Passenger fare hikes reduced railways' reliance on freight, lowering freight share and prompting calls to rationalise rates.
Passenger fare rationalisation on three occasions has reduced railways' dependence on freight, lowering freight's share of gross traffic receipts from about 68% to 65% and budgeted at 62%. Freight profits continue to cross-subsidise passenger losses, leaving uncovered passenger-operation deficits; the Survey recommends cost analysis and freight-basket diversification. It also argues that rationalising freight rates could improve revenue buoyancy and encourage modal shift from road to rail while operational capacity additions and digital measures have supported freight growth and efficiency.

AI impact on GCCs: workforce redesign around AI literacy, competency frameworks, and stronger governance and compliance.
AI will reconfigure GCC job roles toward adaptability, problem solving and human AI collaboration, requiring widespread AI literacy and a shift from qualification based systems to competency based frameworks, with targeted upskilling in AI enabled tools and stronger focus on risk, governance and compliance to support finance and other high value GCC functions.

Indian ceramics industry shifts to efficiency and staged tech upgrades, prioritising energy savings, digitalisation, and ROI-driven decisions.
Indian Ceramics Asia 2026 shifts industry focus from capacity expansion to efficiency, cost control, and staged technology adoption. The exhibition and live demonstrations enable purchasers-especially MSME and mid sized units-to evaluate energy management, raw material optimisation, digitalisation, alternative fuels, and environmental compliance, emphasising lifecycle costs, process stability, and ROI driven incremental upgrades.

BharatNet connectivity reaches 97% of gram panchayats; Right of Way measures aim to close remaining coverage gaps.
BharatNet has connected about 97% of targeted gram panchayats (c.2,15,000 of 2,22,000); remaining c.3% (c.7,000) are unconnected due to difficult terrains and left wing extremism. A gazette notification was issued to ease Right of Way clearances, and the project is executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle, Bharat Broadband Network Limited, under a phased implementation approved after initial Cabinet approval.

Research collaboration to jointly research, clinically validate, and standardize treatments for osteoarthritis, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes.
Memorandum of Understanding establishing a structured framework for joint research programs, clinical validation, evidence generation, and development of standardized treatment protocols and medicines, initially focused on osteoarthritis, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes, combining ResearchAyu's clinical experience with the All India Institute of Ayurveda's institutional research ecosystem to strengthen evidence and accelerate scalable treatment pathways.

IEPFA proposes 30-day refunds for low-value investor claims based on company verification reports to simplify processing.
Proposed amendments to the IEPFA Rules would create a streamlined mechanism for low-value claims, defined by monetary thresholds for physical shares, dematerialised shares and dividends, permitting refunds based solely on the company's verification report and imposing a reduced disposal timeline of 30 days. The draft also rationalises documentation, clarifies company responsibilities, and introduces a formal appeal mechanism for rejected claims to enhance transparency and investor-centric processing.

India GDP driven by consumption and investment: FY26 estimate 7.4% and FY27 projection 6.8-7.2%, with reforms supporting growth.
India's FY26 growth is attributed to consumption and investment with real GDP estimated at 7.4 per cent and FY27 projected at 6.8-7.2 per cent; private consumption rose to 61.5% of GDP and gross fixed capital formation reached about 30.0%, while services and manufacturing showed strong GVA expansion. Easing inflation, supportive monetary easing, prudent fiscal policy with resilient tax collections and higher capital outlays, strengthened banking balance sheets, record exports and diversified trade agreements collectively underpin stability and lift medium term growth potential toward about 7 per cent.

India's FY26 growth projected at 7.4% GDP, with fiscal consolidation, improved bank asset quality, and export-led resilience.
FY26 is projected to record 7.4% real GDP growth and 7.3% GVA growth, underpinned by broad-based consumption, stronger investment and elevated public capital expenditure. Fiscal consolidation is supported by higher revenue receipts and expanded direct tax filings, while banking asset quality improved (GNPA 2.2%, net NPA 0.5%) and financial inclusion expanded. Exports, remittances and reserves strengthened external resilience. Manufacturing recovery, PLI-driven investment, infrastructure expansion, social sector gains, and a three-tiered disciplined "Swadeshi" strategy for strategic resilience are central policy themes.

India's economy must pursue simultaneous growth and strategic resilience, shifting to entrepreneurial policymaking under uncertainty.
The Preface calls for entrepreneurial policy making under uncertainty, privileging process reforms and a shift from control to enabling governance, and urges strategic sobriety-building buffers, supply stability, diversification, and liquidity-to pursue growth while absorbing geopolitical and systemic shocks by aligning state capacity, society, and deregulation toward Viksit Bharat.

Fiscal strategy anchors stability: deficit at 4.4% of GDP, revenue mobilization and higher capital expenditure prioritized under GST 2.0 reforms.
A calibrated fiscal strategy prioritizes revenue mobilization and higher capital expenditure, with the fiscal deficit budgeted at 4.4% of GDP and the revenue deficit narrowed to 0.8% of GDP in FY26. Technology driven tax compliance measures and expanded direct tax filings strengthened receipts; non tax revenues benefited from higher CPSE profits. The SASCI scheme provides long term interest free loans to incentivize state capital spending, while GST 2.0 and other tax reforms aim to reduce compliance costs, broaden the tax base, and support a medium term debt to GDP consolidation trajectory.

