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1 In the midst of a Covid-19surge, the election commis-sion (EC) on Saturdayannounced dates for Assemblypolls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,Goa, Manipur, andUttarakhand. The EC disal-lowed physical political rallies,roadshows, padyatras, cycleand bike rallies till January 15when it will review the for the high-stakesUttar Pradesh Assembly elec-tions will be held in seven phas-es, starting from the westernpart of the politically crucialState on February 10 and mov-ing eastwards. Punjab,Uttarakhand and Goa will voteon February 14 while electionsin Manipur will be held onFebruary 27 and March 3. Thecounting of votes for all fiveStates will be held on March the electionschedule with a strong focus ondigital and virtual modes ofcampaigning, Chief ElectionCommissioner Sushil Chandrasaid that no physical politicalrallies, nukkad sabhas, cycleand bikes rallies, and road-shows will be allowed tillJanuary 15.

2 Situation to bereviewed and fresh instruc-tions to be issued later. TheCommission will not hesitate tobar parties from further ralliesif Covid protocol is not fol-lowed, Chandra said. He saidparties and candidates havebeen advised to conduct theircampaigns on virtual and dig-ital modes as much as Uttar Pradesh, votingwill take place in 58 Assemblyconstituencies, covering 11western districts, out of the 403seats in the first phase onFebruary 10. The second phase to beheld on February 14 will cover55 seats, the third phase of vot-ing will cover 59 seats onFebruary 20, while the fourthphase polling will be for 60constituencies on February 23. The march of Covid-19infection slightly sloweddown in Mumbai and Delhiduring the last 24 hours onSaturday, but overall the situation seems as alarmingas ever.

3 On Saturday 1,41,986 dailyinfections were reported, tak-ing the country s total caseloadto 3,53,68,372, which included3,071 Omicron on Saturday report-ed 20,181 fresh Covid cases, thehighest single-day rise sinceMay last year. The Capitalreported 7 deaths over the last24 hours. On Friday, Delhireported 15,097 new test positivity rate stood at19 per the other hand,Mumbai on Saturday reported20,318 cases in the last 24hours, marginally lower thanFriday s 20,971. The city logged5 Covid-related deaths. On thewhole, Maharashtra added41,434 new Covid cases, mar-ginally higher compared toFriday. Thirteen people died inthe last 24 hours in the State. Ofthe total cases, 82 per cent areasymptomatic, down from 84per , this is just thebeginning, as indicated by apreliminary analysis by IITM adras which has predictedthe peak of the third wavebetween February 1 and attributed this toIndia s R-naught or R0 valuewhich indicates the spread ofCovid-19 was recorded at 4 thisweek, suggesting a very highinfection transmission rate.

4 R0indicates the number of peoplean infected person can spreadthe disease to. A pandemic isconsidered to end if this valuegoes below on preliminaryanalysis by computationalmodeling done by IIT Madras,the R0 value was close to in the past week(December 25 to December31). The number was recordedat 4 this week (January 1-6),according to a news Jayant Jha, AssistantProfessor, Department ofMathematics, IIT Madras, saidR0 depends on three things transmissibility probability,contact rate and the expectedtime interval in which infectioncan happen. Now, with the increase inquarantine measures or restric-tions, maybe the contact ratewill go down and then in thatcase R0 can decrease. So, basedon our preliminary analysis,which is just based on the lasttwo weeks, we can tell thesenumbers, but again, these num-bers can change based on howmuch affirmative action istaken with respect to socialgathering and all, he.

5 The world recordedmore than two million dailycoronavirus cases on average between January 1 and7 with figures doubling in tendays, an AFP tally showed average of 2,106,118new daily infections werereported over the seven-dayperiod, shortly after the onemillion case threshold in theweek of December 23-29, global case numbershave soared by 270 per centsince the highly contagiousOmicron variant was discov-ered in South Africa in lateNovember. But Covid-relateddeaths were at their lowestlevel since October 2020, withan average of 6,237 per dayrecorded during January early studies sug-gest Omicron causes less severeillness, experts have warned thesheer volume of cases fuelled bythe strain could still over-whelm health systems.

