiopia. 

• India–EFTA TEPA: On the agreement’s first anniversary, EFTA members reaffirmed tariff coverage on 92.2% of tariff lines, accounting for 99.6% of Indian exports. 

Books, Authors and Important Days

• World Mental Health Day: 10 October; raises awareness about mental health, well-being and global suicide prevention. 

• National Post Day: 10 October; celebrated in India to recognise the 150-plus-year legacy and contributions of the Indian Postal Department under the Ministry of Communications. 

• World Day Against the Death Penalty: 10 October; marked its 24th annual observance under “Stories for Life.” 

• World Migratory Bird Day 2026: 10 October; observed on the second Saturday of October, featuring a global poster by Brazilian artist Luisa Lacerda depicting migratory bird species. 

• Book Release: Sanjay Jagdale: Rag-Rag Mein Cricket, authored by Kiran Waikar and Sunil Dudhale, released by Sunil Gavaskar in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. 

Miscellaneous 

• Special Forex Facility for Oil Marketing Companies: Reserve Bank of India operationalised a dedicated foreign-exchange facility for public-sector oil refiners Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited to meet daily dollar requirements. 

• Guruvayur Dorai: Carnatic mridangam maestro and Padma Shri awardee passed away in Chennai at age 91. 

• National Postal Week 2026: Department of Posts/Maharashtra Circle celebrated the week with daily themes covering philately, financial inclusion and technology. 

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