Happiest Diagnostics receives NABL accreditation, enabling expansion into molecular, genomic and data intensive preventive diagnostic services.
NABL accreditation secured by Happiest Diagnostics creates a quality and regulatory baseline achieved within two years through alignment with NABL standards, confirming accuracy, reproducibility, traceability, and clinical quality governance. This credential enables systematic expansion into molecular, genomic, and data intensive diagnostics, supports introduction of rare clinically significant tests, and is complemented by development of a large reference laboratory to centralise standardisation, complex testing, and quality assurance.

Classic Legends launches Nomads community to unite Jawa, Yezdi and BSA riders and connect local riding clubs.
Classic Legends launched Nomads, a unified community webpage consolidating Jawa, Yezdi and BSA independent and dealership-led riding groups to provide a shared identity, simplify discovery of nearby clubs, and sustain engagement across brands; the platform debuted publicly during Republic Day rides involving over 2,000 riders and aims to support ongoing collaboration and storytelling beyond annual events.

Economic Survey projects growth and urges new income-tax law, tax reforms, trade measures and social-media limits.
The Economic Survey projects 6.8-7.2% GDP growth and links this to fiscal and regulatory measures, noting robust revenue buoyancy and faster growth in non-corporate and individual tax collections. It endorses the forthcoming Income tax legislation (effective April 1) to simplify taxation and promote voluntary compliance, recommends reducing tax on debt instruments to lower cost of capital, and proposes a National Input Cost Reduction strategy alongside a calibrated Swadeshi approach to counter high external tariffs and strengthen export competitiveness.

Australian Open 2026 debuts tactile MatchFeel, governed AI mascot Rally, and concise AI match insights to boost accessibility.
Infosys and Tennis Australia are introducing MatchFeel, a tactile haptic system to let visually impaired fans follow live play; Rally, a governed humanoid AI mascot offering tennis-only interactions and insights; and Keys to the Match, an AI feature providing three concise pre-match player insights using rankings, head-to-head data and win probabilities, all deployed as pilot, governed innovations to enhance accessibility and fan engagement.

India inflation fell to 1.7% (Apr-Dec 2025) amid strong growth; policy vigilance urged against commodity and currency risks.
The Economic Survey reports a 1.7% average headline CPI inflation for April-December 2025 alongside 8% GDP growth in H1 FY 2026, attributing disinflation mainly to falling food and fuel prices, trade and buffer-stock measures, and favorable supply conditions. It contrasts headline deflation driven by horticultural and pulses price declines with a modest uptick in core inflation partly due to precious metals, and projects inflation to remain within the Monetary Policy Committee's 2-6% target band while warning of currency and commodity risks and urging continued policy vigilance.

Rural inflation declined below urban levels in 2025, easing rural stress and remaining within tolerance bands in most states.
Rural inflation declined in 2025 and fell below urban inflation as food-price easing lowered inflation across sectors. Most states recorded retail inflation within the RBI's 2-6 percent tolerance band in 2025 26, except Kerala and Lakshadweep which breached the upper band. State-level heterogeneity reflected persistent deviations driven by local relative-price movements; analysis shows positive associations of state inflation with wage rates, state GDP growth, and COVID impact, a negative association with industrial output share, and GST imposition being price neutral for state inflation differentials.

Asset quality improves: NPA recovery rate doubles and MSME credit expands under new budget and regulatory measures.
Scheduled Commercial Banks show materially improved asset quality with CRAR at 17.2% and NPA recovery rising from 13.2% (FY18) to 26.2% (FY25); strengthened recoveries under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code accompany budget and regulatory measures - including guarantee support, MSME credit cards, a digital Credit Assessment Model, RRB consolidation and unified IT platforms - and RBI actions such as a regulatory review cell and principle based Free AI guidance to support supervised innovation.

India's monetary policy prioritises price stability while boosting liquidity and credit through repo rate cuts and OMOs.
India's monetary policy in FY26 prioritised price stability, financial stability, and inclusive growth by reducing the repo rate and injecting durable liquidity via CRR cuts and open market operations, which improved transmission to lending rates and supported broad money and credit expansion. The Economic Survey highlights RBI's May 2025 regulation-making framework, including a Regulatory Review Cell to reassess regulations periodically, institutionalising transparent, consultative, and impact-driven monetary management and financial intermediation.

India's Securities Markets Code 2025 consolidates regulation for exchanges, MIIs and investor protection reforms.
The note emphasises the Securities Markets Code, 2025 as a consolidating statute placing MIIs, exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories on a statutory footing and addressing board composition, independence, conflict management, transparency, investor protection, governance and regulatory sandboxing; it also summarises SEBI measures including a new UPI address mandate for intermediaries and operational relaxations for brokers in GIFT-IFSC, and reforms to broaden retail access to debt markets and strengthen governance of credit rating agencies.

India's innovation push: PLI, NMM, RDI Fund and semiconductor incentives bolster manufacturing, investment, jobs and IP activity.
The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme has attracted over Rs.2.0 lakh crore investment, generated incremental production/sales exceeding Rs.18.70 lakh crore, created over 12.6 lakh jobs, disbursed Rs.23,946 crore in incentives across sectors and driven exports over Rs.8.20 lakh crore; complementary measures include the National Mission on Manufacturing, a Rs.1 lakh crore RDI Fund, establishment of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, and a Rs.76,000 crore semiconductor incentive framework supporting fabrication, assembly/testing/packaging and design.