Table of contents for 16 February 2026 in India Today

Budget-making is a difficult art at the best of times. There are too many moving parts, and not all of them can be mastered at one go. Real-time, dynamic data flows in from a dizzying variety of sectors. Including people: in India, that translates to nearly 1.5 billion individual variables! Plus, these are not exactly the best of times. We are in a decade whose horizons have been darkened by not one but an entire flock of black swans: pandemic, war, tariff shock, global currency anxiety, extreme resource nationalism. Amidst all this has arrived world-altering technology. How do you plan when volatility is in surplus and predictability is scarce? It is welcome, therefore, that Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has resisted the impulse to play to the gallery. Instead of producing…

Just one sample to detect multiple illnesses, from dengue, flu, COVID-19 to typhoid, all of which exhibit several symptoms? That could well become possible if a new diagnostic test being developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is introduced widely. It could help doctors quickly diagnose the exact ailment a patient may be suffering from and begin the appropriate treatment sooner. Currently, many patients have to go through multiple tests, which can be time-consuming, expensive and sometimes lead to unnecessary or incorrect treatments. By combining these checks into a single tool, the ICMR hopes to speed up diagnosis and expedite the care patients need. This also comes at a critical time for India, where antimicrobial resistance is rising. According to studies, up to 83 per cent of patients…

A LOT OF EYES THESE DAYS ARE following a moving line in Tamil Nadu: the new X-factor that has emerged in the shape of actor Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). Attempting to carve out an independent path—a rare ‘third option’ for an electorate long trapped in a binary—he’s being judged, in early estimates, to have more wind in his sail than is usual for political forces that do not swim with either of the two main Dravidian fronts. It doesn’t hinder Vijay’s chances that the headlines are full of him these days: a new symbol allotment (the whistle), summons from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over the Karur stampede in September, censor trouble over a film meant to put him in orbit ahead of voting, alliance talks…. From…

When Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman rose to present her ninth budget, expectations were she’d announce big-ticket reforms to strengthen industry and create jobs. Instead, she focused on a clutch of new-economy sectors expected to lead India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat. These were backed by targeted policy interventions and multi-year, sometimes even multi-decadal, investment push. All this was done while keeping fiscal discipline intact, with the fiscal deficit projected at 4.3 per cent of GDP in FY27. The budget identified sectors such as biopharma, semiconductors and rare earths as strategic priorities, with the Narendra Modi government seeking to create national champions that will make India self-reliant and, over time, help the country become a prominent player in the global value chain. For the first time, it also formally recognised the…

Budget 2026 directly confronts a strategic vulnerability exposed last year: India’s dependence on overseas rare earth supplies. The urgency became evident in April 2025, when domestic automobile manufacturers ran into an unexpected bottleneck—a shortage of rare earth magnets, small yet indispensable components used across both electric and conventional vehicles. The disruption originated in China, which controls over 90 per cent of global rare earth processing capacity. Amid intensifying trade frictions with the US, Beijing abruptly halted rare earth magnet exports. To reduce that exposure, the budget builds on policy steps initiated last year. The Centre has proposed supporting mineral-rich states—Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu—in developing dedicated rare earth corridors that integrate mining, processing, research and manufacturing. It has also proposed scrapping the 2.5 per cent basic customs duty…

For ordinary Indians, the impact of the government’s latest proposals aimed at the construction and real estate sector will be felt if their cities eventually become easier places to live, work and invest in. This is exactly what Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hopes to achieve with the new concept of City Economic Regions (CER) announced in the budget. The idea is to develop clusters of Tier 2 and 3 cities and temple towns in the country as integrated economic regions with a dedicated fund of Rs 5,000 crore for each region per year over five years. This is expected to finance city infrastructure, including basics such as roads, water supply, drainage, public transportation and social utilities. All this will unlock massive opportunities in construction and real estate, says Parth…

