India prioritises public capital and diversified financing to scale multimodal infrastructure and attract private investment.
India prioritises sustained public capital expenditure and diversified financing to mobilise long-term institutional and private capital, combining NBFC credit, InvITs/REITs and asset monetisation with increased PPP project approvals. Sectoral reforms and investments span highways, high-speed corridors, rail electrification and corridors, airport expansion, port modernisation with new maritime legislation, inland waterways, and energy reforms that improve DISCOM finances and rapidly expand renewable capacity. Integrated multimodal planning and digital platforms aim to reduce transaction costs, enhance execution, and crowd-in private investment.

India's industry GVA rose 7.0% H1 FY25-26, led by higher-value manufacturing and targeted PLI and EV policies.
India's industrial GVA rose 7.0% in H1 FY2025-26, with Manufacturing GVA up 7.72% (Q1) and 9.13% (Q2), driven by shifts to higher-value manufacturing, corridor-led infrastructure, technology adoption and formalisation. Medium and high-technology activities account for 46.3% of manufacturing value added, supported by Production Linked Incentive schemes and the India Semiconductor Mission. Non-bank financial flows to the commercial sector grew at a 17.32% CAGR (FY20-FY25) while core industries (steel, cement, coal, chemicals), automotive, electronics and pharmaceuticals recorded significant expansion. The Survey urges a policy pivot from import substitution to scale, competitiveness, innovation and deeper GVC integration, backed by targeted schemes and increased private R&D investment.

Trendweave enhances influencer monetization with clear attribution, predictable payments, detailed order analytics, and exportable creator data.
Trendweave will publish attribution rules and multi-touch/lookback logic, add order-level reporting including purchased and cancelled items to address refunds, implement fixed payment schedules and clear statuses, offer pay-per-performance, fixed-fee and hybrid models, deliver analytics that link content to orders and payouts, invest in stable deep links and app-to-app tracking, and build an exportable data architecture so creators retain access to income history and work data after leaving the platform.

Mayilaa selected for Bright Future at International Film Festival Rotterdam, spotlighting working women's experiences and original voices.
Mayilaa, directed by Semmalar Annam and produced by Newton Cinema, was selected for the Bright Future section at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film depicts the experiences and resilience of working women through character-driven, socially relevant storytelling. Newton Cinema frames the selection as aligned with its mission to support original voices, nurture emerging filmmakers, and achieve international visibility for locally rooted, collaborative productions.

Canton Fair gifts and de cor: year round digital platform links buyers and suppliers, enabling targeted sourcing and stable supply.
The Canton Fair's February Industry Thematic Event advances digital trade facilitation for the Gifts & Decorations sector via a year round online platform and digital matchmaking tools that link seasonal consumption demand with stable international supply. The platform covers product lines from gifts and home decorations to ceramics and optical instruments and uses a Sourcing Request mechanism to match detailed buyer procurement needs with suppliers, enhancing procurement efficiency and supporting cross border sourcing and supply chain stability.

Alliance Air relaunches bilingual in flight magazine Darpan to showcase destinations and strengthen regional connectivity onboard flights.
Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of AI Assets Holding Ltd., relaunched its bilingual in flight magazine Darpan at Wings India 2026; the magazine will be available on all Alliance Air aircraft to showcase destinations, travel, culture, and people from the regions the carrier serves and reinforce the airline's role in connecting Tier II, Tier III and remote destinations.

Rail network expansion: track commissioning doubled post-2014 with near-universal electrification and corridor-based capacity creation.
Sustained capital investment and targeted programmes have materially accelerated expansion and modernisation of the rail network, raising average annual track commissioning from 1,499 km to 3,118 km and achieving near-universal electrification (99.1% by October 2025). Focused spending on new lines, multi-tracking, rolling stock, signalling and safety, together with corridor-based capacity creation (Dedicated Freight Corridors, Economic Railway Corridors, and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail), station redevelopment and first-mile connectivity, is improving throughput, reducing logistics costs and enhancing multimodal integration.

MSMEs underpin the economy; credit growth and SRI Fund investments bolster scaling and global supply chain participation.
MSMEs are central to India's industrial economy, driving manufacturing, exports, employment, and GDP; MSME credit was the primary driver of industrial credit growth in H1FY26, outpacing large industry, supported by policy interventions. Financial and policy measures include expansion of SME public markets, SRI Fund equity investments in hundreds of MSMEs, and institutionalised innovation and IPR support. The Survey advocates calibrated deeper integration of MSMEs into global supply chains and alignment with the national manufacturing mission and supportive drivers-advanced manufacturing, infrastructure, capital markets, and digital governance-to pursue job rich industrialisation.

India's services sector is driving growth with rising exports, concentrated services FDI, and policy focus on digital and infrastructure gaps.
The Survey finds services to be the principal growth engine, with 9.1% GVA growth in FY26 and a marked rise in services exports and services FDI, concentrated in digital, professional and infrastructure linked services. It highlights IT/ITeS, data centres, media and entertainment, tourism, space and ocean services as key frontiers, notes regional concentration and rising employment elasticity, and recommends reskilling, digital diffusion, supportive innovation policy, infrastructure upgrades and public private commercialisation to sustain and scale services led growth.

India promotes decentralised, frugal, application-driven AI with risk-based regulation and shared infrastructure for local solutions.
India's framework prioritises decentralised, application-driven and frugal AI over large frontier models, promoting small, task-specific models, open interoperable systems, and shared infrastructure. The National AI Mission will scale local solutions through standards, funding and governance while preserving local creativity. Regulatory design centres on proportionate, risk-based regulation, trusted data flows for domestic value capture, and institutional measures including an AI Economic Council and an AI Safety Institute, with sequencing of coordination, capacity building and binding policy to avoid premature lock-in.

