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1 ! " # $ % & & ' ( % & & ! ) * ' + ,- . - & / - & 00 ! -" 1"(2,With 2,82,970 new coron-avirus infections, includ-ing 8,961 Omicron variantcases, India s active cases haveincreased to 18,31,000, thehighest in 232 days. The infec-tions are likely to spike furthertill January 23 when the thirdCovid-19 wave in the countrymay peak with daily cases like-ly to remain below the fourlakh mark, said ManindraAgarwal, a scientist at theIndian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and one of theresearchers associated with theSutra Covid , Mumbai andKolkata have already reachedtheir peak in case numbers inthe past seven days, he to Agrawal,Covid-19 cases will peak inMaharashtra, Karnataka, UP,Gujarat, and Haryana thisweek, while States like AndhraPradesh, Assam, and TamilNadu may peak next week. The daily cases are pro-jected to peak on January 23 inIndia and stay below the fourlakh mark.)

2 Metro cities Delhi,Mumbai, and Kolkata havealready peaked, Agrawal had earlier pre-dicted that the Covid-19 thirdwave will peak by January end. Across the country, thetrajectories are changing sig-nificantly. I speculated earlierthat it is due to ICMR guide-lines for a changed testingstrategy. However, at manyplaces, these guidelines are notyet implemented and still, thetrajectory has changed! hesaid. According to a new Govtadvisory, individuals under-taking inter-State domestictravel and contacts of con-firmed Covid cases do notneed to get tested unless iden-tified as high risk based onage or hisview, there are two plausiblereasons for the change in theOmicron-led case trajectoryin India. There are two groups inthe population, one with lessimmunity against Omicronand the other with more.

3 Themutant first spread in the firstgroup causing a sharp the first group is exhaust-ed and so the spread is slower, he explained. Agrawal noted that therewas a lot of concern when theOmicron variant startedspreading in November lastyear. However, he said, in thelast week or so, people almosteverywhere have concludedthat the variant causes only mild infection and havedecided to handle it with stan-dard remedies instead of get-ting tested. The death toll in India hasclimbed to 4,87,202 with 441fresh fatalities. There has beena per cent increase inOmicron cases since Tuesday,the Ministry said. -" 1"(2,Situation in Afghanistan andin the neighbourhood willfigure prominently in the firstsummit between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andheads of State of five CentralAsian nations on January is hosting the conclave inthe virtual of the five nationswere to be invited as chiefguests for the Republic Dayparade this year.)

4 The ragingcorona pandemic forced Indiato change the schedule. TheRepublic Day parade for thesecond consecutive year willnot have any foreign countrychief guest. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson was the chiefguest for last year s parade, buthe had to cancel the visit dueto surge in pandemic in hiscountry. Giving details of the forth-coming high-profile event, theMinistry of External Affairssaid here on Wednesday thePrime Minister will host thefirst India-Central AsiaSummit. Leaders are expectedto deliberate on steps to takeforward relations to newerheights as well as the evolvingregional security situation. The virtual summit will beheld with the participation ofthe five Presidents -Kazakhstan s Kassym-JomartTokayev, Uzbekistan s ShavkatMirziyoyev, Emomali Rahmon,of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan sGurbanguly Berdimuhamedowand Sadyr Japarov of KyrgyzRepublic.

5 Most of these coun-tries share border withAfghanistan. India has lot ofstakes in the restive will be the first engage-ment of its kind between Indiaand the Central Asian countriesat the level of leaders, theMinistry said in a statement. The first India-CentralAsia Summit is a reflection ofIndia s growing engagementwith the Central Asian coun-tries, which are a part of India s extended neighbourhood .Modi paid a visit to allCentral Asian countries in2015. Subsequently, there havebeen exchanges at high-levelsat bilateral and multilateralforums. During this summit, theleaders are expected to discusssteps to take forward India-Central Asia relations to newerheights. They are also expect-ed to exchange views onregional and internationalissues of interest, especiallythe evolving regional securitysituation. The summit is symbolic ofthe importance attached bythe leaders of India and theCentral Asian countries to acomprehensive and enduringIndia-Central Asia partner-ship, the statement inception of the India-Central Asia Dialogue at theForeign Ministers level, thethird meeting of which washeld in New Delhi fromDecember 18-20, 2021, hasprovided an impetus to India-Central Asia relations, the state-ment said.

