Current Affairs – February 17, 2026

{GS2 – MoHFW} SAHI and BODH Initiatives Launched at India AI Impact Summit 2026 **

Context (PIB | ET): The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare launched two national initiatives, SAHI and BODH, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

About SAHI (Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India)

The Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India (SAHI) is a national framework that guides the safe, ethical, and inclusive adoption of AI in healthcare.
It focuses on areas such as data stewardship, governance, validation, and the deployment of AI solutions aligned with public health priorities.
The framework guides State governments and health institutions on integrating AI responsibly into public health systems.

About BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI)

The Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI (BODH) is a specialised platform for evaluating and validating the performance of AI models in healthcare.
It was developed by IIT Kanpur in collaboration with the National Health Authority (NHA).
The platform utilises Federated Learning frameworks to evaluate models on real-world data without exposing sensitive patient datasets.
BODH functions as a Digital Public Good (DPG) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), ensuring transparency in Health AI deployment.

Read More > AI in Healthcare

{GS2 – MoRTH} PM RAHAT (Road Accident Victim Hospitalisation and Assured Treatment) **

Context (NOA): PM Modi launched the PM RAHAT (Road Accident Victim Hospitalisation and Assured Treatment) scheme to provide cashless emergency medical care to road-accident victims.

Primary Objective: The scheme aims to prevent fatalities by ensuring victims receive immediate medical treatment within the “Golden Hour”, the first 60 minutes after an accident.
Strategic Goal: It serves as the “Emergency Care” pillar of India’s 4E strategy (Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Emergency Care) to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2030.

About PM RAHAT Scheme

PM RAHAT is a Central Sector Scheme under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) that offers cashless medical treatment to all road accident victims.
Statutory Basis: Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, legally obligates insurance companies to support a nationwide cashless treatment framework.
Nodal Agency: The National Health Authority (NHA) serves as the primary nodal body responsible for executing the scheme at the national level.
Cooperative Governance: State Health Agencies (SHAs) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) collaborate to ensure regional implementation.
Financial Source: The Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVAF) acts as the central repository for reimbursing all eligible hospital medical expenses.
- Insurer Liability: For accidents involving insured vehicles, costs are drawn from contributions made by General Insurance Companies to the MVAF.
- Funding Gap: The Central Government provides dedicated budgetary allocations to the MVAF to cover expenses for hit-and-run cases and accidents involving uninsured vehicles.
Universal Benefit: The benefits extend to any person (Indian or foreign national) involved in an accident on all road categories, including national highways, state highways, and urban streets.

Operational Mechanism

Financial Benefits: Victims are entitled to cashless treatment up to ₹1.5 lakh for a maximum of 7 days from the date of the accident.
Provider Network: The network includes all AB PMJAY-empanelled hospitals, as well as government and private facilities designated by the States.
Stabilisation Window: Mandatory stabilisation treatment is provided for 24 hours in non-life-threatening cases and 48 hours for critical emergencies.
Digital Verification: The eDAR (Electronic Detailed Accident Report) portal enables seamless verification of accident data across the digital ecosystem.
Police Authentication: Cashless benefits remain contingent upon police authentication via eDAR within 24 hours for standard cases and 48 hours for critical ones.
Claim Management: The TMS 2.0 (Transaction Management System) of the National Health Authority manages the entire claim processing workflow.
Liquidity Assurance: State Health Agencies are mandated to settle approved claims within 10 days to maintain hospital financial liquidity.
Response Integration: The scheme integrates with the 112 helpline to ensure rapid coordination between first responders and trauma centres.
Grievance Redressal: A district-level officer under the District Road Safety Committee handles all disputes and complaints regarding service delivery.

Read More > Road Safety in India

{GS2 – Governance} Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 **

Context (TH): The Supreme Court referred a batch of petitions challenging Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, to a larger Constitution Bench.

Regime Transformation: Petitioners argue that Section 44(3) delivers a “body blow” to the RTI framework by converting a balanced transparency regime into a blanket exemption.

Key Features of Section 44(3) of DPDP Act 2023

Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, amends Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005, granting statutory primacy to data privacy over the public’s right to information.
Absolute Exemption: By removing all prior conditions, the amendment converts a conditional exemption into a blanket statutory bar on disclosure of personal information.
Public Interest: Public Information Officers can no longer disclose personal data even when a demonstrably larger public interest is established.
Legislative Parity: The proviso ensuring that information available to Parliament or State Legislatures must also be accessible to citizens has been deleted.
Public Nexus: A connection to “public activity or interest” no longer serves as a legal justification for disclosure; the mere classification of data as “personal” is now sufficient for denial.
Privacy Threshold: Removing the “unwarranted invasion of privacy” threshold makes rejecting personal-data requests the legal default for authorities.