Reframing education as productive infrastructure for a services-led economy, Budget 2026 strove to bring higher education closer to industry, logistics, research and employment hubs. The centrepiece of this approach was the proposal to create five university townships near major industrial corridors in different parts of the country—ecosystems clustering universities, research institutions, skill centres and housing so that learning, innovation and employment coexist. Both the Centre and states will work together to develop infrastructure for these universities. Former UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar views the proposal as a potential quality intervention under National Education Policy 2020 if designed as industry-linked platforms. He cites global clustering models as evidence. However, some experts argue that university townships risk diverting attention from improving academic quality. Dinesh Singh, chancellor of K.R. Mangalam University, warns…

Q. What, in your view, are the three biggest thrust areas in Budget 2026? • NEELKANTH MISHRA: The first and most important focus is to stick to the fiscal consolidation roadmap the government outlined last year. The boost to government credibility and rise in predictability are important to bring down the medium- and long-term costs of capital in the economy. Second, prioritising quality of expenditure—capital expenditure is budgeted to grow faster than overall spending. Third, the government laid out the roadmap for growth in services, goods exports (like the customs duty simplification on intermediate goods, and rescinding of several QCOs [Quality Control Orders] earlier; with the US deal done, FTAs now cover 70 per cent of India’s exports), and better urban infrastructure (support for City Economic Regions and expansion of…

In a world where 30-second TikTok clips masquerade as analysis, a 760-page book on India’s development story is a deliberate act of defiance. A Sixth of Humanity, authored by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian—both respected scholars, with the latter having served as India’s Chief Economic Advisor—offers a sweeping, meticulously researched account of India’s post-Independence journey. The book undertakes the ambitious task of chronicling independent India’s tryst with development. This is no small feat, given the vast array of literature that already exists on the subject. For me, what distinguishes it from the others is the authors’ disciplined refusal to rely on hindsight when evaluating policy decisions, reforms and political events. Instead, they strive to understand choices as they were made, immersing and limiting the reader only to the information and…

Q. There are some parallels between Sophia in The Royals and Rita in Daldal. How do you see them? Yes, they both are in a man’s world trying to make their space, and both have their traumas. But Daldal’s world is different. Rita is grey, dark, broken and complex. She has violent thoughts, yet there’s empathy in her. Every good thing that happens in her life she wants to destroy because she feels she’s not worthy of it. Q. The female-cop genre is thriving on streaming. How does Daldal stand out from the pack? Daldal has none of the tropes you’d expect from the genre. It’s a whydunit, a slow-burn of a psychological drama, yet it is so binge-able. I have watched all the female-led police shows and enjoyed them.…

A SAYING DOING THE ROUNDS IN DHAKA captures the mood ahead of Bangladesh’s February 12 general election: whatever is the result, the country’s next prime minister will be a Rahman, a light-hearted reference to the leading contenders—Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Dr Shafiqur Rahman of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). Beneath the humour lies a serious political moment. This will be the first national election since the dramatic fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in 2024, and it brings together veterans, established ideological forces and a new generation shaped by street protests and reformist ambitions. Alongside the parliamentary polls, voters will also decide on a far-reaching constitutional charter of proposed electoral, administrative, judicial and educational reforms. For India, the election is equally significant, as New Delhi prepares to…

Budget 2026 places the chemicals sector firmly within India’s long-term industrial strategy, prioritising structural reforms over immediate incentives. Rather than offering short-term relief, the government has emphasised ecosystem development through chemical parks and aligned the industry with sustainability goals and the energy transition, including carbon capture initiatives for high energy–intensive products, chemicals among them. Chemical parks have been a longstanding industry demand from a capability-building perspective. “In chemicals, what matters is the ecosystem with adequate infrastructure along with downstream industries because many segments are deeply interconnected,” explains Khushbu Lakhotia, director, India Ratings & Research. “This is a necessary step, even though it may not have a near-term impact over the next one to two years.” A caustic soda plant, for instance, produces chlorine as a byproduct; given strict disposal norms,…

At a time when logistics costs remain a drag on competitiveness, the budget makes its priorities unmistakable. It seeks to compress distance—economically—by building parallel high-capacity networks for passengers and freight and integrating rail, road and waterways into a unified connectivity grid. These, in the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s words, are the “growth connectors”. At the heart of this vision are three mega plans—seven new high-speed rail (HSR) corridors, a new East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and 20 more national waterways. While the budget has not specified matching allocations, sources in the know peg the combined cost at around Rs 16 lakh crore over the next few years.. The seven high-speed passenger corridors, together spanning nearly 4,000 km, are ambitious in scale, to say the least. In the North and East,…

