Daily Current Affairs · Last published 12 September 2026
UPSC Prelims Current Affairs: 12 September 2026
The 18th BRICS Summit opens in New Delhi, Modi holds sidelines talks with Putin and Xi Jinping, and the US finalises steep duties on Indian solar imports.
18th BRICS Summit opens in New Delhi under India's fourth chairship
The 18th BRICS Summit opened at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on 12 September 2026, a two day meeting running to 13 September under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. This is India's fourth time chairing BRICS and follows a year long chairship spanning more than 350 meetings across 25 cities. Leaders attending include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, with discussions covering economic growth, trade, finance, technology and sustainable development alongside geopolitical issues such as West Asia and Ukraine. At the BRICS Business Forum ahead of the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was building economic bridges at a time when trade barriers were rising worldwide, noting India has signed free trade agreements with nearly 40 countries since 2014.
India's year long BRICS chairship delivers 20 sectoral outcomes ahead of the summit
As the summit opened, India's year long 2026 BRICS chairship was reported to have produced 20 sectoral outcomes across trade, agriculture, energy and urban development, delivered through more than 350 ministerial and working group meetings held in 25 cities. Agriculture ministers agreed to set up BRICS Centres of Excellence on Agro Ecology for joint research on climate resilient farming, alongside a BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture to scale artificial intelligence based decision support and geospatial monitoring tools. On energy, members adopted guiding principles on energy storage and smart grids and launched a Digital Centre of Excellence for regulatory exchange, while on trade the chairship delivered an MSME cooperation portal, a startup and incubator network, a proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund and a 2026 to 2030 action plan on global value chains, alongside a BRICS Urban Mobility Hub and voluntary principles for climate resilient urban infrastructure.
Modi and Putin hold BRICS sidelines talks on 100 billion dollar trade target and defence ties
Russian President Vladimir Putin held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, his first in person participation at a BRICS summit outside Russia since the war in Ukraine began in 2022. The two leaders discussed raising bilateral trade to 100 billion US dollars by 2030 from about 65 billion US dollars currently, including through the Programme for Economic Cooperation 2030 covering infrastructure, energy and technology. On defence, the sides discussed possible BrahMos missile upgrades, remaining deliveries under the S-400 air defence contract, and talks on the proposed supply of Su-57 fighter jets, along with cooperation on critical minerals and civil nuclear energy. Modi also raised the safety of Indian seafarers in the Black Sea, and Putin invited him to Russia for the 24th India Russia Annual Summit, an invitation Modi accepted.
Xi Jinping arrives in Delhi for BRICS Summit, bilateral talks with Modi due on the sidelines
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi on the morning of 12 September 2026 to attend the 18th BRICS Summit, his first visit to India in nearly seven years. A bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled on the sidelines of the summit, which would be the third consecutive year the two leaders have met, following their meetings in Kazan in 2024 and Tianjin in 2025. The visit builds on steps taken since 2024 to normalise relations after the 2020 Eastern Ladakh military standoff, including resumed direct flights, an updated visa regime, the restarted Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, and the reopening of three designated border trading points.
US finalises steep anti dumping and anti subsidy duties on solar imports from India
The United States Commerce Department finalised steep anti dumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos, after finding producers in these countries had dumped goods below fair value and benefited from unfair government subsidies. Indian producers face an anti dumping duty of 123.04 per cent and a countervailing duty of 126.09 per cent, with Indonesian and Lao producers facing comparable combined rates. The case was brought by the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, whose members include domestic manufacturers First Solar, Hanwha Qcells and Mission Solar Energy, and follows a pattern seen since the United States first imposed similar duties on Chinese solar products in 2012, which pushed manufacturing to other Asian countries now facing the same scrutiny.
Odisha's three day UAE investment roadshow draws Rs 2.43 lakh crore in proposals
Odisha concluded a three day investment outreach in the United Arab Emirates on 11 September 2026, drawing proposals worth about Rs 2.43 lakh crore with the potential to create over 618,000 jobs, led by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. The roadshow generated 24 proposals, including 8 memorandums of understanding and 16 investment intents, after more than 50 business meetings with over 400 UAE based investors, sovereign funds and members of the Odia diaspora. The largest single commitment came from the Adani Group and Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company, which agreed to explore 14 projects worth about Rs 2.1 lakh crore, including a proposed Rs 50,000 crore hyperscale artificial intelligence data centre hub at Naraj and a Rs 40,000 crore coal to chemicals complex at Bedabahal.