Key Concerns with Section 44(3) of DPDP Act 2023

Institutional Shielding: Public officials may invoke the “personal data” classification to deny access to asset declarations, educational degrees, or disciplinary records.
Adjudicatory Loss: The amendment removes the discretion of Public Information Officers to balance larger public interest against individual privacy claims.
Rights Hierarchy: In personal-data disputes, the Right to Privacy under Article 21 now carries greater statutory weight than the Right to Information under Article 19(1)(a).
Statutory Conflict: The provision creates doctrinal tension with Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, which mandates disclosure when public interest outweighs protected interests.
Administrative Chilling: Fear of high financial penalties under the DPDP Act for wrongful data processing discourages officials from exercising disclosure powers.

{GS2 – Polity} Towards a Structural Reset of Indian Federalism

Context (TH): Forged in Partition’s shadow, India’s federalism privileged centralisation; today, a mature democracy demands balanced autonomy and cooperative governance.

Constitutional Framework of Federalism

Article 1: Declares India as a “Union of States,” ensuring indissoluble unity with constitutionally recognised States.
Division of Powers: The Seventh Schedule distributes legislative authority into the Union List, the State List, and the Concurrent List.
Article 246: Clearly demarcates legislative competence between Parliament and State Legislatures.
Article 254: Establishes Union primacy in case of conflict on Concurrent List subjects.
Fiscal Federalism (Article 280): Provides for a Finance Commission to recommend tax devolution between the Union and the States.
Basic Structure Doctrine: Federalism recognised as part of the Constitution’s Basic Structure in S.R. Bommai (1994).

Centralisation Trends

Historical Centralisation: Power gained under necessity persists beyond crisis, limiting State autonomy. E.g., Single-party dominance after Independence reinforced central control over the States.
Political Evolution: Coalition and regional parties enabled more balanced federal governance. E.g., Rise of regional parties in the 1990s improved State influence.
Persistent Overreach: Centralisation hardened into a habitual practice despite strong national unity. E.g., Ministries in New Delhi duplicate State functions such as health and education.
Legislative Override: Union uses laws and subordinate rules to override State priorities. E.g., Central overrides States in education policy reform.

Need to Restore Federal Balance

Fiscal Centralisation: Growing reliance on cesses and surcharges reduces States’ tax share. E.g., education and infrastructure cesses are excluded from the divisible pool under Article 270.
Scheme Rigidity: Uniform CSS guidelines restrict regional flexibility. E.g., MGNREGA fund-use norms limiting drought-specific adaptations in Rajasthan.
Concurrent Encroachment: Union laws increasingly dominate Concurrent subjects. E.g., NEP 2020 is influencing State curriculum and language policy decisions.
Executive Overreach: Central agencies intervene in State domains, diluting accountability. E.g., expanded BSF jurisdiction in Punjab beyond the traditional 15 km limit.
State Innovation: States drive policy breakthroughs through local experimentation. E.g., Tamil Nadu’s Noon Meal Scheme is inspiring the national PM POSHAN programme.

{GS3 – Agri} Fertiliser Sector Regulation in India **

Context (IE): Uttar Pradesh Govt.’s recent ban on the sale of non-subsidised speciality nutrients by authorised fertiliser dealers has sparked a debate about India’s fertiliser regulatory regime.

Current Regulatory Framework

Statutory Pricing: The Central Government exercises absolute control by legally fixing the pan-India MRP of urea at ₹242 per 45 kg bag (exclusive of neem-coating charges and taxes).
Administrative Oversight: Under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS), the government enforces “Reasonableness of MRP” guidelines on Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilisers to ensure affordability.
Logistical Command: The Fertiliser Movement Control Order 1973 empowers the Department of Fertilisers (DoF) to determine rail “rake” destinations and state-wise equitable supply plans.
Branding Uniformity: The Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana (PMBJP) mandates a single brand name, “Bharat”, for all subsidised fertilisers.
Digital Accountability: The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system releases 100% subsidy to companies only after Aadhaar-authenticated sales through Point of Sale (PoS) devices.
Market Restrictions: Recent directives in Uttar Pradesh prohibit authorised urea suppliers from selling non-subsidised speciality nutrients to prevent the forced “tagging” of premium products.

Arguments in Favour of Fertiliser Controls

Inflation Insulation: Fixed urea pricing shields the domestic cost of cultivation and the MSP regime from global volatility in natural gas and phosphoric acid prices.
Equitable Distribution: Centralised “rake” allocation ensures adequate supply in remote or logistically unviable districts that a purely profit-driven market might underserve.
Ant-Tagging Safeguard: Regulatory restrictions on “tied-in” sales protect marginal farmers from the coercive bundling of essential urea with high-margin, non-subsidised nutrients.
Leakage Reduction: Aadhaar-linked PoS verification curbs the diversion of agricultural urea to industrial sectors such as plywood, resins, and synthetic milk.
Quality Standardisation: Uniform “Bharat” branding and stringent central oversight reduce the proliferation of spurious or sub-standard fertiliser mixtures in local markets.

