In a significant milestone towards integrating Ayurveda with the mainstream health insurance ecosystem, the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi, an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Ayush, has signed a Common Empanelment Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the General Insurance Council (GIC) on 10 February 2026.
With this agreement, AIIA has been empanelled with all 32 general insurance companies under the General Insurance Council, enabling patients to avail cashless treatment facilities for eligible Ayurveda-based healthcare services.
About All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA)
The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), established under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, is envisioned as an apex institute for Ayurveda, fostering synergy between traditional Ayurvedic knowledge and modern scientific advancements.
About General Insurance Council (GIC)
The General Insurance Council is a statutory body constituted under Section 64C of the Insurance Act, 1938, and has been functioning since 2001 under the aegis of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
India has been designated as the Country of the Year at BIOFACH 2026, the world’s leading trade fair for organic products, scheduled to be held from 10th to 13th February 2026 at Nuremberg, Germany.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is organising India’s participation at BIOFACH 2026 with a prominent and high-impact presence.
BIOFACH Germany is the world’s largest and most influential exhibition dedicated exclusively to organic food and agriculture. APEDA has been participating in BIOFACH for more than a decade and has consistently maintained a strong presence at the event.
After a span of 14 years, India’s organic farming sector is set to take centre stage once again at BIOFACH 2026.
The India Country Pavilion, set up by APEDA, will span an area of 1,074 square metres and will feature 67 co-exhibitors, including exporters of organic products, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), cooperatives, organic laboratories,
state government organisations, and commodity boards. The pavilion will showcase a wide range of organic products such as rice, oilseeds, herbs, spices, pulses, cashew, ginger, turmeric, large cardamom, cinnamon, mango puree, and essential oils, among others.
APEDA has also undertaken extensive branding and high-impact promotional activities at prominent locations across the Nuremberg Messe Exhibition Centre, as part of India’s designation as Country of the Year at BIOFACH 2026.
The Department of Posts (DoP), Ministry of Communications, Government of India announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), India’s leading stock exchange, to enable the distribution of mutual fund products through India Post’s extensive postal network.
The Department of Posts, using its vast network of over 1.64 lakh post offices across the country, will work with NSE, which has a strong online system for handling mutual fund transactions that covers everything from placing orders to settling them, all while following SEBI rules.
Under the MoU, selected employees of the Department of Posts will be identified, trained, and onboarded as certified mutual fund distributors. These officials will be enabled to offer mutual fund products and related investor services through NSE’s mutual fund platform, subject to mandatory certifications and regulatory compliance.
The MoU, signed on 10th February 2026, shall be valid for a period of three years and may be renewed by mutual consent. The collaboration will be implemented in a phased manner, beginning with a pilot covering selected locations.
IndiaAI, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) in collaboration with All India Society for Electronics and Computer Technology (AISECT) flagged off Kaushal Rath, a mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) awareness initiative under the National AI Literacy programme “Yuva AI for All.”
The initiative aims to expand access to foundational AI education and bridge the digital divide by reaching students, youth, educators, and learners in semi-urban and underserved regions.
Kaushal Rath is a fully equipped mobile computer lab with internet-enabled systems, audio-visual tools, and structured training modules.
Kaushal Rath will contribute to national outreach and capacity-building efforts in the lead-up to the India AI Impact Summit 2026, to be held from 16 to 20 February 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in consultation with the Government of India, has announced that loans sanctioned by banks to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) w.e.f. January 19, 2026, for on-lending to cooperative societies are eligible for classification as priority sector lending under the respective categories.
The Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, has extended Ex-Servicemen (ESM) status to officers of the Military Nursing Service (MNS). This follows an amendment to the Ex-servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979, notified.
As per the amendment, Section 2(c)(i) of the Rules has been modified to explicitly include the Military Nursing Service of the Indian Union within the definition of an Ex-servicemen. The revised provision now covers personnel who have served in any rank, whether as a combatant or non-combatant, in the Regular Army, Navy, Air Force or the Military Nursing Service,
Air Force or the Military Nursing Service, thereby placing MNS officers on an equal statutory footing with other uniformed services for the purpose of post-retirement benefits.
