Health Security se National Security Cess Act commencement set for 1 February 2026 by Central Government notification.
The Central Government appoints 1 February 2026 as the date on which the provisions of the Health Security se National Security Cess Act, 2025 will come into force, by a Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue notification dated 31 December 2025 issued under the statute and bearing the stated file reference.

Global In House Centres rules establish registration, fit and proper governance, foreign currency reporting, and supervisory powers for IFSC GIC Units.
These regulations create a framework for Global In House Centre Units in IFSCs: defining permissible financial services for Financial Institution Groups, eligibility and FATF based jurisdictional restrictions, registration via a Single Window IT System with in principle approval and 180 day compliance, maintenance of fit and proper standards for key persons, appointment of full time Principal and Compliance Officers based in IFSCs, foreign currency financial reporting, and Authority powers for inspection, enforcement, procedural guidance, relaxation, and continuity from the 2020 regime.

Infrastructure sub-sector update adds Large Ships to the harmonized master list with defined ownership and tonnage criteria.
Updated the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by notifying a revised Annexure I and adding Large Ships to the Transport and Logistics category. Large Ships are defined as commercial vessels meeting the prescribed gross tonnage thresholds and ownership and flag conditions. The updated list also retains the structured infrastructure sub-sectors across transport and logistics, energy, water and sanitation, communication, and social and commercial infrastructure, together with linked definitions for selected infrastructure items.

Limit on tax audit assignments set for practising chartered accountants, with per-partner aggregation and specified exclusions from reckoning.
Imposes a binding cap on the number of tax audit assignments a practising Chartered Accountant may accept and sign in a financial year, applied to individuals and per partner in firms with aggregation across multiple firms or individual acceptances; treats head office and branch audits of the same entity as one assignment, excludes specified presumptive-tax-related audits and revised reports from reckoning, excludes part-time practising partners from firm counts, requires maintenance of Council-prescribed records, and empowers the Council to issue clarifications, effective from the stated commencement date.

Third-party fund management services require authorised FMEs to retain compliance, investor protection, supervision and liability for managed schemes.
Third-party fund management services permit an authorised Registered FME to launch and manage Restricted Schemes for an eligible third-party fund manager. The FME must maintain enhanced compliance and risk-management systems, appoint a dedicated Principal Officer for each scheme, meet an additional net-worth requirement, and make prominent investor disclosures on the third-party, responsibilities and conflicts. The FME must conduct due diligence, monitor the third-party, preserve termination rights, ensure fund segregation, and remains liable to schemes and investors for all obligations and for the third-party's acts and omissions.

Registration of capital market intermediaries: new IFSC rules mandate eligibility, net worth, conduct and supervisory compliance.
These regulations create a comprehensive IFSC framework requiring registration of specified capital market intermediaries, prescribe applicant eligibility including net worth and fit and proper criteria, mandate qualification and experience norms for principal and compliance officers, set ongoing obligations (records retention, codes of conduct, audits, business continuity, cyber security and risk management), enumerate category specific duties for intermediaries including disclosure and conflict management, and empower the Authority with inspection and enforcement tools along with transitional and repeal provisions.

Fund management registration and investor safeguards govern IFSC schemes, ETFs, portfolio services, and investment trusts.
Fund management in an International Financial Services Centre requires prior registration as a Fund Management Entity under Authorised, Non-Retail, or Retail categories. Applicants must meet legal-form, net-worth, infrastructure, governance, fit-and-proper, and key-personnel requirements. The framework governs venture capital, restricted, retail, special situation, and family investment schemes; ETFs; portfolio management services; and investment trusts. It imposes scheme-specific investor eligibility, investment, leverage, valuation, disclosure, contribution, custody, and governance obligations, supported by fair valuation, asset segregation, conflict-management, AML/CFT, record-keeping, cyber-resilience, risk-management, and investor-protection duties.

Bullion market regulation establishes recognition, governance, custody, settlement, and consumer-protection standards for international financial-centre market infrastructure.
Recognition of bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations requires demutualised companies with fit-and-proper management and shareholders, compliant ownership and governance structures, prescribed net worth, and adequate infrastructure. Exchanges must provide screen-based trading, real-time surveillance, member regulation, grievance redressal and continuity systems. Clearing corporations must maintain risk-management, netting, novation, settlement-guarantee, member-connectivity and orderly wind-down arrangements. Every exchange must use a bullion clearing corporation for clearing and settlement, and settlement obligations determined under approved bye-laws are final, irrevocable and binding.

Unified Pension Scheme option creates assured payouts with individual and pooled corpuses under NPS, subject to qualifying service and transfers.
Introduction of a Unified Pension Scheme option within the National Pension System for Central Government employees covered by NPS, effective 1 April 2025. The scheme provides Assured Payout on superannuation after specified qualifying service thresholds, excludes removal/dismissal/resignation, and combines an individual corpus (employee 10% + matching employer 10%) with a Government-funded pool corpus (additional contribution) to support payouts. Employees may choose investment options for the individual corpus under PFRDA regulation; a benchmark corpus computed by PFRDA determines transfers to the pool corpus at retirement to authorise assured payouts, with proportional payouts for shortfalls and specified family, dearness relief and lump sum provisions.