Halwa ceremony marks final stage of Union Budget preparation and precedes an official lock in before the Budget speech.
The halwa ceremony signals the final stage of Union Budget 2026 27 preparation and precedes a lock in period for officials to maintain budget secrecy. Held in North Block because of its Budget Press, the event involved senior finance officials and review of printing preparations. The Budget will be presented on February 1, 2026, and primary Budget documents will be distributed largely paperlessly via a bilingual Union Budget Mobile App and the website after the Finance Minister's speech, reflecting a shift from extended press quarantines to shorter digital led procedures.

Wife can obtain husband's generic income figures for maintenance proceedings; tax returns and bank details remain protected.
Upon verification of marital relationship and pendency of a matrimonial or maintenance case, the tax authority must provide generic details of gross income or net taxable income for relevant assessment years to the legally wedded spouse, while copies of income tax returns and other sensitive personal information remain exempt; bank-held information and locker or deposit details are treated as third-party personal information held in a fiduciary capacity and are not disclosable.

Bandhan Bank lowers monthly average balance for standard savings accounts from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,000 effective Feb 1.
Bandhan Bank will reduce the monthly average balance (MAB) requirement for standard savings accounts from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,000 effective February 1, while product features and benefits remain unchanged.

India-EU free trade agreement agreed, promising market access, tariff cuts and expanded investment, pending legal scrubbing.
India and the European Union concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement aimed at expanding market access for Indian farmers, small industries, services and manufacturing, reducing tariffs and increasing bilateral investment and innovation; the deal, part of a package of 13 pacts, remains subject to legal scrubbing and formal signing procedures before it can be finalised.

Evidence-based nutrition integration into clinical care and medical education to address obesity and metabolic disease.
PAN India's 50th Annual CME focused on embedding evidence-based nutrition into clinical care, medical education and public health policy. The accredited programme highlighted practical clinic-oriented interventions-dietary prescriptions, culinary medicine demonstrations and lifestyle sessions-addressing obesity, pre-diabetes and metabolic disease. The event launched a physician reference manual on therapeutic nutrition and emphasized multidisciplinary collaboration and institutional integration to mainstream nutrition in healthcare delivery and training.

India-EU free trade agreement grants extensive duty-free access for most goods, with phased concessions and quota limits on sensitive imports.
The India-EU free trade agreement grants duty-free access for about 93% of Indian exports to the EU, with tariff reductions or quota-based concessions for remaining goods; the EU will obtain duty-free entry for over 90% of its goods into India over ten years, while India preserves duties in select sensitive sectors and applies quota-based concessions for premium automobiles.

ICE agents to support diplomatic security at Milan-Cortina Olympics, not conduct immigration enforcement, amid local opposition
ICE agents will be deployed to support diplomatic security details at the Milan Cortina Winter Games and explicitly will not run immigration enforcement operations, reflecting precedent for federal agencies providing protection for US diplomatic personnel while raising local opposition and prompting mixed official responses from Italian authorities.

India-Italy ties to expand through Joint Strategic Action Plan, enhanced cooperation and linked EU-India free trade, defence and mobility pacts.
India and Italy aim to deepen bilateral ties through implementation of the Joint Strategic Action Plan, which promotes economic, scientific and civil-society cooperation via joint projects and institutional exchanges. High-level visits are intended to strengthen sectoral synergies and align bilateral efforts within the India-EU framework. Concurrent India-EU instruments - an ambitious free trade agreement, a strategic defence pact and a mobility agreement - are positioned as complementary measures to reinforce economic and security cooperation and multilateral responses to global challenges.

3D laparoscopic surgery at MASSH reduces operative time and improves patient safety and recovery for common procedures globally.
MASSH Hospital reports integration of 3D laparoscopic systems yielding substantial reductions in operative time and post surgical complications, led by its Director of Minimal Access and Bariatric Surgery who has performed over 1,800 3D procedures and managed a globally rare gallbladder case with these techniques. The hospital states average gallbladder procedure time has decreased to 8-10 minutes, with some cases under four minutes, enabling reduced anaesthesia exposure, same day discharge, faster recovery, and routine use of 3D laparoscopy for gallbladder, hernia, and bariatric surgeries.

Cryptocurrency adoption uneven globally; DeepSnitch AI presale claims rapid price gains and tiered bonus incentives, with trading risks noted.
PwC's report identifies fragmented global crypto adoption tied to economic conditions, financial inclusion, and financial infrastructure. The article reports DeepSnitch AI (DSNT) is in a fourth presale stage, raising $1.31M, priced at $0.03681 after a 143% increase, and promoted with five AI tools plus tiered bonus codes (30%-300%) and speculative 100X-300X upside claims. Comparable coverage of Rain and Sentient appears. A published disclaimer warns of high trading risks and advises independent financial advice while disclaiming editorial responsibility.

