CLAT Express - February 2026: Monthly Current Affairs & General Knowledge Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering major constitutional law developments, international treaties, the Union Budget 2026-27, the 16th Finance Commission, and key strategic initiatives from February 2026.

International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977

A United States federal statute enacted under President Jimmy Carter to replace the Trading with the Enemy Act of $1917$. It empowers the U.S. President to regulate or prohibit international financial transactions, freeze foreign-held assets, and restrict commercial dealings upon declaring a national emergency in response to an unusual and extraordinary foreign threat to national security, foreign policy, or economic stability.

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974

A statutory provision under United States trade law that authorizes the President to impose temporary import tariffs of up to $15\%$ for a duration of up to $150\text{ days}$ to protect domestic manufacturing and address balance-of-payments deficits or unfair trade practices.

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962

A U.S. legal provision that grants the President executive authority to impose tariffs or quantitative import restrictions on specific foreign products deemed to threaten national security, notably invoked against steel and aluminium imports.

CAATSA

An acronym for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, an American law enacted in $2017$ to deter and punish third-party countries that maintain deep commercial, energy, or defence ties with Russia, Iran, and North Korea through secondary economic sanctions.

H-1B Visa

A non-immigrant United States employment visa that permits domestic companies to recruit skilled foreign workers for specialized STEM and information technology roles requiring at least a bachelor's degree, with Indian nationals comprising the largest share of recipients.

New START Treaty

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, signed in $2010$ and entered into force in $2011$ between the United States and the Russian Federation, which capped operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads at $1550$ per country and restricted long-range delivery vehicles before expiring on $5\text{th February } 2026$.

Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty

A bilateral nuclear arms control agreement signed in $1972$ as an outcome of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, restricting the deployment of strategic missile defense shields to preserve mutual vulnerability and prevent first-strike advantages.

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)

An informal multilateral non-proliferation regime established in $1987$ comprising $35$ partner countries (with India joining in $2016$ and China remaining a non-member) that coordinates export controls to prevent the proliferation of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.

Wassenaar Arrangement

A voluntary export control regime established in $1996$ comprising $42$ participating states (including India, which joined in $2017$) that promotes transparency and responsibility in international transfers of conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use equipment and technologies.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

An autonomous intergovernmental organization established in $1957$ in Vienna, Austria, operating under the motto 'Atoms for Peace and Development' to administer nuclear safeguards, verify non-diversion of nuclear materials into military applications, and promote civilian nuclear safety across its $180$ member states.

Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II)

A series of five underground nuclear detonations conducted by India on $11\text{th and } 13\text{th May } 1998$ at the Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan's Thar Desert, codenamed Shakti I through Shakti III, which confirmed India's weaponized nuclear capability after its initial $1974$ Smiling Buddha test.

July National Charter Implementation Order 2025

A $28\text{-page}$ constitutional reform pact signed by $25$ political parties and the interim government in Bangladesh, approved by a $65.3\%$ public referendum vote, which instituted a two-term ($10\text{-year}$) lifetime cap on prime ministers, created a bicameral legislature, and mandated non-partisan caretaker governments for general elections.

Teesta River

A major transboundary river measuring $414\text{ km}$ in total length ($151\text{ km}$ in Sikkim, $142\text{ km}$ along the Sikkim-West Bengal border, and $121\text{ km}$ in Bangladesh) that originates from the Khangchung Chho glacial lake as Chhombo Chhu and drains into the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) River.

Ganga Water Sharing Treaty of 1996

A $30\text{-year}$ bilateral treaty ($1996-2026$) between India and Bangladesh establishing a formula for dividing lean-season river flow ($1\text{st January to } 31\text{st May}$) at Farakka Barrage in $10\text{-day}$ cycles, guaranteeing Bangladesh $35{,}000\text{ cusecs}$ during early and late April and setting an emergency consultation trigger if total discharge falls below $50{,}000\text{ cusecs}$.

