Home  /  Daily Current Affairs  /  18-02-2026

Daily Current Affairs – 18 February, 2026

    India and France upgrade ties to Special Global Strategic Partnership

    Context

  • The French President arrived on a three-day official visit to India to participate in the AI Impact Summit.

    • Major Outcomes

  • PM Modi announced the establishment of a ‘Special Global Strategic Partnership’ with France.
  • India and France renewed their defence cooperation agreement for another 10 years at the sixth India-France Annual Defence Dialogue.
  • Establishment of annual Foreign Ministers Dialogue for regularly reviewing implementation of the elevated partnership and Horizon 2047 Roadmap.
    • Read More

    AI and Future of Employability 

    Context

  • At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, a high-level discussion on “The Future of Employability in the Age of AI” brought together policymakers, industry leaders, educators and innovators.

    • About

  • The discussion examined which skills, roles, and mindsets will remain relevant as automation accelerates and what individuals must do to stay employable. 
  • Speakers emphasised the growing importance of creativity, systems thinking, adaptability, and lifelong learning over narrow task-based expertise.
  • The Chief Economic Advisor underlined that aligning technological adoption with mass employability must be a clear national commitment.
    • Read More

    Strengthening Public Health Through Tobacco Tax Reforms

    Context

  • India, the world’s second-largest tobacco producer and consumer, continues to face a severe public health burden as cigarette taxes make up only about 53% of the retail price, well below WHO benchmark.

    • About Tobacco 

  • Tobacco is a commercial crop obtained mainly from the plant Nicotiana tabacum, whose leaves contain nicotine, a highly addictive alkaloid that stimulates the central nervous system.
  • It is used in smoking forms (cigarettes, cigars, beedis) and smokeless forms (gutka, khaini, chewing tobacco).
    • Read More

    A Separate Classification for Denotified Tribes

    In News

  • The Union government assured leaders of Denotified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (DNTs) that they will be enumerated in the second phase of the 2027 Census, but details of the process remain unclear. 

    • Denotified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (DNTs)

  • Denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes were once labeled “criminal” by colonial authorities under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) of 1871, which described certain communities as inherently predisposed to crime due to caste-based heredity.
  • This act allowed for registration, surveillance, and control of these so-called criminal tribes.
  • The CTA was repealed in 1952, officially denotifying these communities and creating the category of denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes (DNTs).
    • Read More

    News In Short 18-02-2026

    Context

  • Telecom operators such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have urged the government to revisit India’s 2016 net neutrality framework to explicitly permit “network slicing” under 5G networks.

    • What is Net Neutrality?

  • Net neutrality is the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally, without discrimination based on content, platform, application, or user.
  • It prohibits:
  • Blocking of lawful content.
    • Read More
scroll to top