Banking and Finance News

16th Finance Commission Maintains 41% Tax Devolution to States While Overhauling Distribution Framework

• The 16th Finance Commission has retained the vertical devolution of tax revenues to states at 41% for the 2026–31 period, maintaining the same share established by previous commissions, though the horizontal distribution formula has undergone significant transformation to reflect contemporary economic realities and fiscal priorities.
• A landmark shift in fiscal federalism has been introduced through the inclusion of state GDP contribution as a new criterion in the distribution formula, marking a departure from traditional metrics and designed to reward states demonstrating economic efficiency, growth momentum, and contribution to national wealth creation.
• The Commission has completely eliminated Revenue Deficit Grants, a move aimed at compelling states to pursue greater fiscal discipline and self-reliance rather than depending on central transfers to cover their revenue shortfalls, thereby encouraging better financial management and resource optimization at the state level.
• The revised horizontal distribution formula favours faster-growing and economically efficient states, while simultaneously strengthening purpose-based conditional grants specifically earmarked for local body development and disaster management infrastructure, reflecting a more performance-oriented approach to federal fiscal transfers.

State News

Gujarat Emerges as India’s Renewable Energy Leader With Over 42.58 GW Installed Capacity

• Gujarat has established itself as India’s renewable energy powerhouse, commanding a 16.5% share of the nation’s total renewable energy capacity as of 31 December 2025, with over 42.58 gigawatts of installed clean energy infrastructure across solar and wind technologies.
• The state leads the country in wind power generation capacity while securing the second position in solar energy installations, driven by progressive state policies, streamlined regulatory frameworks, and the development of mega renewable energy projects that have attracted substantial domestic and international investment.
• Landmark solar infrastructure projects including the Dholera Solar Park and the massive Khavda Renewable Energy Park have been instrumental in powering Gujarat’s rapid capacity expansion, creating thousands of jobs and positioning the state as a model for large-scale renewable energy deployment in India.
• Gujarat has achieved national leadership in rooftop solar adoption across residential, commercial, and industrial segments, contributing significantly to India’s distributed generation goals, supporting the nation’s commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, and demonstrating how state-level initiatives can accelerate the country’s clean energy transition.

Rank and Reports News

India Becomes Major Driver of Global Urbanization According to 2025 United Nations Report

• India has emerged as one of the world’s leading engines of urban population growth in 2025, according to a comprehensive United Nations report that identifies the country as a central player in global urbanization trends, with nearly 45% of the world’s population now residing in urban areas.
• The country’s urban expansion is being driven by the rapid growth of megacities with populations exceeding ten million inhabitants, alongside the emergence of numerous fast-growing smaller and medium-sized urban centres across states, creating a complex multi-tier urban hierarchy that is reshaping India’s demographic and economic landscape.
• New United Nations methodologies that count urban populations based on population density thresholds and built-up area contiguity rather than administrative boundaries have substantially raised urban population estimates, particularly affecting calculations for India and other Asian countries where peri-urban development is extensive.
• While accelerated urbanization presents significant economic opportunities through agglomeration effects, industrial development, and service sector growth, it simultaneously poses formidable challenges related to affordable housing provision, infrastructure development, environmental sustainability, and effective urban governance systems capable of managing rapidly expanding cities.

State News

Punjab Renames Adampur Airport After Guru Ravidas and Inaugurates Halwara Civil Terminal

• Punjab achieved a significant aviation and cultural milestone on 2 February 2026 with the formal renaming of Jalandhar’s Adampur Airport after Guru Ravidas, the revered 15th-16th century Bhakti movement saint, alongside the inauguration of a new civil aviation terminal at Halwara, marking a dual advancement in regional air connectivity and cultural recognition.
• The renaming of Adampur Airport fulfils a long-standing demand from public groups, political parties, and social organizations seeking to honour Guru Ravidas’s legacy of social equality and spiritual teachings, which continue to resonate with millions of followers across Punjab and other Indian states.
• Adampur Airport has undergone comprehensive upgrades under the central government’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) regional connectivity scheme, which aims to make air travel affordable and accessible to tier-2 and tier-3 cities, though the airport continues to face operational challenges related to flight frequency and route optimization.
• The simultaneous inauguration of the new civil terminal at Halwara Airport represents Punjab’s strategy to develop multiple aviation nodes across the state, blending cultural recognition with infrastructure modernization to boost the region’s air transport network and facilitate economic development through improved connectivity.