President's Rule (Article 356)

A constitutional emergency power in India allowing the Union President to assume executive functions of a state and vest legislative powers in Parliament upon the failure of constitutional machinery, requiring ratification by both Houses of Parliament within $2\text{ months}$ and lasting up to a maximum normal period of $3\text{ years}$.

S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994)

A landmark judgment delivered by the Supreme Court of India ruling that presidential proclamation under Article $356$ is subject to judicial review, and that a state legislative assembly can only be suspended initially and cannot be dissolved until Parliament formally approves the proclamation.

Biopharma SHAKTI

A key central initiative introduced in Union Budget $2026-27$ with an outlay of $₹10{,}000\text{ Crore}$ over $5\text{ years}$ ('Strategy for Healthcare Advancement through Knowledge, Technology & Innovation') to establish India as a global manufacturing hub for domestic biologics and biosimilars.

Biosimilars

Biopharmaceutical drugs engineered to be highly similar in molecular structure, efficacy, safety, and purity to an existing reference biological medicine, showing no clinically meaningful differences from the approved originator biologic.

Bharat-VISTAAR

An agricultural digital intelligence platform ('Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources') introduced in Union Budget $2026-27$ that converges AgriStack digital public infrastructure with ICAR research practices through multilingual artificial intelligence models.

Orange Economy

An economic paradigm coined by Iván Duque Márquez and Felipe Buitrago in $2013$ that encompasses industries where commercial value is derived from intellectual property, cultural capital, creativity, and digital media (such as audio-visual media, animation, gaming, and visual arts) rather than industrial manufacturing.

Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT)

A direct tax provision created to ensure that profitable corporate entities utilizing statutory exemptions and deductions pay a baseline income tax, restructured in Union Budget $2026-27$ as a final tax with its rate lowered from $15\%$ to $14\%$.

Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS)

A foreign exchange regulatory facility instituted by the Reserve Bank of India in $2004$ that permits resident individuals, including minors, to remit up to $\text{USD } 250{,}000$ per financial year for permissible capital and current account transactions overseas.

Sixteenth Finance Commission

A constitutional body established under Article $280$ of the Constitution of India, chaired by Dr. Arvind Panagariya, tasked with determining the sharing of central net tax proceeds between the Union and the states and making grants-in-aid recommendations for the period $2026-31$.

Vertical Devolution

The constitutional formula determining the aggregate proportion of the Union Government's divisible tax pool distributed to state governments, which was recommended by the 16th Finance Commission to be retained at $41\%$.

Horizontal Devolution

The dynamic criteria and percentage weights assigned by the Finance Commission to apportion the collective $41\%$ state share of central taxes among individual Indian states based on parameters including population, area, forest cover, income distance, and economic contribution.

Statutory Grants (Article 275)

Specific grants-in-aid sanctioned by Parliament upon recommendation of the Finance Commission, charged directly to the Consolidated Fund of India, and allocated exclusively to individual states identified as requiring financial assistance.

Discretionary Grants (Article 282)

Financial allocations that either the Union or state governments may disburse for any public purpose regardless of legislative subject jurisdiction, awarded completely at executive discretion without mandatory constitutional entitlement.

Urbanisation Premium

An incentive allocation of $₹10{,}000\text{ Crore}$ recommended by the 16th Finance Commission designed to reward and facilitate the formal amalgamation of surrounding peri-urban rural villages into urban local bodies possessing a population greater than $1\text{ Lakh}$.

SASCI Scheme

The Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment initiative, created in $2020-21$, providing $50\text{-year}$ interest-free long-term capital loans to state governments, specifically excluded from standard state fiscal borrowing deficit thresholds.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

A retail price benchmark calculated using the Laspeyres index by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that tracks inflation and changes in the cost of living for consumer goods and services, recently revised with a base year of $2024$.

GDP Deflator

A comprehensive macroeconomic measure of price inflation calculated by dividing nominal gross domestic product by real gross domestic product, measuring price changes across all domestically manufactured final goods and services, including capital items, while excluding imported commodities.

