The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has proposed amendments to the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) that would empower airlines to directly impose a flying ban of up to 30 days on unruly passengers without referral to an independent committee. Currently, airlines must refer all cases to a committee which has 45 days to decide.

The Supreme Court, hearing a petition following the fatal attack on Anjel Chakma (a 24-year-old from Tripura attacked in Uttarakhand), has asked the Attorney-General to consider the plea seeking recognition of ‘racial slur’ as a separate category of hate crime. The CJI noted that pigeonholing crime by race/region could fuel polarisation, but acknowledged the need for action.

Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin tabled the first part of the Justice Kurian Joseph High-Level Committee Report on Union-State Relations in the Assembly, demanding constitutional amendments to make India more federal. He asserted this would not weaken the Union but empower States.

Over a year after an Allahabad HC judge used explicit language to narrate a sexual assault on a minor in a judicial order, the SC has assigned Justice Aniruddha Bose (retd), Director of the National Judicial Academy, to draw guidelines for judicial sensitivity, especially in vulnerable cases involving minors and sexual offences.

India did not join a statement signed by 85 countries at the UN criticising Israel’s plans to tighten control over the West Bank. This is a departure from India’s recent positions — it voted at the UN in October 2025 against Israel’s annexation, and the Delhi Declaration (Jan 2026) supported a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. The decision is linked to PM Modi’s upcoming visit to Israel (Feb 25-26).

At the AI Impact Summit, New Delhi, U.S. tech giants Nvidia (partnering with Yotta, L&T, E2E Networks for AI cloud infrastructure) and OpenAI (partnering with IIT-Delhi, IIM-A, AIIMS, Manipal, etc. for AI education) announced major collaborations with Indian industry and academia.

Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI launched two open-source LLMs named ‘Vikram’ (35-billion and 105-billion parameter models) at the AI Impact Summit. These are India’s first major homegrown LLMs, designed to be better at Indian languages. Backed by Peak XV and Khosla Ventures ($50 million+), and supported by IndiaAI Mission’s compute program.

An editorial argues that India’s copyright law is outdated and creates legal uncertainty over AI training data collection. Unlike the EU, Japan, and Singapore (which have ‘text and data mining’ exceptions), India’s copyright regime effectively makes AI training and even web search engines technically illegal in most scenarios. The article calls for flexible copyright exceptions to foster innovation.

India abstained from signing the ‘Pathways to Action’ declaration at the 3rd REAIM Summit (Responsible AI in the Military Domain) — along with the U.S. and China. Only 35 of 85 countries signed, down from 60 previously. India has called a legally binding instrument on LAWS “premature”, citing security concerns and the evolving nature of military AI.

An opinion piece argues that AI threatens not creativity itself, but our willingness to think. It warns of cognitive atrophy, “phantom citations” in academic papers, and the death of language as a tool of democracy. The author argues that universities must safeguard the humanities as the bedrock of critical thought.

India positions itself as offering a “Third Way” for AI governance — distinct from the EU’s compliance-heavy model, the U.S.’s hands-off approach, and China’s state-controlled model. In November 2025, India released AI governance guidelines emphasising adoption, diffusion, diplomacy, and capacity-building. On February 10, 2026, India became the first country to mandate AI-generation disclosure via IT Rules amendments.

The JPC examining the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024 for simultaneous elections is considering a provision to bar no-confidence motions if only one year of the government’s term remains. The panel has held 16 meetings. If enacted before 2029, the first sitting of the new Lok Sabha would be the “appointed date” and State Assembly terms would be truncated to align with 2034 Lok Sabha polls.

The NGT (Kolkata bench) has ruled that all environmental safeguards for the Great Nicobar Island Project (GNIP) are in place, citing “strategic utility.” Critics argue the project — a trans-shipment port, airport, township, and power plant — will devastate 9 lakh trees, leatherback turtle nesting grounds, coral reefs, and the rights of Shompen and Nicobarese tribes.

Following the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, 48 tourist sites in Kashmir were closed. Sites are being reopened in phases (14 reopened on Feb 16). The editorial argues that tourism revival needs three prongs: institutional capacity building, trail/heritage development, and environmental governance with local employment to counter the terrorist ecosystem.

~2,000 CRPF personnel launched Operation KGH-2 along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border to track senior Maoist commanders. The government aims to eradicate LWE by March 2026. Politburo/central committee members of CPI(Maoist) have fallen from 20 to 4 in one year. Maoist-affected districts dropped from 18 to 8 in 2025.

The U.S. agreed (Feb 6 joint statement) to cut reciprocal tariffs on Indian imports from 25% to 18%. Trump’s Executive Order 14384 already removed the 25% penal tariff (linked to India’s Russian oil imports) from Feb 7. The remaining reduction from 25% to 18% is pending — expected in 3-4 days via Federal Register update, without needing a fresh Executive Order.