Aromatherapy: chemotyped, lab-tested essential oils offer evidence-based natural wellness and safer, targeted formulations for respiratory, pain, and mental health support.
The article stresses that aromatherapy's therapeutic reliability requires scientific control of composition, dosage, and quality, with chemotyping and analytical testing (gas chromatography, mass spectrometry) key to determining safety and efficacy. It profiles Puraroma's chemotyped, lab-tested essential oil formulations developed to low-dose specifications and aligned with European safety norms, promoting transparency and quality testing to distinguish credible natural wellness products from vague "natural" claims.

State health scheme offers cashless treatment up to Rs 10 lakh per family annually with Aadhaar based universal registration.
The state launched a Mukhya Mantri Sehat Yojana providing cashless treatment up to Rs 10 lakh per family annually with Aadhaar based registration and no income criteria; government employees and pensioners are included. Domestic electricity up to 600 units per billing cycle is provided free without conditional exclusions, and agricultural power remains free. Authorities report large narcotics seizures, asset demolitions, inter jurisdictional police cooperation for port interceptions, and deployment of anti drone systems to interdict cross border drug trafficking.

Smart water metering: HPL launches AMR/AMI-ready Neeram Pulse with IP68 protection and leakage and tamper detection.
HPL Electric & Power Ltd. launched 'Neeram Pulse', a utility-grade smart water meter produced at a new facility for ultrasonic and multi-jet meters. The product is represented as meeting Indian and international metering standards, offering IP68 protection, tamper and magnetic interference detection, AMR/AMI readiness with LoRa RF connectivity, reverse-flow and leakage detection with alarm reporting, event logging, and up to ten-year battery life, and is targeted at municipal, industrial, and agricultural water systems to support revenue assurance and network management.

Surrogate ads for alcohol and pan masala should be strictly regulated and restricted during family viewing.
Regulation is sought to curb surrogate advertising that indirectly promotes adult products such as alcohol and pan masala during prime time and high viewership programming by using substitute product categories that retain brand identity and celebrity ambassadors. The recommendation calls for strengthened monitoring, a clear definition of indirect promotion, possible restrictions on such advertisements during content predominantly consumed by minors and families, and discouragement of celebrity endorsements across television, OTT and influencer spaces.

PHILIPS EVNIA 27M2N5500XD monitor offers HD@1000Hz and QHD@540Hz dual-mode performance with AI motion and eye care features.
PHILIPS EVNIA's 27M2N5500XD is a dual-mode gaming monitor delivering HD@1000Hz and QHD@540Hz via a true 1000Hz panel, 0.3ms smart MBR, AI motion suppression and Adaptive-Sync to reduce blur and tearing. It combines high-contrast fast IPS imaging, HDR400 certification, wide color gamuts and 1.07 billion colors with high-bandwidth connectivity through DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, plus AI-driven eye friendly and gameplay-assist features.

Best Companies for Women in India study benchmarks organisations on inclusion, pay equity, leadership ownership and workplace wellness.
Avtar and Seramount launched the participation-free 2026 Best Companies for Women in India benchmarking study, assessing organisations on leadership ownership, pay equity, safe workplaces, flexibility and fair career progression, and introduced a new Best Places for Workplace Wellness benchmark evaluating work flexibility, wellness benefits, inclusive practices and data-led continuous improvement; BCWI data shows rising women's workforce and C-suite representation among recognised firms and the study is presented as a tool for organisations to benchmark and adopt effective inclusion practices.

JK Cement commissioned a 3 MTPA Buxar plant, boosting capacity to 31.26 MTPA and enabling 24 hour Bihar deliveries.
JK Cement commissioned a 3 MTPA Grey Cement plant at Buxar, raising total Grey Cement capacity to 31.26 MTPA; the 100 acre facility began commercial production on January 29, 2026, after construction from March 2025, with an investment of about Rs. 500 crore, enabling local deliveries within 24 hours across Bihar and strengthening the company's national footprint and service capability.

Magic Bus scales inclusive AI skilling to prepare underserved youth for AI driven jobs and align employers with talent pipelines.
Magic Bus is expanding its 'AI for Masses' initiative to deliver inclusive AI skilling by pairing foundational AI literacy with life and employability skills. Its flagship AI-Connect with Work (AI CWW) is a 7-10 day programme for underserved college students and graduates-35,000 trained last year and a target of 150,000 this year-and a multi city Employers Summit Series aligns employer demand with grassroots realities to shape demand driven pathways and feed insights into the national India AI Impact Summit.

Rajya Sabha session urges decorum and disciplined debate while prioritising Union Budget scrutiny and committee review.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman opened the 270th session urging strict parliamentary decorum and disciplined conduct while focusing on examination of the Union Budget 2026-27 across 30 sittings; departmental standing committees will scrutinise demands for grants during the recess and members were urged to use scheduled business time effectively and cooperate to ensure productive, accountable proceedings.

India's external sector shows strong remittances, rising FDI and robust forex reserves supporting external resilience.
India's external sector is resilient: the Current Account Deficit moderated to USD 15 billion (0.8% of GDP) in H1 FY26, remittances reached USD 135.4 billion in FY25, and capital inflows remained sizeable at 18.5% of GDP. Foreign exchange reserves increased to USD 701.4 billion, covering around 11 months of goods imports and about 94% of external debt, while external debt stood at USD 746 billion with an external debt to GDP ratio near 19.2%.