Arguments Against Fertiliser Controls

Nutrient Imbalance: The disproportionate urea subsidy has skewed the national N:P:K ratio to 11:4:1 against the ideal 4:2:1, accelerating soil fatigue and degrading long-term fertility.
Innovation Suppression: State-level prohibitions on stocking unsubsidised speciality nutrients at subsidised fertiliser outlets discourage private R&D in precision farming tools like water-soluble NPKs.
Brand Dilution: The “Bharat” brand mandate converts differentiated products into generic commodities, removing the incentive for firms to invest in extension services or localised soil testing.
Regulatory Uncertainty: Sudden, retrospective prohibitions on legally approved non-subsidised products signal unpredictability and deter private investment.
Liquidity Crunch: The post-sale subsidy reimbursement model ties up working capital for extended periods, making firm solvency dependent on government disbursement cycles.

Way Forward

NBS Integration: Gradually transition urea into the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) framework to correct nitrogen bias and restore balanced fertilisation.
DBT 2.0 Reform: Shift from “post-sale company subsidy” to direct-to-farmer bank transfers to enable market-based pricing while preserving purchasing power.
Precision-Linked Subsidy: Integrate Soil Health Card data with the PoS system to discourage wasteful over-application.
Nano & Green Shift: Scale up Green Ammonia and Nano-fertilisers to reduce the fiscal burden of LNG imports and the logistical “rake” costs of bulk urea.
Speciality Liberalisation: De-link non-subsidised speciality nutrients from the restrictive Essential Commodities Act to foster precision-farming innovation.

Read More > Fertiliser Subsidy in India

{GS3 – Envi} NGT Clears Great Nicobar Island Project **

Context (IE): The National Green Tribunal (NGT) cleared the Great Nicobar Island Project, citing its strategic importance and adequate safeguards.

About Great Nicobar Island Project

It is a Greenfield mega-infrastructure project designed to transform the Great Nicobar island into a global maritime and strategic hub.
Implementation: It was conceived by NITI Aayog and is implemented by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO).
Extent: The initiative covers 166 sq km (approximately 18% of the island), including denotified tribal reserves and protected forest areas.

Key Components: It comprises four main pillars —
1. ICTT: The International Container Transhipment Terminal will be developed as a deep-sea port in Galathea Bay to compete with global hubs such as Singapore, Klang, and Colombo.
2. Airport: A Greenfield International Airport will operate as a dual-use facility, supporting both military surveillance and civilian tourism.
3. Power Plant: A 450 MVA hybrid gas and solar-based power plant is planned to ensure energy self-sufficiency for the new infrastructure.
4. Township: A modern city will be built to accommodate workers and residents.

Strategic & Economic Importance

Maritime Chokepoints: GNI is strategically located near the Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok Straits, through which 25-40% of global trade passes.
Geopolitical Counter: A permanent military presence serves as a strategic anchor to counter China’s “String of Pearls” strategy in the Indian Ocean Region.
Economic Potential: The Galathea Bay ICTT is projected to generate ₹30,000 crore in annual revenue by 2040 and create over 1.5 lakh jobs.
Domain Awareness: The dual-use airport enhances India’s Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) by enabling extended surveillance.
Strategic Alignment: The initiative aligns with the Sagarmala Programme and Maritime India Vision 2030 while advancing Act East connectivity objectives.

Key Concerns

Ecological Impact: The project requires clearing 130 sq km of pristine rainforest and felling nearly one million trees, thereby threatening biodiversity.
Biodiversity Risk: Critics highlight the destruction of nesting grounds for Giant Leatherback Turtles and the risks associated with coral reef translocation.
Tribal Displacement: The indigenous Nicobarese and Shompen (PVTG) face potential displacement and the loss of ancestral foraging grounds.
Seismic Vulnerability: The island lies in Seismic Zone V and experienced severe subsidence during the 2004 tsunami.
Afforestation Flaw: The government plans compensatory afforestation in Haryana’s Aravallis, which are ecologically dissimilar to tropical rainforests.

