Current Affairs One-liners — 09 March 2026

Mon, 09 Mar 2026

• Jwala, a Namibian cheetah, gave birth to five cubs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, taking India's cheetah population to 53 and Indian-born surviving cubs to 33, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav said on 9 March 2026.
• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on 9 March 2026 called for making India's intellectual property approval system one of the top five in the world for speed and transparency, at the National IP Awards and IP Conference in New Delhi.
• Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi reviewed preparations for the coming West Bengal Assembly elections in Kolkata on 9 March 2026.
• NHAI on 9 March 2026 released the first annual report on the National Highways Green Cover Index, prepared with ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre, covering about 30,000 km of highways in 24 states.
• The Rajasthan government on 9 March 2026 set up a six-member committee under Law Minister Jogaram Patel to draft a law protecting the Khejri, the state tree, within a month.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 March 2026 spoke by phone to RSP Chairman Rabi Lamichhane and senior leader Balendra Shah, congratulating them on the party's success in Nepal's general election.
• Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya met a New Zealand delegation led by Chris Bishop in New Delhi on 9 March 2026 to expand sports cooperation in the centenary year of ties dating to the 1926 Indian Army hockey tour.
• Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh released the Ministry of Defence's new Manual of Security Instructions 2026 at South Block, New Delhi, on 9 March 2026.
• India's women's hockey team drew 2–2 with Scotland in Hyderabad on 9 March 2026 and stayed top of Pool B of the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 Qualifiers on goal difference.
• The International Malaria Conference 2026, organised by ICMR's National Institute of Malaria Research, concluded in New Delhi on 9 March 2026 after three days of deliberations on malaria elimination.
• NITI Aayog held the Regional Best Practices Seminar (South) under the Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks Programmes in Visakhapatnam on 9 March 2026 and released a Best Practices Compendium.
• The Technology Development Board under DST announced on 9 March 2026 financial support to BabyCue Pvt Ltd, Cuttack (Odisha), to commercialise DiaCue, a paper-based kit that tells bacterial from non-bacterial diarrhoea in children.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the post-Budget webinar on health under the theme 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas – Fulfilling Aspirations of People' on 9 March 2026, where Health Minister J.P. Nadda set a target of one lakh skilled allied healthcare professionals.