The Military Nursing Service is an integral component of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), alongside the Army Medical Corps and Army Dental Corps.
MNS officers are commissioned officers who serve across Army, Navy and Air Force medical establishments, delivering critical nursing care in military hospitals, providing medical support during operations and emergencies, and attending to casualties in challenging and often hostile environments.
The Union Government has notified amendments requiring photorealistic AI-generated contents to be prominently labelled and significantly shortening timelines for takedown of illegal material, including non-consensual deepfakes. The changes, under the Information Technology Act, 2021, will come into force on February 20.
Under the amended rules, social media platforms will now have between 2-3 hours to remove certain categories of unlawful content, a sharp reduction from the earlier 24-36 hour window.
Thanya Nathan C., lawyer, will shortly enter the annals of Kerala’s judicial history as the first visually challenged woman judge.
Ms. Nathan, who is totally blind, was ranked first on the merit list of persons with benchmark disabilities in the recently held judicial service examination for the selection of Civil Judges (Junior Division) in the Kerala Judicial Service.
Joyson Sajan, with cerebral palsy, came second.
It was a landmark judgment by a Supreme Court Bench consisting of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan in 2025, which noted that “visually impaired candidates cannot be said to be ‘not suitable’ for judicial service and they are eligible to participate in selection for posts in judicial service,”
that paved the way for Ms. Nathan to become a judge.
The Bench had held that people with disabilities “should not face any discrimination in their pursuit of judicial service opportunities, and instead, there should be affirmative action on behalf of the State to provide an inclusive framework,”
and no candidate shall be denied “consideration solely on account of their disability.”
This should probably be for the first time that a candidate with visual disability is clearing the judicial service examination in Kerala. It’s not known whether such candidates had earlier applied for the post. Currently, there are no visually challenged judges in Kerala.
City Union Bank said that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved the appointment of R Vijay Anandh, currently the Executive Director (ED) at the private bank, as the next Managing Director & CEO.
RBI vide its letter dated February 9, 2026, has conveyed its approval for the appointment of R Vijay Anandh as MD & CEO of the bank for a period of 3 years w.e.f May 1, 2026, along with remuneration, City Union Bank said in an exchange filing. The appointment shall be subject to approval of shareholders of the bank.
Prior to his appointment in City Union Bank, he served as the Business and Collections Head for Retail Asset products at RBL Bank, working closely with the ED & the MD there. He was first appointed as Executive President at CUB in 2023, and was designated as ED in 2024.
N Kamakodi has been serving as MD & CEO of CUB since May 2011, and his term ends on April 30, 2026.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with Greece’s Minister of National Defence, Nikolaos-Georgios Dendias, in New Delhi onFebruary 9, 2026. The meeting focused on strengthening defence cooperation under the India–Greece Strategic Partnership.
According to the Ministry of Defence, both Ministers reiterated that the partnership is rooted in shared values of peace, stability, freedom and mutual respect. They agreed to expand the capacities of their indigenous defence industries by aligning India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative with Greece’s defence reforms under Agenda 2030.
A Joint Declaration of Intent on strengthening defence industrial cooperation was signed, marking the beginning of work on a five-year roadmap. The two sides also exchanged a Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan for 2026, outlining future military engagements between the armed forces of both countries, the Ministry added.
The Greek side announced the deployment of a Greek International Liaison Officer at the Information Fusion Centre–Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram, underlining enhanced maritime cooperation.
The Gujarat government on February 9, 2026 exchanged a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Starlink for mutual cooperation in high-speed satellite-based internet connectivity in remote, border and underserved areas of the State.
The aim is to provide high-speed satellite-based internet connectivity in the State's remote, border, and underserved areas that currently have limited telecom infrastructure, the release said, adding it is part of the Digital Connectivity Mission and other strategic initiatives.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered that a six-stanza version of Vande Mataram, spanning 3 minutes and 10 seconds, must now be played or sung at several official events. The direction, reportedly issued on January 28, was sent to all states, Union territories, ministries and constitutional bodies.