6 Countries around theworld have reintroduced curbsand ramped up vaccinationprogrammes in a bid to stemthe spread of the virus. Against the backdrop of con-troversy, the Ministry ofHome Affairs (MHA) hasrestored the FCRA registrationof Missionaries of Charity(MoC), the Catholic religiouscongregation set up by Nobellaureate Mother to officials, theorders were issued on Fridayevening. Last week, the Ministryissued a statement that theFCRA registration of the MoCwas not renewed as someadverse inputs were noticed .On January 7, the MoC wasremoved from the list ofaround 6,000 NGOs whoseregistration has ceased to exist. The Punjab Police onSaturday saw its thirdDirector General with the StateGovernment appointing seniorIndian Police Service OfficerViresh Kumar Bhawra to thepost.

7 The order came justbefore the announcement ofthe dates for the Assemblyelections in , who was the DGPof Punjab Home Guards, replaced officiatingDGP Charanjit SinghChanni Government selectedthe 1987 batch officer Bhawraout of a panel of three officersshortlisted by the UPSC. ! " # ! " # " # $ % &' ( ) *+,& '- . $ /$ 0 % 1 )/ ! # ! " The surge in Covid-19 casescontinues unabated as6,411 more people tested pos-itive for novel coronavirusinfection and six deaths werereported in Uttar Pradesh onSaturday. The silver lining dur-ing this period was that despitehaving 18,551 active cases, thepressure on the hospitals of theState was almost negligible asonly around 300 people wereadmitted in on Saturdayreported 1,560 fresh Covidcases and 270 recoveries.

8 Punjab reported 2,901fresh infections on Friday whileone more person succumbed tothe disease, according to amedical bulletin. Goa reported 1,432 newcases with a high test positivi-ty rate of per cent. Manipur recorded 76 newCovid cases on Saturday."23 3 4/ ' # * % $ % " & ''$() ! "#$ % $ & % !%&# ' &((&# (& !( &# )&( (& !# * (&%& + ,&* & & ! ---. / . / ,. " "#$# #% &'# & ( ) 5 ,6 7 # $) * $ *# +$ # , ( & ) ! "#""$ % " , /0 !//12 /345 /0 * 8 $ 9 06 32 /345 /0 4- (:; <7 # 8 $ * # & # $ *# 8## & # 9 (& !# 0 '!# &* 0 ,&#!&(* 12 As many as 73 Twitter han-dles, four YouTube videosand one game on Instagramthat were allegedly circulatingmisinformation or hateful con-tent have been suspended orremoved.))))))))

9 The Ministry ofInformation and Technology(MeitY) has taken actionagainst several accounts onTwitter, Facebook andTelegram for circulating mor-phed videos of a cabinet brief-ing and promoting explicit orhateful a tweet, Minister ofState for Electronics andInformation TechnologyRajeev Chandrasekhar revealedthat 73 Twitter accounts hadbeen suspended, four YouTubevideos had been deleted, andone Instagram game had beentaken down. The minister saidowners of such accounts arebeing identified for actionunder the law, and asserted thatplatforms will be reviewed ontheir due diligence."Taskforce on Safe &Trusted Internet at @GoI_MeitYat work. Handles that tried topush fake/inciting content ontwitter, youtube, fb, insta havebeen blocked," Chandrasekhartweeted on Friday evening, theminister had responded to atweet that urged him to takeaction against the "creators ofa very violent video that fea-tures the PM", which "has beenin the public domain sinceDecember 2020".

10 The ministerhad responded, saying, "On thejob. @GoI_MeitY takes itsresponsibility to keep InternetSafe and Trusted andIntermediaries accountable forthe content and due diligencevery seriously".According to the ministry,it had received a number ofcomplaints stating that partic-ular handles, users, and chan-nels were posting inappropri-ate content and attempting tosplit , multiple filmshave been circulating on socialmedia, including the mostrecent altered footage pur-porting to depict a cabinetbriefing with overlay said the govern-ment had identified 73 Twitterhandles, 4 pieces of YouTubecontent, and 1 Instagram , 73 Twitter handleshave been suspended, 4 YouTube content and the par-ticular Instagram game havebeen government, last year.