Mandated Safeguards

Tribal Protection: A strict geofencing system to ensure zero contact between project workers and the isolated Shompen tribe.
Turtle Conservation: The port and airport must install specialised “Dark Sky” lighting to prevent Giant Leatherback Turtles from becoming disoriented during nesting seasons.
Coral Translocation: The proponent is required to scientifically translocate more than 16,000 coral colonies to safe sites before dredging begins.
Seismic Resilience: All infrastructure must use advanced disaster-resilient technology to withstand seismic activity in Zone V.
Oversight Mechanism: Three independent committees will monitor pollution, biodiversity, and tribal welfare to ensure strict compliance.
Wildlife Corridors: Eco-bridges and underpasses will be constructed to maintain habitat connectivity for species such as the Nicobar Macaque.

Read More > Great Nicobar Project

{GS3 – Envi} UNEP FI Launched Impact Centre for Holistic Impact Management

Context (UNEP): The UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) launched the Impact Centre to consolidate its “SDGs & Impact” workstream into a single, dedicated centre of expertise.

Strategic Role: The centre serves as a centralised hub to help financial institutions align with sustainability standards.

UNEP FI is a Geneva-based global partnership established in 1992 between UNEP and the private financial sector to integrate sustainability into financial market practices.

About UNEP FI Impact Centre

The UNEP FI Impact Centre provides financial institutions with standardised tools and methodologies to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of their lending and investment activities.
Core Objective: It mainstreams holistic impact management to align private capital with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

Main Workstreams and Key Tools

The Impact Centre operates through five primary workstreams –

Impact Methodology: Global framework for portfolio-level sustainability impact assessment.
Interoperability: Alignment of tools with global reporting standards like EU ESRS, IFRS, etc.
Implementation Support: Assistance and capacity-building workshops for member institutions.
Advisory Services: Integration of impact management into core business operations.
Consensus Building: Harmonisation of global practices through the Impact Management Platform.

Centre manages a suite of resources designed for practical use by financial practitioners

Impact Protocol: Step-by-step guide to analyse and manage portfolio sustainability impacts.
Impact Radar: Classification of themes across environmental, social, & economic pillars.
Impact Mappings: Databases linking economic activities to their specific sustainability footprints.
Portfolio Analysis Tools: Digital tools to identify portfolio impact concentrations.
Indicator Library: A repository of metrics for target-setting and performance tracking.

{Prelims – MEITY} India-AI Impact Summit 2026 *

Context (NOA | TH): The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 is underway at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.

This event represents the first global AI summit in the Global South, positioning India as a voice for developing nations in shaping AI norms.
It is being organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Participation: The summit brings together over 100 countries, including over 20 Heads of State, 60 Ministers, and global technology leaders.
Objective: To advance an impact-oriented, people-centric approach to Artificial Intelligence, emphasising measurable social and economic outcomes.
Guiding Principles: It is structured around “Three Sutras“—People, Planet, and Progress—which set the ethical boundaries for AI deployment.
Thematic Pillars: ‘Seven Chakras’ or working groups focus on areas like Human Capital, Safe & Trusted AI, Democratizing AI Resources, and AI for Social Good.
Significance: It marks a significant transition from a “Safety-First” model to an “Impact-First” approach, positioning AI as a public good to bridge the digital divide.

{Prelims – Species} Synchronised Terrestrial Bird Census in Tamil Nadu

Context (TH): The Tamil Nadu Forest Department organised the Synchronised Terrestrial Bird Census (2025-26) to monitor avian biodiversity during the migratory season.

Census Sequence: This terrestrial exercise followed the Wetland Bird Census, conducted earlier in the cycle in December 2025.
Seasonal Adjustment: The Forest Department advanced the census schedule from March to February to capture data during the early migratory season.
Migratory Sighting: Recorded species included the Indian Golden Oriole, Brown Shrike, Booted Eagle, and Blue-tailed Bee-eater.
Resident Species: Common species were – Skylark, Jerdon’s Bushlark, Plain Prinia, Spotted Dove, and Red-vented Bulbul.

{Prelims – Species} Lepidocampa sikkimensis *

Context (TS): Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recently discovered Lepidocampa sikkimensis, a new soil-dwelling micro-arthropod species in the Eastern Himalayas.
Research Milestone: This discovery marks the first time an Indian research team has described a species in the Diplura group.
About Species: Lepidocampa sikkimensis is a wingless micro-arthropod belonging to the primitive hexapod (six-legged) order Diplura.
Appearance: It has a slender, translucent body that is distinctively covered in scales, and is characterised by two elongated, tail-like appendages called cerci.
Habitat Preference: This organism thrives in the humus-rich soil and leaf litter of moist, temperate Himalayan forests.
Distribution: Its known range is restricted to the Eastern Himalayas, with records from Ravangla (Sikkim) and Kurseong (West Bengal).
Ecological Significance: The species plays a critical role in nutrient cycling and serves as a biological indicator of soil health and ecosystem stability.