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The Spices Board India and the ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) held a national seminar in Kochi, Kerala, on 9 October 2026 to discuss the proposed Bharat Spice Map. The initiative combines geospatial technology, scientific research and market intelligence to map spice-growing regions, varieties and quality characteristics.

India formally identified 28 places and geographical features on the official Survey of India maps of Ladakh on 2 October 2026. The updated map was prepared in consultation with the Union Territory administration and was made available on the official Survey of India website.

The People’s Plan Campaign (PPC) 2026-27, with the theme “Sabki Yojana, Sabka Vikas”, will begin across India on October 2, 2026. The campaign will start the process for Gram Panchayats to prepare Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs) for the financial year 2027-28.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav launched the Guidelines for the implementation of the National Coastal Mission (NCM) 2.0 in New Delhi on 30 September 2026. NCM 2.0 is a Central Sector Scheme with an approved outlay of ₹767 crore and a scheduled implementation period up to 2030-31 across nine coastal states and four Union Territories.

Ahmedabad-based spacetech startup SatLeo Labs will launch its thermal-imaging satellite TAPAS-1 on 1 October 2026. The 3-kilogram payload will fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-18 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States, through Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 platform.

A Chinese team set a Guinness World Record on 29 August 2026 for the most autonomous underwater vehicles operating simultaneously. The record involved 116 autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, named TH-618s, which carried out autonomous underwater formation navigation without human intervention for 34 minutes over 500 metres.

The Indian Space Research Organisation and the European Space Agency have extended their Cooperative Agreement until 8 January 2032. The extension was formalised through an exchange of letters in Paris on 10 September 2026 during the International Space Summit.

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, will use ocean modelling, satellite remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to identify, monitor and forecast marine litter hotspots. The initiative is linked to the National Initiative for Remediation of Marine Litter, or NIRMaL Sāgar, and the pilot phase began in Visakhapatnam on 19 September 2026.

Google has launched India-first artificial intelligence models for agriculture through Google DeepMind’s AnthroKrishi team. The two models are Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) and Agricultural Monitoring and Event Detection (AMED), and they are designed to generate field-level agricultural intelligence.