Science and Technology News

Scientists Discover New Orchid Species in Kanthalloor Highlands of Kerala’s Western Ghats

• Botanical researchers have identified a previously unknown orchid species in the high-altitude region of Kanthalloor in Kerala’s Idukki district, near the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats mountain range, adding to the documented biodiversity of one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity.
• The Kanthalloor region, characterized by its unique microclimate, elevation-dependent temperature variations, and fragmented forest patches, supports highly specialized and rare plant communities despite significant anthropogenic pressures from agriculture and settlement, demonstrating nature’s resilience in human-influenced landscapes.
• Orchids serve as critical bio-indicators of ecosystem health due to their sensitivity to environmental changes, specialized pollination mechanisms, and specific habitat requirements, making this discovery significant for understanding the delicate ecological balance and conservation status of Kanthalloor’s remaining natural habitats.
• This finding reinforces the Western Ghats’ global ecological significance as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and biodiversity hotspot, while contributing valuable knowledge about genetic diversity, plant evolution, and adaptive mechanisms that could inform conservation strategies and climate change resilience research across India’s fragile mountain ecosystems.

Appointments and Resignations News

Union Bank of India Elevates Sarvesh Ranjan to Chief General Manager Position

• Union Bank of India announced the promotion of Shri Sarvesh Ranjan to the position of Chief General Manager effective 1 February 2026, following the superannuation retirement of Shri Bhaskara Rao Kare, ensuring leadership continuity in critical operational domains of the public sector bank.
• Ranjan previously served as General Manager with oversight responsibility for strategically important functions including Central Reconciliation operations, Transaction Monitoring systems, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance frameworks, all of which have become increasingly critical in the era of digital banking and regulatory scrutiny.
• With nearly three decades of comprehensive banking experience spanning multiple operational, risk management, and compliance domains, Ranjan brings substantial institutional knowledge and expertise to his elevated role, having navigated various regulatory and technological transitions during his career.
• The leadership transition reflects Union Bank of India’s organizational emphasis on promoting internal talent, maintaining operational stability during leadership changes, and demonstrating confidence in Ranjan’s proven track record and strategic capabilities to contribute to the bank’s growth objectives and regulatory compliance requirements.

Banking and Finance News

India’s GST Collections Exceed ₹1.93 Lakh Crore in January 2026, Reflecting Economic Resilience

• India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections demonstrated robust momentum at the beginning of 2026, with gross revenues surpassing ₹1.93 lakh crore in January, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 6.2% and indicating sustained economic activity despite global headwinds and domestic challenges.
• Net GST receipts, calculated after processing refund claims from exporters and other eligible entities, registered stronger growth of 7.6% to reach ₹1.71 lakh crore, reflecting not only steady consumption patterns but also improved tax compliance mechanisms and more efficient refund processing systems.
• The composition of GST growth reveals that domestic transaction-related collections grew moderately by 4.8%, while import-related GST collections surged significantly by 10.1%, suggesting strong external trade activity and contributing disproportionately to overall revenue expansion during the month.
• Despite the implementation of GST rate reductions on several consumer items aimed at providing relief to households, the lower volume of refunds and enhanced compliance through technology-driven monitoring systems boosted net revenue collections, signaling a resilient tax base, stable consumption trends, and the maturing of India’s indirect tax architecture.

