International

1. The World Health Organization has again urged China to regularly share specific and real-time data on the Covid-19 situation in the country, amid a surge in coronavirus cases after Beijing relaxed its strict “zeroCOVID” policy.
2. The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday said 56 Pakistani nationals were among 186 terrorists killed in the Union territory in 2022.
3. The Assam government Saturday decided to merge four districts with four others and changed the administrative jurisdiction of a few villages, a day before the Election Commission's freeze on redrawing administrative units comes into effect.
4. The BSF, Punjab Frontier, responsible for safeguarding the 553-km-long tough and challenging Indo-Pakistan International Border, Saturday said it captured 22 drones and seized 316.988 kg heroin in 2022.
5. Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced Saturday that the soldiers deputed in border areas of the country will get to stay with their families or in headquarters for 100 days in a year.
6. North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward the sea east of the Korean Peninsula Saturday, the South Korean military said.
7.  Barbara Walters, the intrepid interviewer, anchor and program host who blazed the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a career remarkable for its duration and variety, has died. She was 93
8. Billionaire Elon Musk was the second person ever to amass a personal fortune of more than $200 billion, breaching that threshold in January 2021, months after Jeff Bezos. The Tesla CEO has now achieved a first milestone of his own: becoming the only person to erase $200 billion from their net worth.
9. Ukraine will fight the Russian invasion until victorious, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his New Year address Saturday, paying tribute to all those taking part in the war effort.

National

1. From January 1, GST would not be payable on housing units rented to the proprietor of a proprietary concern for residential usage only, the CBIC has said.
2. From January 1, the government will provide foodgrains free of cost to 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for one year.
3. India reported 226 new Covid cases on Saturday, taking the total number of active cases to 3,653.
4. As many as 50 of India’s 3,693 centrally protected monuments are missing, according to a submission made in Parliament by the Ministry of Culture.
5. The changes come after L-G VK Saxena in November set up a high-power committee to facilitate licence requirements for restaurants/eateries and directed it to examine the existing regulations and suggest ways of expediting licensing processes.

Odisha

1. The State government on Saturday directed all its employees to file their property statement before January 31 as per Government Servants Conduct (Amendment) Rules, 2021.
2. The Economic Offences Wing of Odisha Crime Branch on Saturday claimed to have unearthed a massive job scam, with an estimated 50,000 victims across the country. A person allegedly involved in the fraud has been arrested from Uttar Pradesh, police said.
3. The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) on Saturday announced that the plus II examinations will commence from March 1st.
4. A day after IRTS officer Manoj Kumar Mishra resigned from the Indian Railway Service, Odisha government has appointed him as Special Secretary of Electronics & Information Technology Department.
5. The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) of the state government Saturday approved 16 industrial project proposals worth `4,183 crore