A look at the headlines right now:

  1. ‘We have spent, we have spent,’ says finance minister in Budget 2021 speech, but Opposition criticises Centre: PM Modi said the government focused on transparency and did not burden the consumers.
  2. Farmers to block roads across country for three hours on February 6: Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said it has arrested over 120 people in connection with the tractor rally violence; Delhi HC issued notices to Aaj Tak and the Centre on a plea alleging misreporting on the farmers’ R-Day rally, and the Centre extended the ban on internet services at Delhi’s borders till Tuesday night.
  3. Twitter restores Caravan, Kisan Ekta Morcha and other accounts hours after withholding them: The accounts were blocked reportedly on Centre’s request for allegedly making fake and provocative tweets on January 30.  
  4. PM Modi speaks with Benjamin Netanyahu, condemns blast near Israel embassy: The prime minister also assured his Israeli counterpart that India would deploy all its resources to find and punish the perpetrators of the attack.
  5. India says it is ‘deeply concerned’ about military coup in Myanmar: The Ministry of External Affairs said India has always supported the process of democratic transition in Myanmar, and was monitoring the situation closely.  
  6. Rajasthan law student arrested for threatening to rape, murder journalist Rohini Singh: The police said the accused was angry with Singh’s ‘style of reporting’ on the farmers’ protests.
  7. Delhi court to pass order on journalist Mandeep Punia’s bail petition tomorrow: Meanwhile, the Editors Guild of India demanded his release, adding that the arrest was an attempt to gag independent journalists.  
  8. India records over 11,400 new coronavirus cases, more than 37 lakh inoculated: As many as 1,04,34,983 people have recovered from the infection so far, while the number of active cases stood at 1,68,235.
  9. SC issues notices to Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon on plea seeking data protection on UPI apps: The technology companies failed to respond to a similar notice issued by the court in October last year.  
  10. Delhi court to pronounce judgement in MJ Akbar’s defamation case against Priya Ramani on February 10: Journalist Priya Ramani had accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement in India in 2018.