🔆 ONE-LINERS | 19-09-2026
🔆 POLITY & GOVERNANCE
📍 Passport Rules for Children Below 15 Years
🟢 Under the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2026, passports issued to children below 15 years will be valid for 5 years or until they turn 18, whichever is earlier.
🟢 Applies to ordinary passports with 36 pages.
🟢 Children below 15 must leave the “Validity Required” section blank.
🟢 Children below 8 years are eligible for a 10% discount on fresh passport application fees.
🟢 The rules also revise fees for fresh and reissued passports.
📍 Tulu: Karnataka’s Additional Administrative Language
🟢 Karnataka announced Tulu as the state’s second additional administrative language in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.
🟢 Language family: Dravidian; spoken mainly in coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod, Kerala. The region is known as Tulu Nadu.
🟢 Tulu has a history spanning over 2,000 years and is distinct from Kannada and Malayalam.
🟢 Script: Tulu had its own script, used in works from the 15th–18th centuries; contemporary literature is largely written in Kannada script.
🟢 Tulu is a non-scheduled language and is not included in the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule.
🔆 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
📍 Oman’s Sohar Port
🟢 SOHAR Port & Freezone is a major deep-sea port and industrial hub on Oman’s northern coast, outside the Strait of Hormuz, between Dubai and Muscat.
🟢 Operational since 2004, it covers 21 million sq. m and includes logistics, petrochemicals, metals and food clusters.
🟢 Its food cluster includes Oman’s first dedicated agricultural-products terminal.
🟢 A proposed green corridor with UAE’s Jebel Ali Port aims to facilitate faster customs clearance for Indian goods.
🟢 Other major Omani ports: Salalah and Duqm.
🟢 GCC members: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
📍 India–Japan: 75 Years of Diplomatic Relations
🟢 2027 marks 75 years of India–Japan diplomatic relations, established in 1952.
🟢 Designated as the “India–Japan Year of Shared Horizons.”
🟢 The week of 28 April 2027 will be observed as India–Japan Week.
🟢 Partnership milestones: Global Partnership (2000) → Strategic and Global Partnership (2006) → Special Strategic and Global Partnership (2014).
🟢 IMAGE-75: Manga, anime and gaming cooperation.
🟢 SPORT-75 & Cricket Kizuna-75: Sports exchanges and cricket coaching initiatives.
🟢 RASA-75: Arts, music and cultural exchanges.
🟢 Business Connect-75: Links Indian industrial clusters with Japanese banks and enterprises.
🟢 MIRAI-VIGYAN-75: Science, technology, academic and space cooperation, including the LUPEX lunar mission.
🟢 A Buddhist pilgrimage initiative will promote spiritual tourism between the two countries.
📍 US Major Drug Transit List — FY2027
🟢 The US identified 23 countries, including India, China and Pakistan, as major drug transit or illicit drug-producing countries.
🟢 Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma and Colombia were separately identified as having “failed demonstrably” to meet international counternarcotics obligations.
🟢 India, China and Pakistan were not placed in this category.
🟢 The US acknowledged India’s efforts against illicit opium cultivation and to strengthen supply-chain integrity.
🟢 China: Identified as a major producer of precursor chemicals used in illicit synthetic drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.
🟢 Pakistan: Identified as a major drug transit or illicit drug-producing country.
🔆 ENVIRONMENT
📍 First Soil Carbon Credit Payments to Farmers
🟢 Farmers in Punjab and Haryana received India’s first soil-carbon-credit payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
🟢 Linked to the Aadi farmer carbon programme, launched by Grow Indigo in 2019 with technical guidance from ICAR.
🟢 Covers over 2 million acres and 1 lakh farmers across 7 states.
🟢 More than 2,500 farmers received over ₹2.9 crore; individual payments ranged from ₹3,000 to ₹15,000.
🟢 1 carbon credit = 1 metric tonne of CO₂ equivalent removed or reduced.
🟢 Credits issued under Verra VM0042 methodology.
🟢 Practices include no-till farming, cover cropping, direct-seeded rice, crop-residue management and water conservation.
📍 Sal Trees & Sal Borer Outbreak
🟢 Permission was granted to cut over 1.56 lakh sal trees affected by sal borer in Madhya Pradesh.
🟢 Sal:Shorea robusta, also known as Sakhua or Saal; a major native tree of tropical moist and dry deciduous forests.
🟢 Sal borer:Hoplocerambyx spinicornis, a longhorn beetle whose larvae hollow out tree trunks.
🟢 Affected areas include Dindori and Anuppur (Amarkantak) districts.
🟢 An infestation is classified as an epidemic when affected trees exceed 1% of the total forest stand.
📍 World Bamboo Day 2026
🟢 Observed globally on 18 September to promote bamboo’s sustainable, economic and ecological value.
🟢 Theme: “Bamboo Beyond Borders.”
🟢 Promoted by the World Bamboo Organisation (WBO); formally declared at the 8th World Bamboo Congress in Bangkok in 2009.
🟢 Nagaland: Introduced “The Green Gold Barn,” blending traditional bamboo use with modern innovation.
🟢 Maharashtra: Bamboo Research and Training Centre, Chichpalli, hosted World Bamboo Week 2026 with competitions and technology showcases.
🔆 TECHNOLOGY
📍 ‘OneTag’ FASTag Portability
🟢 OneTag is a new NETC FASTag portability facility allowing users to change their issuer bank while retaining the same physical tag.
🟢 Developed jointly by IHMCL and NPCI.
🟢 Available through the Rajmarg Yatra app.
🟢 Works like mobile number portability: users retain the same FASTag ID and vehicle registration.
🟢 A fresh KYC is required when switching banks.
🟢 FASTag has over 98% penetration and around 13 crore users.
🔆 SPECIES
📍 Ariosoma cmfriense: New Conger Eel Species
🟢 A new conger eel species was described from the Arabian Sea, named after the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) on its 80th anniversary.
🟢 Found at around 300 m depth off Kollam, Kerala.
🟢 Identified using morphological characteristics and molecular evidence.
🟢 Distinguished from 12 recognised Ariosoma species reported from Indian and neighbouring waters.
🟢 Key features: 135 total vertebrae, 127–130 lateral-line pores, two supraorbital pores and a dorsal fin origin just ahead of the pectoral-fin base.
🟢 Also features a plain pectoral fin, a dark opercular patch and fine black speckling below the lateral line.
🔆 MISCELLANEOUS
📍 International Equal Pay Day 2026
🟢 Observed on 18 September, coordinated by the UN, ILO and UN Women.
🟢 Theme: “Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value — For Everyone, Everywhere.”
🟢 Focuses on eliminating gender-based wage discrimination and ensuring equal remuneration for work of equal value.
🟢 The principle is enshrined in ILO Equal Remuneration Convention No. 100.
🟢 According to figures cited by UN Women, women globally earn roughly 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
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