Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi will be contesting from two seats in the upcoming Punjab Assembly Election 2022. Congress on Sunday released a list of candidates where it became clear that Channi will be contesting elections from Bhadaur as well as Chamkaur Sahib. He has been sitting MLA and representing the latter since 2007. 
COVID-19 India News Updates: India recorded 2,34,281 new cases of the novel coronavirus, along with 893 deaths due to the infection in the past 24 hours. According to the data shared by the Union Health Ministry on Sunday (January 30), the country saw a total of 3,52,784 discharges in the last 24 hours, taking the total recovery rate at around 93.89 per cent and total recoveries data reached to 3,87,13,494. , The total active cases of COVID-19 in India have declined to 18,84,937 (4.59% per cent) the ministry data showed today.
Martyrs' Day: Nathuram Vinayak Godse was a nationalist man who assassinated India's most venerated leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the evening of January 30, 1948, when Gandhi visited the then Birla House for a prayer meeting in the national capital. 
Shaheed Diwas 2022: Martyrs' Day, which is also known as Shaheed Diwas or Sarvodaya Day is observed on January 30 all over the country to pay homage to all those who sacrificed their lives to make India an independent nation. The day also marks the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1948, this day was the saddest day of the nation as Gandhiji, fondly known as Bapu, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse during the evening prayers at Gandhi Smriti in the Birla House. This is known to all that Mahatma Gandhi played an important role to free India from the British rule. He used peaceful and non-violent ways to achieve freedom.
As many as five Pakistan terrorists of the active militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) and Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) were killed in dual encounters in Pulwama’s Naira region and Budgam, announced IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar. JeM commander terrorist Zahid Wani were among those militants killed by security forces in the last 12 hours. 
Omicron variant LIVE Updates: Several scientists have claimed that a Covid variant-specific vaccine is not needed, and that the existing shots are well effective against all variants, including Omicron. However, global vaccine makers have raced ahead to develop shots against the highly-mutated and transmissible Omicron variant. This week, both pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and biotechnology company Moderna announced that they have initiated clinical trials in which they are dosing people with Omicron-based vaccines. But according to public-health authorities and infectious-disease specialists, whether rolling out these jabs is necessary, or even practical, is unclear, Nature reported. According to some, an Omicron-specific jab may not be worthwhile because cases could plummet before the manufacturers could finalise the vaccines. Others point out that it's difficult to predict whether the next SARS-CoV-2 variant will be like Omicron, calling into question the utility of an Omicron-specific shot. "We have a lot of confidence in the [current] vaccines, but we must now discuss whether to update the composition," Kanta Subbarao, who chairs the Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition for the World Health Organization (WHO), was quoted as saying. Even if Pfizer is able to meet its ambitious goal -- just months from strain identification to clinical trial results -- it might still be too late to be useful, added Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University in New York City. Omicron's dominance as a variant could be waning by then, Subbarao said. Such a vaccine might work against the variant that dominates after Omicron -- especially if the virus continues on that genetic trajectory. But no one knows how the virus will evolve, Bieniasz noted. Covid vaccine boosters are also proving useful against Omicron, but scientists say that endless boosting might not be a practical or sustainable strategy. Meanwhile, several scientists, including from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the global Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), are funding research for developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine, the report said. A pan-coronavirus vaccine can broadly protect against many strains of SARS-CoV-2 and other types of coronavirus. The World Health Organization is also working to devise a central system to update Covid vaccines, much like the current process used for flu jabs. The strategy emulates a system currently used to decide on "strain updates" for flu shots, which are updated every six months, The Telegraph reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation in the 85th episode of his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' on Sunday at 11:30. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had earlier confirmed that this month's Mann Ki Baat will begin at 11:30 am. Republic Day 2024 : As India's 75th Republic Day Parade kicked off in the national capital, a 30-member band contingent and a marching c...