6 -" 1"(2,Two IndiGo planes withhundreds of passengers onboard came close to collidingwith each other mid-air onJanuary 7 shortly after takingoff from KempegowdaInternational Airport (KIA), atan altitude of over 3000 feetover incident occurredwhen IndiGo flights 6E 455departing for Kolkata and 6E246 for Bhubaneswar weregiven permission to depart atthe same time. The DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA), which is investigatingthe matter, has said that itwould take the strictest actionagainst those responsible forthe incident. The incident wasnot recorded in any logbookand was not reported by theAirports Authority of India. Both the aircraft took offfrom Bengaluru airport in aspan of about five minutes. DGCA said that the twoIndiGo planes were involvedin breach of separation atBengaluru airport.)

7 Breach ofseparation happens when twoaircraft cross the minimummandatory vertical or hori-zontal distance in the these aircraft departedfrom the Bengaluru airportwithin a span of approximate-ly 5 minutes on the morning ofJanuary 7. On the morning of theincident, the north runwaywas being used for departuresand the south runway forarrivals. Later, the shift incharge decided to close thesouth runway but failed toinform the air traffic controllerof the south tower, said offi-cials. As a result, the two flightswere given permission for take-off at the same time from theconverging runways. Thisresulted in a situation where theaircraft moving in the samedirection were about to collidewith each other. A radar con-troller saw this and immedi-ately intervened to alert the air-craft. ! " # $ % ! " # $ % -" 1"(2,In the season of shifting polit-ical loyalties in poll-boundUttar Pradesh, the BJP onWednesday won overSamajwadi Party (SP) patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav s daugh-ter-in-law Aparna joined the saffron out-fit here at BJP is married toPrateek Yadav, son of MulayamSingh Yadav s second wife.)

8 SPpresident Akhilesh Yadav is hisson from his first , Colonel VijayRawat, the brother of India sfirst Chief of Defence StaffGeneral Bipin Rawat, joinedthe BJP on Wednesday inUttarakhand ahead of the Statepolls. My father (Gen LaxmanSingh Rawat) after retiringfrom the Army, was with theBJP. Now I have got an oppor-tunity. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi s vision is spe-cial. All his work is for theprogress of this nation. That iswhat encouraged me to join theBJP. His plan for Uttarakhandis a product of a great vision, Colonel Vijay Rawatsaid. Chief MinisterPushkar Singh Dhami was Bipin Rawat, whowas born in Uttarakhand, hiswife, and 12 others died lastmonth after their choppercrashed in Tamil Nadu , in her early thir-ties, who was making overturesto the BJP for long, joined theparty in the presence of UttarPradesh Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav prasad Maurya andBJP nState chief Swatantra BJP may be fieldingher in the UP Assembly polls,though a seat fitting her polit-ical background is yet to bedecided, sources Aparna, Mauryasaid she had been from time totime expressing views thatshowed her inclination towardsthe Uttar Pradesh BJPpresident lambastedSamajwadi Party for its allegedsupport to criminals in its tick-et distribution in western UttarPradesh.

9 Farmers and womennever felts safe when theSamajwadi Party was in power,he said Aparna has faithin good governance of PrimeMinister Modi and ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath andher induction in the BJP willboost the her admirationfor Modi, she said the nation sinterest has always been a pri-ority for her and praised severalschemes of the BJPG overnment for cleanliness,woman empowerment switch, a shot in thearm for BJP, comes at a timewhen a number of OBC lead-ers have quit the BJP andjoined the had contested the2017 Assembly polls on the SPticket from LucknowCantonment but lost to BJP sRita Bahuguna Joshi, now aLok Sabha is now herselfpitching for a seat for her sonand written a letter to the BJPpresident JP Nadda to theeffect saying she may quit herLok Sabha seat if the party wereto stick to one member oneticket guideline.

10 & $ # $ % ' " ( $ ' ) " *+ ,-$ ($ . / $ 0&1 ,-$ . 021" *3 4 . # $ % &' ( ! & ) * +,-# ( % % , "./ ! 0! ( 324-1, EnforcementDirectorate has seized Rs 10crore cash and gold worth Rs21 lakhs during raids in con-nection with money launderinginvestigation, against illegalsand mining operations in thepoll-bound state, that con-cluded on Wednesday morn-ing. The raids were conductedat multiple locations in Punjab,including the premises of ChiefMinister Charanjit SinghChanni s nephew, six miningcontractors, among central agency seizeda total of Rs 10 crore fromChanni s nephew BhupinderSingh Honey and his partnerSandeep Kumar, besides recov-ering gold worth Rs 21 lakhduring the searches that start-ed on Tuesday. During theraids, the federal probe agencyhas also seized a number ofdocuments and the total Rs 10 crorecash seized during the opera-tion, Rs eight crore have beenrecovered from the premiseslinked to Channi s nephewHoney.)))