13 April 2026

The country observed the 107th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13, 1919, when Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to open fire on a Baisakhi gathering, killing over 500 unarmed civilians. The Vice-President laid a wreath at the Martyrs' Well memorial. A new immersive AV gallery on the Hunter Committee and Dyer's trial by the House of Commons was inaugurated.

In an address from Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, the Prime Minister marked 327 years of the founding of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699. PM announced a Rs 600 crore heritage corridor connecting the Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib with the Virasat-e-Khalsa museum and five historical Gurudwaras across Punjab. Baisakhi also marks the solar new year across Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal.

The Consumer Price Index-based retail inflation eased to 3.8% year-on-year in March 2026 — a seven-month low — from 4.2% in February, with food inflation falling to 3.1% and fuel inflation at 2.4%. Core inflation (excluding food and fuel) held at 3.6%. The print stays well within the RBI's 4±2% tolerance band and supports case for further policy easing.

The Ministry of Agriculture launched the Crop Diversification Mission (CDM) with a Rs 12,500 crore outlay (2026-30) to shift paddy cultivation to maize, pulses, and oilseeds across 25 lakh hectares in Punjab and Haryana. Farmers shifting from paddy will receive Rs 17,500/hectare bonus under PM-AASHA and guaranteed MSP procurement for alternate crops via FCI.

The 10th India-Sri Lanka Annual Defence Dialogue in Colombo signed an MoU on Submarine Rescue Cooperation, under which the Indian Navy's Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) will be available to Sri Lanka under Mission Sagar IV. Both sides reviewed joint Exercise SLINEX 2026 held earlier and agreed on Colombo Security Conclave secretariat expansion.

The Indian Army began induction of the DRDO-developed Nag Mk-2 third-generation fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile, with the first battery of NAMICA carriers handed over at Ahmednagar. The missile has a 4-10 km range, top-attack profile, and imaging infrared seeker. An initial order of 300 missiles and 25 launchers has been placed with BDL Hyderabad.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted marketing authorisation to Bengaluru-based Immuneel Therapeutics for India's first indigenous CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anaemia, priced at Rs 35 lakh (vs USD 2.2 million for the US analogue). The therapy will be offered free at 17 centres under the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched Project Pangolin, India's first species-specific conservation programme for the Critically Endangered Indian Pangolin and Chinese Pangolin. The Rs 450 crore initiative covers habitat restoration across 14 states, eDNA-based monitoring, and K-9 squads at identified seizure hubs. Both species are listed in CITES Appendix I.

Air Vice-Marshal Kishore Singh took over as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Air Command at Shillong. An experienced Sukhoi-30 pilot with 4,800 flight hours, AVM Singh previously headed the Training Command and Air Force Station Tezpur. He will oversee air operations in India's north-eastern sector, including the Pangsau Pass airbase expansion.

The Wildlife Institute of India under Project Dolphin Phase II completed acoustic telemetry tagging of 300 Gangetic and Indus river dolphins across the Chambal, Yamuna, and Beas river systems. Tagged dolphins will be tracked for migration and habitat-use patterns. The Gangetic dolphin is India's National Aquatic Animal and Schedule I species under WPA 1972.