For over five decades, Pinakin Patel has been one of India’s most influential yet quietly radical design voices. The renowned architect, interior designer, furniture designer and fashion designer, whose ongoing retrospective at Mumbai’s Nilaya Anthology (till March 31) celebrates his life and work, refrains from retrospection. “I have lived life so intensely, with each moment being a search for a new discipline, new meaning and new philosophy, coupled with the prolific nature of my work, that there was hardly any time to revisit anything,” he shares. He acknowledges, though, that it is often failure that leads one to retrospect. “At the risk of sounding pompous, it has been a continuously upward journey. So, I never felt the need to retrospect. I’m still Alice in Wonderland!” he laughs. Conceived as an…

At Farzi. Forward., the new avatar of Farzi Café at CyberHub Gurugram, diners can dig into, among other enticements, Savoury Ghevar Chaat, Thecha Burrata Bomb, Dal Chawal Arancini, Spicy Andhra Chicken Taftan Pizza and a Naga Chilli Cheese Jalebi. That last, Zorawar Kalra, founder & managing director, Massive Restaurants Pvt. Ltd, feels “is going to be one of the most viral dishes of the country”. It looks exactly like a jalebi, but is made out of potato, isn’t sweet, and is served with a sesame and cheese dip where you might be expecting rabri. That’s a classic instance of ‘Farzification’, which Kalra explains as “the deliberate injection of something cool, something fun, something quirky, something playful, yet remaining respectful of the original dish”. LEARNINGS FROM THE CAFE HAVE BEEN DISTILLED…

YUMNAM KHEMCHAND SINGH has always loved odd challenges. On the morning of December 30, 2025, inside a taekwondo training hall, the 62-year-old politician stood barefoot on polished mats, his muscles taut with concentration. At an age when many of his peers were learning to live with creaking joints and pillboxes, he was submitting his body to hours of punishing drills. A few hours later, he emerged with a fifth-dan black belt, becoming the first Indian to receive the distinction from the Seoul-based Global Traditional Taekwondo Federation. Three weeks earlier, that quintessential Khemchand was to be seen on another path marked by angularity: he drove through the Naga hills of Ukhrul and Kamjong to visit Kuki-Zo villages and relief camps sheltering those displaced from Imphal. For over two and a half…

As the first of the semiconductor facilities at Sanand, the country’s new silicon chip hub in Gujarat, gets set to begin commercial production by end-February, marking a major milestone in a high-technology manufacturing sector India has long strived to build, the Union budget outlined the contours of the next thrust with the anncouncement of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0. “India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 will have a huge focus on equipment and materials, which are used for manufacturing semiconductors. We would like 50 major design companies to come up in the country”—ASHWINI VAISHNAW Minister of Electronics and Information Technology US-based Micron Technology will roll out chips from its $2.75 billion (Rs 22,516 crore) assembly, test, mark and pack (ATMP) facility, which was among the 10 plants approved under the Rs 76,000 crore…

BUDGET SIZE The government’s spending rises 7.7% over last year 2026-27 ₹53.47  LAKH CRORE 2025-26 ₹49.65  LAKH CRORE Figures are total budgeted expenditure GROSS FISCAL DEFICIT 2026-27 ₹16.96 LAKH CRORE 2025-26 ₹15.58 LAKH CRORE DEFICIT TRAJECTORY Fiscal deficit narrows steadily under the govt’s consolidation roadmap Note: Inclusive of states’ share of taxes and duties. Figures have been rounded off. *Includes securities transaction tax; #excludes capital outlay on defence and major subsidies CAPITAL EXPENDITURE 2026-27 ₹12.22 LAKH CRORE 2025-26 ₹10.96 LAKH CRORE BACKING THE STATES The Centre steps up fiscal transfers to states and Union Territories  Note: Data for FY27 are Budget Estimates (BE), data for FY26 are Revised Estimates (RE); source: GoI…