News Headlines for School Assembly, February 2nd: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2026 on Sunday, announcing that cancer drugs, seafood, EV batteries, and sports equipment
are expected to become cheaper, while alcohol and tobacco products may get costlier. Check out the top news highlights of the day.
Top National News:
– The finance minister, while presenting her ninth Union Budget, announced that Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on overseas tour packages would be brought down from the earlier rates of 5 per cent and 20 per cent to 2 per cent with no minimum amount condition, pulling down the booking cost and making international travel more affordable for the aam aadmi.
– Days after former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina broke her silence from exile with a blistering public address on January 23 — branding Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus a “murderous fascist” and dismissing the interim administration in Dhaka as a “puppet regime”— her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, is now set to make what can be described as his first public address in India on Monday.
Top International News:
– Pakistan’s security forces on Saturday said they killed 92 militants during counter-operations launched in response to a wave of coordinated attacks across multiple locations in Balochistan, while 15 security personnel were killed in the clashes, according to the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), The Express Tribune reported.
– Turkey has firmly ruled out any multilateral mutual defence agreement involving Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, clarifying that discussions underway are limited to strategic and bilateral defence cooperation, not a collective security pact. Multiple Turkish political, military and security sources have underlined that Ankara is not part of, nor considering, a Pakistan–Saudi–Turkey mutual defence framework.
Top Sports News:
– Carlos Alcaraz, age 22, defeated Novak Djokovic in four sets to win the 2026 Australian Open, becoming the youngest player ever to complete the Career Grand Slam.
Top Business News:
– The Sensex plunged more than 2,300 points from the day’s high, while the Nifty 50 slipped to 24,571.75 following the announcement of a hike in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT).
– The government has proposed a significant change to the capital gains tax treatment of Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) as part of the Union Budget 2026–27 speech, narrowing the scope of the long-standing tax exemption available to investors.
Top Education News:
– Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs 1,39,285.95 crore for the education sector this year, which is 8.27% higher compared to last year. The total allocation for the education sector in the 2025-26 budget was Rs 1,28,650.05 crore.
– Sitharaman on Sunday announced the establishment of a second National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in north India as part of her Union Budget 2026-27.
