On 22 October 2026, the Punjab government launched SANGAT Mental Health Clubs in 40 colleges across the state. The programme aims to support youth wellbeing, promote early intervention and prevent substance abuse among young people. It forms part of the state government’s “Yudh Nashean Virudh” (War Against Drugs) campaign and is led by the Department of Higher Education in partnership with the Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET) and Mpower.

Nitesh Kumar and Naveen Sivakumar won men’s singles gold medals in para-badminton at the Asian Para Games in Nagoya, Japan, on 23 October 2026. Kumar defeated Pramod Bhagat 21–18, 21–16 in the SL3 final, while Sivakumar beat Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21–9, 21–17 in the SL4 final.

Greece’s Parliament approved legislation on 23 October 2026 prohibiting children under 15 from using social media platforms. The ban is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2027. It covers platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, and applies to existing accounts as well as new users.

On 22 October 2026, the board of the UN’s Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) agreed to set aside 20 million for Nepal’s recovery from floods in August 2026. This is the fund’s first allocation since its establishment, making Nepal its first beneficiary. The approved total for Nepal is 21.6 million, including $1.6 million for oversight fees.

A Kochi-based architecture student won the 28th Charles Correa Gold Medal in Mumbai on October 22, 2026, for the undergraduate thesis project “Energy Commons: Reimagining energy infrastructure as a place for civic engagement.” The annual award recognises outstanding undergraduate architectural thesis projects that address challenges in the built environment. The 2026 edition centred on “Equitability through Design” and the question “Who are we designing for?”

Oil India Limited (OIL) announced a natural gas discovery on 23 October 2026 in the shallow offshore block KG-DSF/GSKW/2018 in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. The discovery was made in the previously unappraised Matsyapuri formation through the Godavari-1 well, an appraisal well in the block operated solely by OIL.

PHP2Shell is the name given to two critical vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, affecting PHP versions 5.4 through 8.5. Public disclosure took place on 20 October 2026. The flaws received a severity score of 9.2 out of 10 on the CVSS v4.0 scale and allow unauthenticated remote code execution on vulnerable servers.

Telangana will host Raksha Expo 2026 from December 7 to 9 at Bharat Future City, Hyderabad. It is described as India’s first defence and aerospace expo organised by a state government. The expo will bring together the aerospace, space, defence and internal security sectors, with exhibitions, technology demonstrations, drone shows and a planned air show on December 9.

Indian players Yashaswini Ghorpade and Harmeet Desai secured a mixed doubles medal at the 29th ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The medal was assured on 23 October 2026, the day the mixed doubles champions were scheduled to be crowned. The achievement is a historic milestone for Indian table tennis.

Microsoft researchers published a study of the Diagnostic Orchestrator (DxO), also called Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI-DxO), in Science on 22 October 2026. The system coordinates diagnostic steps for complex medical cases, including asking questions, ordering tests and revising possible diagnoses.

The Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA) had reached over 35 crore people across India by 22 October 2026. Its recorded outreach included more than 13.94 crore young people and 10.86 crore women, while over 32 lakh educational institutions had been engaged in activities to prevent substance abuse.

The National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC), the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) and Steel Authority of India Limited’s Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 22 October 2026. The agreement aims to expand livelihood and entrepreneurship opportunities for Scheduled Tribe (ST) youth through the Livelihood Business Incubation Centre at Rourkela, Odisha.