A look at the headlines right now:

  1. No chief guest on Republic Day this year due to Covid-19 – a first in 55 years: India had initially invited British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but his trip was cancelled after a new strain of the virus was found in the UK.   
  2. Bhupinder Singh Mann recuses himself from SC panel, says ‘will stand with my farmers’: Farmer unions have refused to hold talks with the court-appointed committee, saying that the members were ‘pro-law’.
  3. PM Modi to launch coronavirus vaccination drive at 10.30 am on Saturday: Around 100 people will get inoculated on the first day at each of the 3,006 sites across all states and Union Territories.  
  4. Munawar Faruqui did not joke about Hindu deities, but it ‘doesn’t matter’, says Indore SP: The police officer said that the complaint against the comedian was made on the basis of jokes overheard during rehearsals.   
  5. Dushyant Dave resigns as SC Bar Association president, says he ‘forfeited right to continue’: Dave had criticised a number of decisions by the Supreme Court in recent times.   
  6. Arvind Sharma, former bureaucrat and close aide of PM Modi, joins BJP in Uttar Pradesh: The development came days after Sharma took voluntary retirement from the administrative services on January 11.   
  7. NIA court allows activist Sudha Bharadwaj to access five books a month in jail: The books, however, will first be carefully examined for ‘objectionable content’.
  8. Rape allegations against Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde are serious, says Sharad Pawar: On January 10, a woman wrote to the Mumbai police commissioner alleging that Munde raped her multiple times in 2006.   
  9. Tamil spirit cannot be suppressed, says Rahul Gandhi in a dig at Centre, attends jallikattu event: The Congress leader also said that the bull-taming event jallikattu was not harmful to the animals.   
  10. India more of a rival than ‘commercial interest’ for post-Brexit UK, says British think-tank report: In its report, the Chatham House noted that the history of British colonial rule in India would continue to be a stumbling block in developing ties.