Banking and Finance News

UPI Transactions Reach All-Time High of 21.7 Billion in January 2026

• India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem achieved an unprecedented milestone in January 2026, processing over 21.7 billion transactions valued at ₹28.33 lakh crore, cementing UPI’s position as the dominant digital payment infrastructure and the preferred transaction mode across urban and increasingly rural segments of the Indian economy.
• The monthly performance represents a substantial 21% month-on-month increase in transaction value, demonstrating not just volumetric growth but also higher-value transactions being conducted through the platform, reflecting deepening trust and expanding use cases beyond small-value peer-to-peer transfers to include bill payments, investments, and larger merchant transactions.
• Daily transaction volumes averaged approximately 700 million throughout January, highlighting the extraordinary speed, scale, and reliability of India’s digital payment infrastructure, which has been built through collaborative efforts between the National Payments Corporation of India, banks, fintech companies, and regulatory authorities.
• Multiple factors are driving this exponential growth trajectory, including accelerated smartphone penetration across income segments, aggressive merchant adoption campaigns, the zero-transaction-cost model that eliminates barriers to usage, and sustained government-backed digital literacy initiatives that have democratized access to formal financial services and reduced traditional cash dependency.

Banking and Finance News

Government Announces Record ₹17.2 Lakh Crore Gross Borrowing Plan for FY27

• The Union Government has unveiled a record gross borrowing program of ₹17.2 lakh crore for the fiscal year 2027, representing the highest ever annual borrowing target in India’s history, while simultaneously maintaining a fiscal deficit target of 4.3% of GDP as part of its medium-term fiscal consolidation roadmap.
• Net market borrowings specifically from dated government securities are projected at ₹11.7 lakh crore, with the remaining funding requirements to be met through small savings schemes such as Public Provident Fund and National Savings Certificates, as well as other non-market sources including external borrowings and dedicated financing mechanisms.
• The substantial borrowing program signals the government’s continued commitment to fiscal consolidation, albeit at a slower pace than previously anticipated, while attempting to balance the competing priorities of supporting economic growth through public capital expenditure and maintaining macroeconomic stability through deficit control.
• However, the unprecedented size of the borrowing plan has generated significant concerns among economists, market participants, and rating agencies regarding long-term debt sustainability, potential upward pressure on interest rates across the economy, crowding out of private sector credit, and implications for India’s sovereign credit rating and overall macroeconomic stability.

Banking and Finance News

Bond Markets Face Stress as ₹17.2 Lakh Crore Government Borrowing Triggers Yield Surge

• Despite Budget FY27 projecting a facade of fiscal prudence with a 4.3% deficit target, India’s bond markets are experiencing significant stress due to the government’s planned ₹17.2 lakh crore market borrowing program, which represents a substantial increase in the supply of government securities that must be absorbed by domestic and international investors.
• The sharp increase in the supply of government securities has pushed bond yields higher across maturity segments, raising concerns about the market’s capacity to absorb such large volumes of debt without demanding significantly higher risk premiums, which could destabilize the interest rate environment and affect monetary policy transmission.
• India’s public debt burden remains elevated following pandemic-era fiscal expansion, with combined central and state government borrowings having nearly doubled since 2019, creating a challenging baseline from which further debt accumulation must be managed while maintaining investor confidence and macroeconomic stability.
• Market nervousness reflects widespread fears that higher government borrowing costs could cascade across the entire economy, raising lending rates for businesses and households, slowing credit growth, and potentially necessitating Reserve Bank of India intervention through bond purchase programs or other liquidity management measures to stabilize markets.

