Current Affairs February 2026 – Monthly Compilation

February belongs to the Union Budget. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget 2026-27 on 1 February 2026 — her ninth consecutive Budget — and the Reserve Bank followed with a policy that left the repo rate at 5.25%. Between them they supply most of the banking-awareness questions set on the month.

Economy

Union Budget 2026-27

The Budget was framed as a Yuva Shakti-driven Budget, its stated priorities being domestic manufacturing, high-growth services and infrastructure. Gross tax revenue is budgeted to rise 8% over the revised estimates for 2025-26. On tax, the proposals covered decriminalising minor offences, encouraging voluntary disclosure, extending revised return deadlines and rationalising TDS and TCS.

RBI monetary policy

The Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to hold the repo rate at 5.25%. The Standing Deposit Facility stayed at 5.00%, and the Marginal Standing Facility rate and Bank Rate at 5.50%. On stance the MPC voted 5:1 to remain Neutral, the single dissent favouring Accommodative.

FY26 GDP growth was raised slightly to 7.4% and the inflation estimate nudged up to 2.1%, largely on gold and silver prices. Annual inflation had run at 1.33% in December 2025 — below the tolerance band of 2% to 6%, an unusual state of affairs and a likely question. Against a cumulative 125 basis point repo reduction, the weighted average lending rate on fresh loans fell 105 basis points: that gap is what monetary policy transmission means in an exam answer.

Books and Authors

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee: The Eternal Statesman — unveiled in New Delhi by Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan.
• Four Stars of Destiny: An Autobiography — by former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane.

Persons in News

• Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister — presented her ninth consecutive Union Budget.
• C. P. Radhakrishnan, Vice President of India — unveiled the Vajpayee biography in New Delhi.
• Manoj Mukund Naravane, former Chief of the Army Staff — author of *Four Stars of Destiny*.

Sports

The Budget announced a Khelo India Mission to restructure sports development — the funding decision that matters most to sport this year, and one that returns in July with a specific outlay attached.

Science and Technology

Bharat-VISTAAR, a multilingual AI tool, was announced to integrate the AgriStack portals used by farmers — an example of AI being applied to public-service delivery rather than to industry.

Abbreviations

Quick revision

1. Union Budget 2026-27, 1 February 2026, Nirmala Sitharaman — her 9th consecutive Budget.
2. Defence has the largest allocation: ₹7,84,678 crore, 15% of total expenditure.
3. Repo 5.25%, SDF 5.00%, MSF and Bank Rate 5.50%; stance Neutral, voted 5:1.
4. FY26 GDP 7.4%, inflation 2.1%; December 2025 inflation 1.33%, below the 2–6% band.
5. Khelo India Mission for sport; Bharat-VISTAAR, a multilingual AI tool, for AgriStack.