Stock markets rose on bank and metal buying as optimism over the India-EU free trade agreement lifted investor sentiment.
Equity benchmarks rose on buying in banks and metals and optimism over the India-EU free trade agreement, with gains led by major banks and metals and supported by a reported quarterly profit increase at a large private bank. The India-EU FTA boosted investor sentiment but net foreign portfolio selling, muted third-quarter earnings, global tariff-driven risk-off factors, and recent sharp prior-session declines capped further upside; domestic institutional purchases partly offset foreign outflows.

India's energy sector opens major upstream and downstream investment opportunities amid reforms and LNG expansion.
India's energy reforms open large upstream areas, reduce No-Go zones and award exploration blocks to attract about USD 100 billion in oil and gas investment, while scaling refining capacity and expanding the LNG value chain, pipelines and city gas distribution to create an investor-friendly ecosystem targeting USD 500 billion in sector opportunities.

Rupee rebounds to 91.71 on dollar weakness and India EU FTA, gains limited by crude prices and FII selling.
Rupee gained 19 paise to close at 91.71 against the US dollar, driven by US dollar index weakness and the India EU FTA, while rising commodity and crude prices, FII selling and geopolitical tensions capped larger gains; analysts expected a near term USDINR range of 91.30-92.00.

Parliamentary session: government rejects opposition demand to reopen debate on VB-G RAM G Act and SIR.
Government declined opposition requests for dedicated debates on the VB-G RAM G Act and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls during the Budget session, noting both were extensively debated previously and can be raised during the President's address and Budget debates; the minister also said the list of government business will be circulated in due course.

India energy demand surges, driving global investment needs and strategic partnerships across fossil fuels, gas, renewables and digital infrastructure.
India is a central driver of historic global energy demand expansion, requiring investment across fossil fuels, gas, renewables and power infrastructure. The piece stresses the systemic risk of underinvestment, outlines a national oil company's mixed-matrix strategy of supplying crude, LPG and LNG while investing in multi gigawatt clean energy and petrochemical platforms, and highlights embedding AI and long-term international partnerships as mechanisms to boost operational resilience and attract predictable capital.

India retirement preparedness study finds sandwich generation and empty nesters face savings and loneliness gaps.
IRIS 5.0 finds significant retirement preparedness shortfalls among the Sandwich Generation and Empty Nesters: only 33% of Empty Nesters and 38% of the Sandwich Generation expect their savings to last more than ten years. The study highlights conservative asset allocation, uneven uptake of market investments, varying insurance coverage, health engagement gaps, and widespread fears of loneliness and future financial dependence, indicating interconnected financial, health, and emotional risks that undermine long term retirement security.

BMW UNICEF BRIDGE STEM initiative expands foundational learning and hands on STEM access to 110,216 children with teacher training.
The BMW Group-UNICEF BRIDGE partnership combines foundational literacy and numeracy improvements with experiential STEM learning through teacher capacity building, low cost maker spaces, STEM kits, new labs, bilingual learning materials, digital supervision tools, and parent engagement. First year outputs include outreach to 110,216 children, training of 397 educators, 17,830 teachers reached via webinars, state action plans, and piloted state interventions across West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu focused on scalable, gender inclusive STEM access.

RG Brothers seeks Rs 10 crore seed funding to prepare a private limited IPO vehicle and scale branded rice distribution.
RG Brothers seeks Rs 10 crore in seed funding to scale branded and institutional rice distribution, strengthen working capital, and invest in systems, audits and compliance necessary for future public listing. A new private limited company will be incorporated to serve as the IPO vehicle and will exclusively handle branded rice distribution under company-owned SKUs, while the existing proprietary entity continues bulk procurement and bills a portion of product to the private limited company.

Inequality and welfare: report warns rising inequality and retreating welfare amid disputed economic statistics and weak manufacturing.
The report alleges widening inequality and retreating welfare, challenges the integrity of official GDP and inflation statistics, and links disputed data to policy effects: divergence between claimed manufacturing growth and core industry indices, employment concentrated in informal and low value work, a weakening currency with net FDI outflows, deteriorating household finances, concentrated national income and wealth at the top, a shifted tax burden toward individuals, and pressure on a principal rural employment guarantee programme.

Book promotes a five-component protocol and diet claiming rapid autism symptom improvement, while alleging vaccine links.
The book launch promoted a five-component C.A.N. Protocol and a branded diet box, asserting that an observational study of over 1,000 reported cases showed an average 52% improvement in neurodevelopmental symptoms after about 26 days; Neem Therapy, the D.I.P. Diet, grounding, fermented drinks, and coconut-based recipes are presented as core therapeutic elements, and the products and book are marketed online while a general medical disclaimer advises consulting a doctor.