Awards and Recognitions News

Dalai Lama Wins First Grammy Award at Age 90 for Meditation Album

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama created Grammy Awards history at the 68th annual ceremony held in Los Angeles by winning his first Grammy at the age of 90, becoming one of the oldest recipients of the prestigious music industry honor and bringing global attention to the intersection of spirituality and contemporary media.
• The Tibetan spiritual leader received the award in the Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording category for his spoken-word album titled “Meditations,” which was selected by Grammy voters from among numerous competing entries in this specialized category that recognizes excellence in non-musical recorded content.
• The award-winning album represents an innovative fusion of the Dalai Lama’s philosophical teachings on compassion, mindfulness, and inner peace with traditional Hindustani classical music compositions, creating a unique audio experience that bridges ancient spiritual wisdom with popular contemporary culture and making profound concepts accessible to mainstream audiences.
• In his characteristically humble response to the honor, the Dalai Lama described the Grammy recognition not as a personal achievement but rather as acknowledgment of humanity’s shared responsibility for cultivating compassion, understanding, and peace, redirecting attention from individual accolades to the universal messages contained within the recording.

Awards and Recognitions News

68th Grammy Awards 2026 Celebrates Musical Diversity Across Global Genres

• The 68th Grammy Awards ceremony held in 2026 showcased the breadth and diversity of contemporary musical excellence across numerous genres, successfully blending recognition for established global superstars with acknowledgment of rising new talent, reflecting both artistic continuity and the constant evolution of popular music.
• Established artists including Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, and Kendrick Lamar shared the spotlight with breakout performers across various categories, demonstrating the Grammy voting body’s attention to both commercial dominance and artistic discovery, while recognizing achievements that span mainstream appeal and critical acclaim.
• The winners list highlighted remarkable diversity spanning pop, rap, country, dance music, and numerous other genres, showcasing technological innovation in music production, evolving lyrical themes addressing contemporary social issues, and artistic experimentation that pushes creative boundaries while maintaining commercial success.
• Overall, the ceremony reinforced the Grammy Awards’ continuing role as a cultural barometer and mirror of evolving global music trends, commercial patterns, and cultural impact, while the diverse winner profile demonstrated how the recording industry increasingly values multiple forms of artistic expression rather than privileging a single dominant genre or style.

Defence News

Air Marshal Inderpal Singh Walia Assumes Command of Eastern Air Command

• Air Marshal Inderpal Singh Walia formally assumed charge as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian Air Force’s Eastern Air Command on 1 February 2026, taking operational responsibility for air defence and offensive capabilities across India’s strategically sensitive eastern regions including borders with China, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
• A highly experienced fighter pilot commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 1988, Air Marshal Walia brings over 35 years of distinguished service to this critical appointment, having accumulated more than 3,200 hours of accident-free flying experience across multiple aircraft types, demonstrating exceptional operational proficiency and safety consciousness.
• Throughout his career, Air Marshal Walia has commanded key operational flying units, led the prestigious Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) which formulates air combat doctrines, and held senior appointments in training establishments and air defence coordination roles, providing him with comprehensive experience across operational, doctrinal, and strategic domains.
• His appointment comes at a particularly critical juncture for India’s eastern security architecture, given ongoing border tensions, the need to modernize aging aircraft fleets, infrastructure development in forward areas, and the requirement to maintain high operational readiness levels to safeguard India’s eastern airspace against potential contingencies.

Defence News

Indian Army and ITBP Conduct Joint Exercise Agni Pariksha in Arunachal Pradesh

• Exercise Agni Pariksha represents a significant joint training initiative between the Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) conducted in the challenging terrain of Arunachal Pradesh, designed to enhance combat coordination, operational interoperability, and battlefield effectiveness between these two critical security forces responsible for defending India’s sensitive northeastern borders.
• The exercise focused extensively on live artillery firing drills and practical battlefield scenarios, with a particular emphasis on allowing non-artillery personnel from infantry and border guarding units to gain hands-on understanding of firepower integration, targeting procedures, communication protocols, and combined arms coordination essential for modern warfare.
• Participation included operational units from the Indian Army’s Spear Corps, which is responsible for the eastern Arunachal sector facing China, multiple artillery regiments equipped with various gun systems, and ITBP formations that maintain permanent presence along the Line of Actual Control in high-altitude border areas.
• The exercise highlights India’s strategic push toward jointness and seamless inter-service and inter-force coordination in sensitive border and high-altitude regions, recognizing that future conflicts will require integrated responses rather than service-specific operations, and that border guarding forces must be capable of transitioning to combat roles with support from artillery and other specialized units.

