The COP31 United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held in Antalya, Türkiye from 9 to 20 November 2026. Initially scheduled to be hosted by Australia, the hosting rights were subsequently transferred to Türkiye. It follows COP30, which took place in Belém, Brazil in November 2025 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Bay of Bengal Network of Ocean Researchers for Fisheries (BOBNOR) was jointly initiated by four regional countries: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Maldives at Kochi, Kerala. Coordinated by the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO), the network links oceanographic monitoring and climate data with sustainable fisheries management across the Bay of Bengal.

During the 11th General Meeting of MOWCAP in Jakarta, Indonesia, UNESCO inscribed three foundational Indian manuscripts onto the Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register: the birch-bark (Bhojpatra) manuscript of the Mahabharata (BORI, Pune), Kalhana’s 12th-century chronicle Rajatarangini (SPS Library, Srinagar), and Kautilya’s ancient palm-leaf manuscript of the Arthashastra (ORI, Mysuru).

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Augustine George Masih held that the National Book Trust (NBT) is an instrumentality of the ‘State’ under Article 12. The court observed that despite being registered as an autonomous society, NBT operates under pervasive administrative, functional, and financial control of the Central Government (Ministry of Education).

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the Adaptation Gap Report 2026. The report noted that developing countries will require roughly $305 billion per year by 2035 to manage accelerating climate impacts, whereas current international public adaptation finance flows stand at only $28–$31 billion annually.

The Government of Karnataka declared the Malabar Tree Toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus, locally called Malenadina Mara Gendikappe) as its official State Amphibian. Endemic to the wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, this arboreal amphibian serves as a bio-indicator for forest ecosystem health and moisture integrity.

Eminent cardiac surgeon and Narayana Health founder Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty was awarded the Knight of the National Order of Merit (Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite), France’s second-highest national honor. He was recognized for extending medical care and vaccination assistance to French citizens in India and strengthening bilateral healthcare cooperation.

World Freedom Day is commemorated annually on 9 November. Established in 2001, it marks the historic fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, which signaled the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the decline of authoritarian communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War.

Twenty-two-year-old Anuj Shrivatri from Madhya Pradesh became India’s 100th Chess Grandmaster after claiming victory at the 7th ASEAN+ Individual Open Chess Championship. India’s Grandmaster roster began with Viswanathan Anand in 1988, with V. S. Rathanvel recently preceding as the 99th GM.

CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) is a specialized jungle warfare and counter-insurgency commando wing established within the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2008. The unit is trained in guerrilla tactics to operate in dense forest regions affected by Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), such as the Bastar and Abujhmad tracts of Chhattisgarh.