India’s trajectory of leaping across landmarks in its fight against the global pandemic continues. In a significant achievement, India has become the fastest country in the world to reach the four million COVID-19 vaccination mark. The country has achieved this feat in 18 days. As on 1st February, India was among the top five countries in terms of number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to people. India continues to undertake its vaccination drive at a fast pace.

India’s fight against COVID is bringing daily successes on other fronts as well. Fourteen States and UTs have not reported any death in the last 24 hours. With a high number of COVID patients recovering every day and the sustained fall in the mortality rate, India’s steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues.      

The gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing and stands at one crore three lakh two thousand five hundred 74. Thirty one States and UTs have less than five thousand active cases. Eight States and UTs have a weekly positivity rate higher than the national average. Kerala has the highest weekly positivity rate of 12 per cent followed by Chhattisgarh with seven per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebrations at Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on 4th February 2021 at 11 AM via video conferencing.

The day marks 100 years of the ‘Chauri Chaura’ incident, a landmark event in the country’s fight for independence.

Prime Minister will also release a postal stamp dedicated to the Chauri Chaura centenary during the event. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh will also be present on the occasion.

The centenary celebrations and various events planned by the State government will begin in all 75 districts of the State from 4th February 2021 and will continue till 4th February 2022.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2021-22 with a wish to lay a vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. She said, AtmaNirbharta is not a new idea. Ancient India was largely self-reliant, and equally, a business epicentre of the world. AtmaNirbhar Bharat is an expression of 130 crore Indians who have full confidence in their capabilities and skills.
 
 The proposals will further strengthen the sankalp of Nation First, Doubling Farmers' Income, Strong Infrastructure, Healthy India, Good Governance, Opportunities for Youth, Education for All, Women Empowerment, and Inclusive Development, among others.

Senior citizens of 75 years of age and having only pension income are exempted from filing their income tax returns.

In Dubai, the International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the introduction of the ICC Player of the Month awards. The award will recognise and celebrate the best performances of both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year.
 
In a statement, ICC said, an independent ICC Voting Academy comprising former players, broadcasters, and journalists from around the world, will team up with fans to vote for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month and ICC Women’s Player of the Month.
 
From performances by youngsters such as Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, T. Natarajan, Rishabh Pant and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan) to established players such as Ravichandran Ashwin, Joe Root (England), Steve Smith (Australia), Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk of South Africa and Nida Dar (Pakistan), there will be no shortage of candidates for the month of January.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX created a new world record by launching 143 satellites on a single rocket last night. SpaceX has beaten the Indian space agency ISRO's record of deploying 104 satellites in a single launch in February 2017. The launch vehicle for the SpaceX record-breaking flight was the Falcon 9 rocket.
 
The 143 satellites launched last night include commercial and government CubeSats, microsats and 10 Starlink satellites. Onboard was also a spacecraft belonging to Nasa. With these satellites, SpaceX aims to provide near-global broadband internet coverage all over the world by 2021. According to sources, SpaceX offered a very low price of 15,000 dollars per kilogram for each satellite to be delivered to a polar sun-synchronous orbit.

President Ram Nath Kovind has conferred the National Awards on State and District level officers for their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres. 
 
During a function in New Delhi on the occasion of National Voters’ Day today, he also launched Election Commission’s Web Radio: ‘Hello Voters’ to create awareness among the voters. 
 
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the e-EPIC programme and distributed e-EPICs and Elector Photo Identity Cards to five new voters. e-EPIC, a digital version of the Elector Photo Identity Card can be accessed through the Voter Helpline App and websites. 
 
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora said the e-EPIC programme is the new beginning. The National Voters’ Day is being celebrated today across the country to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters.

President Ram Nath Kovind will address the nation today on the eve of the 72nd Republic Day. The address will be broadcast from 7 PM on the entire national network of All India Radio and telecast over all channels of Doordarshan in Hindi, followed by English version.
 
Broadcast of the address in Hindi and English on Doordarshan will be followed by broadcast in regional languages by regional channels of Doordarshan. All India Radio will broadcast regional language versions from 9.30 PM onwards on its respective regional networks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar awardees through video conferencing today.

Thirty two children have been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar this year. AIR correspondent reports that Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani will also be present on the occasion.
 
The Government has been conferring the Bal Shakti Puraskar under Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar to the children with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievement in the fields of innovation, sports, arts and culture, social service and bravery. AIR correspondent reports that the awardees are from 32 districts of 21 States and Union territories.
 
Seven awards have been given in the field of Art and Culture, nine awards have been given for Innovation and five for scholastic achievements. Seven children have won in Sports category, three children have been felicitated for Bravery and one child has been honoured for her efforts in the field of Social Service.

In yet another milestone, DRDO successfully conducted captive and release trial of indigenously developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon SAAW from Hawk-I of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) off the Odisha coast.
 
The smart weapon was successfully test-fired on Thursday from Indian Hawk-Mk132 of HAL. This was the ninth successful mission of SAAW conducted by DRDO till now. It was a text book launch, which met all mission objectives. The telemetry and tracking systems installed at Interim Test Range (ITR), Balasore captured all the mission events.
 
SAAW is indigenously designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) Hyderabad. This is 125 Kg class smart weapon, capable of engaging ground enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, and runways etc. up to a range of 100 kilometres. The high precision guided bomb is light weight as compared to weapon system of the same class. The weapon was earlier successfully test fired from Jaguar aircraft.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Roorkee signed an MoU in New Delhi today for continuation of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Professorial Chair focusing on research and development, teaching and training in the area of Development of Highway Infrastructure. The MoU was signed by Indresh Kumar Pandey, Special Secretary and Director GeneralRoad Development and Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director and Professor of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee. Secretary in the Ministry Giridhar Aramane presided over the MoU signing ceremony.
 
This collaboration of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways with IIT-Roorkee will strengthen Research and Development activities in Road Sector and the Chair professor is expected to provide leadership in conducting and coordinating research, development and teaching in the area of Development of Highway Infrastructure.