Defence News

India Launches Third Edition of Tri-Services Future Warfare Course

• India has initiated the third edition of the comprehensive Future Warfare Course on 2 February 2026, representing a strategic effort to prepare the country’s military leadership for emerging forms of conflict that transcend traditional battlefield paradigms and require integrated responses across domains, technologies, and organizational structures.
• Held at the prestigious Manekshaw Centre for integrated training and professional military education, the tri-services program brings together carefully selected mid-career and senior officers from the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, along with defence scientists, industry experts, and strategic analysts to foster cross-functional understanding and collaborative thinking.
• The curriculum focuses on critical future warfare trends including cyber warfare capabilities and vulnerabilities, space-based military systems, artificial intelligence applications in command and decision-making, evolving geopolitical alignments, hybrid warfare techniques, autonomous weapons systems, and supply-chain vulnerabilities that could affect military logistics during sustained conflicts.
• The course aims to build an integrated, adaptive, and future-ready Armed Forces through joint conceptual thinking, cross-service knowledge sharing, and structured engagement with defence industry partners, recognizing that India’s security challenges increasingly require responses that cannot be effectively delivered through service-specific approaches but demand genuine integration across organizational boundaries.

Important Days News

World Wetlands Day 2026 Emphasizes Traditional Knowledge for Conservation

• World Wetlands Day 2026 is observed globally on 2 February with special focus on the critical role of traditional and indigenous knowledge systems in wetland conservation, as designated by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which recognizes that community wisdom accumulated over generations offers invaluable insights that complement scientific approaches to ecosystem management.
• The theme adopted by the Ramsar Convention Secretariat highlights how community-based traditional ecological knowledge, when combined with contemporary scientific methodologies, is particularly crucial as wetlands worldwide continue to disappear at alarming rates due to climate change impacts, urban expansion, agricultural conversion, and industrial development pressures.
• Wetlands perform vital ecological and economic functions including supporting exceptional biodiversity with numerous endemic species, ensuring water security through groundwater recharge and flow regulation, providing natural flood control and storm surge protection, supporting fisheries and livelihoods for millions of people, yet these ecosystems are frequently overlooked or undervalued in development planning and policy frameworks.
• The observance urges policymakers, planners, and conservation practitioners to systematically incorporate community-led conservation approaches, traditional water management practices, and indigenous ecological knowledge into wetland protection strategies, recognizing that sustainable management requires respecting both scientific evidence and generations of accumulated local understanding about ecosystem functioning and seasonal patterns.

Important Days News

Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Day 2026 Highlights Disease Severity and Need for Early Treatment

• Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Day 2026 is observed globally on 2 February to educate the public that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a serious autoimmune disease with systemic implications, not merely joint pain or a normal consequence of aging, requiring medical intervention and long-term disease management rather than symptomatic relief alone.
• The observance emphasizes the critical importance of early diagnosis through appropriate clinical examination and laboratory testing, timely initiation of disease-modifying treatments that can prevent joint destruction, and comprehensive emotional and psychological support systems to improve quality of life for patients managing this chronic condition.
• Rheumatoid arthritis causes chronic systemic inflammation that primarily targets joint linings but can affect multiple organ systems including the cardiovascular system, lungs, eyes, and skin, potentially leading to heart disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and other serious complications that extend well beyond joint symptoms and require multidisciplinary medical management.
• The awareness day promotes increased public and medical community understanding of RA symptoms and progression patterns, encourages investment in research for better treatments and potential cures, fosters empathy for patients dealing with invisible chronic illness, and advocates for timely access to rheumatology care and newer biologic medications that have transformed long-term health outcomes for many patients.