M.A.N.A.V. Framework

A human-centric governance model for ethical AI introduced at the India AI Impact Summit $2026$, encompassing five pillars: Moral and Ethical Systems, Accountable Governance, National Sovereignty, Accessible and Inclusive AI, and Valid and Legitimate Systems.

Bio-AI Mulankur Hubs

Integrated, closed-loop biological and computational research facilities launched under India's BioE3 Policy, where artificial intelligence software generates predictive biological models that are validated through automated laboratory experiments in real time.

BODH Platform

The Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI, an open data testing repository established by IIT Kanpur and the National Health Authority under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to validate healthcare AI algorithms using real-world clinical datasets.

VoicERA

An open-source, end-to-end voice and natural language artificial intelligence stack developed under the Digital India BHASHINI Division to act as a foundational digital execution platform across Indian languages.

Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)

A globally recognized public governance index published annually since $1995$ by Transparency International that evaluates perceived public sector corruption in $182$ countries and territories on an index score ranging from $0$ (highly corrupt) to $100$ (very clean).

Great Nicobar Mega Infrastructure Project

A strategic integrated infrastructure initiative on the southernmost island of India, overseen by ANIIDCO, which includes an International Container Transshipment Terminal at Galathea Bay, an international dual-use airport, a $450\text{ MVA}$ power station, and an integrated greenfield township.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG)

A specialized administrative categorization created within Scheduled Tribes in India, established under the Dhebar Commission in $1973$ as Primitive Tribal Groups and renamed in $2006$, characterized by declining or static populations, pre-agricultural technology, low literacy, and subsistence economic livelihoods.

Ramsar Convention

An international environmental treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, in $1971$ (operational since $1975$) dedicated to the conservation, ecological protection, and sustainable wise use of internationally significant wetland ecosystems.

Montreux Record

A specialized international register established in $1990$ under the Ramsar Convention cataloguing wetland sites on the Ramsar List that have experienced, are experiencing, or face imminent ecological harm caused by human interference, pollution, or industrial development.

Chabahar Port

An ocean-facing deep-water port situated on the Makran coast in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province on the Gulf of Oman, operated under a long-term contract by India Ports Global Limited to serve as a direct maritime and land transit gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan.

Arab League

A regional intergovernmental organization formed in Cairo in $1945$ following the Alexandria Protocol of $1944$, consisting of $22$ Middle Eastern and North African nations dedicated to promoting common political, military, cultural, and trade interests.

Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA)

An autonomous administrative governance body established via a tripartite accord between the Government of India, the Government of Nagaland, and the Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation, devolving powers over $46$ development subjects across six eastern districts without diluting Article $371(\text{A})$.

Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000

A statutory safe harbour clause that protects digital intermediaries from secondary liability for unlawful third-party content published on their networks, provided they function as passive conduits, observe due diligence, and comply with lawful government takedown directives.

Sahyog Portal

A coordinated inter-agency digital management portal operated by the Ministry of Home Affairs to automate, process, and expedite the delivery of lawful compliance and content removal notices from law enforcement authorities to digital intermediaries.

Bharat Taxi

An indigenously launched cooperative cab mobility platform in India owned by its driver-members ('Sarathis'), who acquire equity shares up to $₹500$ and receive $80\%$ of fare earnings directly alongside social security and healthcare coverage.

Motion of Thanks

A formal parliamentary resolution moved and debated under Rule $17$ of the Lok Sabha Rules following the President's constitutional address under Article $87(1)$, allowing legislators to deliberate upon executive priorities and concluding with an address by the Prime Minister.

FORGE Initiative

The Forum on Resource, Geostrategic Engagement, a multilateral strategic cooperation platform initiated by the United States during the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington D.C. as the direct institutional successor to the Minerals Security Partnership.

Kavach

An indigenous electronic train safety system engineered by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) that monitors train speeds, prevents head-on collisions, and executes automated brake intervention when signals are passed at danger.

MESSENGER Spacecraft

A robotic NASA orbital mission (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) that operated as the first artificial satellite to orbit Mercury, confirming the presence of substantial water ice in permanently shaded craters at Mercury's poles.