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1 ! " # $ !" % & & ' % & $ # ( ( ) * + & , $ -. /.0 12 * 3#1 India s daily Covid countscaled a new peak on Friday,with more than 1 lakh casesreported for the first time thisyear. The case count of1,17,000 is the highest sinceearly June last year. Almost all the States led byMaharashtra witnessed a mas-sive surge, but most of thecases are asymptomatic. ManyStates have now imposed aweekend lockdown to restrictthe movement of the sweeping Delhi andMumbai, Covid-19 is nowsurging in Karnataka. TheState on Friday registered asteep rise recording 8,449 newinfections in the past 24 hours,ANI reported.)

2 The new caseswere per cent higherthan Thursday s count of 5,031cases. Four people died due tothe disease in the past 24hours, and the case fatality ratein the State is currently cent. A total of 3,007 casesof Omicron variant of coron-avirus have been detectedacross 23 States and UnionTerritories so far, out of which1,199 have recovered ormigrated. Maharashtrarecorded the maximum num-ber of 876 cases followed byDelhi at 465, Karnataka 333,Rajasthan 291, Kerala 284 andGujarat s Covid-19 tally hadcrossed the 20-lakh mark onAugust 7, 2020, 30 lakh onAugust 23, 40 lakh onSeptember 5 and 50 lakh onSeptember 16.

3 It went past 60lakh on September 28, 70 lakhon October 11, crossed 80 lakhon October 29, 90 lakh onNovember 20 and surpassedthe one-crore mark onDecember 19. India crossedthe grim milestone of twocrore on May 4 and 3 crore onJune 23. The single-day rise incoronavirus infections wasrecorded above one lakh after214 days, taking India s totaltally of Covid-19 cases to3,52,26,386 which includes3,007 cases of Omicron report-ed across 27 States and UTs, according to the Union HealthMinistry data updated onFriday.

4 The country saw asingle-day rise of 1,17,100new coronavirus infections,while the active casesincreased to 3,71,363, thehighest in around 120 days,according to the data updatedat 8 am. The death toll climbedto 4,83,178 with 302 freshfatalities, the data stated. Thecountry last reported over onelakh cases on June 7 last yearwhen 1,00,636 infections wererecorded, said an official fromthe Union Health Friday, Delhi recorded17,335 fresh Covid-19 infec-tions and nine deaths. Continued on Page 11 # #-/1 #4 2-. /.

5 0 1 Even as the PunjabGovernment has main-tained that there was no secu-rity lapse during PrimeMinister Narendra Modi s visitto the State, the Punjab Policeregistered an FIR in Ferozepuragainst nearly 150 unidentifiedprotesters who blocked thecavalcade on Thursday, the StateGovernment had announced atwo-member panel to investi-gate the matter and had asked it to submit its report inthree s Chief SecretaryAnirudh Tewari has written tothe Union Home Ministryregarding the security breach,informing that an FIR hasbeen lodged in the mentioned that the StateGovernment has formed itsown two-member panel toinvestigate the alleged in Punjab said theUnion Ministry of HomeAffairs has sent show-causenotices to some police officialsin the Chief Secretary islearnt to have shared detailspertaining to the sequence ofevents that unfolded onWednesday, sources main-tained.

6 The Union HomeMinistry had directed the StateGovernment to file an immediate report, saying itdid not ensure the incident triggered amajor political row with theBJP alleging that the rulingCongress in Punjab tried tophysically harm the PrimeMinister, while other partiestoo attacked the StateGovernment over the law andorder issue. Continued on Page 11 ! " "# " $ New Delhi:The Indian econo-my remains on track to regainits position as the world sfastest-growing major economyafter official estimates onFriday put the GDP expansionat a tempered per cent thisfiscal amid concerns over theimpact of a resurgent virus onthe fragile growth in the grossdomestic product (GDP) of cent in April 2021 to March2022 fiscal (FY 2021-22) givenby the National StatisticalOffice (NSO) in its firstadvance estimate compareswith per cent expansionforecast by the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI)

7 Last economy had con-tracted by per cent in theprevious financial one quarter still leftin the fiscal year, there has beena surge in daily Covid-19 casesin recent days driven by theOmicron variant which is set toovertake Delta as the has prompted freshrestrictions in several parts ofthe country, threatening thefragile economic to the economy stemfrom an Omicron-led thirdwave which may upend growthrevival across sectors, special-ly the contact-intensive per cent growth in2021-22 fiscal, the economywill surpass the pre-COVID level in actual terms, mainly onaccount of improved perfor-mance by farm, mining andmanufacturing sectors.

8 Real GDP or GDP (grossdomestic product) at ConstantPrices (2011-12) in the year2021-22 is estimated at lakh crore, as against theProvisional Estimate of GDPfor the year 2020-21 of lakh crore, released onMay 31, 2021. The growth in real GDPduring 2021-22 is estimated per cent as compared to thecontraction of per cent in2020-21, as per a statement bythe projection is less thanthe per cent forecast by theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) and S&P, while Moody sInvestors Service had in recentweeks put India s growth fore-cast at per cent.

9 FitchRatings has projected an percent on Page 11 -. /.0 1 Beginning January 11, allinternational travellers both from at-risk or not atrisk countries will have toundergo home quarantine forseven days and will be requiredto undertake RT-PCR test onthe eighth day of arrival inIndia amid the rising cases ofCovid-19 and Omicron scare. This comes a day after 125passengers arriving from Italyat Amritsar on chartered flightstested Centre on Fridayrevised the norms for interna-tional passengers coming toIndia and also updated its listof at-risk countries whichincludes countries in Europeincluding the UK, South Africa,Brazil, Botswana, China,Ghana, Mauritius, NewZealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania,Hong Kong, Israel, Congo,Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya,Nigeria, Tunisia, and countries added to the listinclude Congo, Ethiopia,Kenya, Nigeria.

10 Tunisia,Zambia, and Kazakhstan. As per the new norms,international passengers willhave to submit a self-declara-tion form on the online AirSuvidha portal before theirscheduled travel, includingtravel details of the last 14 per the revised guide-lines issued for internationalpassengers, travellers shall alsobe required to upload results ofrepeat RT-PCR test for Covid-19 done on eight day on AirSuvidha portal (to be moni-tored by the respectiveStates/UTs). If report is neg-ative, they will further self-monitor their health for nextseven days.