The BJP has managed to revive its alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), thereby staving off an attempt of the party’s merger with TIPRA Motha. To avoid the division of tribal votes and corner the BJP, the royal scion Pradyot Manikya Debbarma desperately wanted the IPFT to merge with his TIPRA Motha. Recently, he held a closed-door meeting with the IPFT leadership, reportedly in Guwahati.

The BJP, which is facing a tough contest, forged a pre-poll alliance with the IPFT. The BJP will contest 55 seats and the IPFT 5. Even in 2018, they had fought the election together and formed a coalition government, but their ties strained later which saw three of the 8 IPFT MLAs going to the TIPRA Motha.

Tripura has 60 seats – 20 of them reserved for the STs in tribal areas where the tribe-based parties TIPRA Motha and IPFT hold sway. 

Re-dedicating the iconic Sagar Samrat drilling rig, as a mobile offshore production unit to the nation, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep S Puri said that besides operating in the deep waters now, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) platform will also be able to explore resources which have remained untapped.

Speaking at the event, the Minister said that the government intends to increase India’s exploration acreage to 0.5 million sq km by 2025 and 1.0 million sq km by 2030.

He also said that the government has been successful in reducing the ‘No Go’ area by 99 per cent, thereby making available an additional 1 million sq km of India’s EEZ for exploration. Several MNCs have showb keen interest to invest in the Indian E&P segment, and some are already in talks with ONGC for firming up mutually beneficial partnerships.

Dedicating the rig to the nation, the minister said that this state-of-the-art facility will handle up to 20,000 BPD of crude oil, with a maximum export gas capacity of 2.36 MCM per day & is expected to add 6000 bbls/day of oil to India’s production in the coming days.

Commissioned in 1973, Sagar Samrat turned the tides of India’s oil fortune by putting it on the global oil map. In 32 years, Sagar Samrat has drilled almost 125 wells and has been involved with 14 key offshore oil and gas discoveries in India.

Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won a party primary and will run for a second term in the September elections.

Solih defeated Mohamed Nasheed, the parliament speaker and a former president, in the Maldivian Democratic Party primary held on Jan 28.

Nasheed played a key role in transforming the Indian Ocean archipelago state into a multiparty democracy after a 30-year autocracy. But Solih was named the party's presidential candidate in 2018 in place of the more charismatic Nasheed after he failed to qualify because of a prison sentence.

Since being elected, Solih has largely stabilized the nation despite political upheaval.

Nasheed was elected president in the country's first multiparty election in 2008 but resigned in 2012 amid public protests. He contested for the presidency again in 2013 and lost, and became disqualified for the race five years later.

Nasheed is known for liberal, pro-Western views in the largely Sunni Muslim nation, famous for its high-end island resorts. He escaped an assassination attempt allegedly by a local group sympathetic to the Islamic State in 2021.

Solih is the only one running for president so far. His main rival, former President Abdulla Yameen, is serving a prison term on charges of corruption and money laundering.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on  Jan 28 fired Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi after an inquiry into Zahawi's tax affairs found a "serious breach" of ministerial rules.

Sunak appointed Zahawi as Conservative party chairman, and cabinet minister without portfolio when he entered 10 Downing Street in October when he vowed to deliver "integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level."

Zahawi was previously in the cabinet under both Liz Truss and Boris Johnson -- who appointed him as chancellor of the exchequer, in ultimate charge of the UK tax agency.

Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban seized power in Kabul, was "a total fraud" solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged.

In his book titled 'Never Give an Inch: Fighting for America I Love,' Pompeo claims that both Ghani and Afghanistan's former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah was involved in corruption at the highest levels that limited the US' ability to successfully exit the war-torn country in August 2021.

Ghani, who has been living in exile in the UAE since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, has, in the past, vehemently defended his move of fleeing the war-torn country, saying he left to stop further "bloodshed" by the Taliban.

Wadia group-owned Go First expects to receive Rs 210 crore under the government's credit line guarantee scheme next month as the budget airline seeks to boost its financial position and expand operations.

The airline, which received Rs 210 crore from the promoters last month, aims to have 53 operational aircraft in its fleet by the start of April this year, its CEO Kaushik Khona said . The airline currently has 37 aircraft in operation.

Apart from the coronavirus pandemic headwinds and intense competition, the no-frills airline is grappling with the Pratt & Whitney engine issues that have forced it to ground many planes due to a shortage of spare engines.

Under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), which has come as a relief for many pandemic-hit sectors, Go First has so far availed Rs 600 crore.

With promoters' infusing Rs 210 crore, the airline will be able to get an equal amount under the ECLGS next month, Khona said.

In a first, national oil marketer Indian Oil Corporation has started exports of aviation gasoline, the fuel that fires unmanned aerial vehicles and small planes -- turning a chapter in the nation's fuel history from being a net importer to an exporter.

The first consignment of 80 barrels of aviation gas (AV gas), each consisting of 16 kilolitres, was shipped from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) to Papua New Guinea over the weekend.

This is the first-ever instance of India exporting this fuel, produced at IOC's Vadodara refinery, marking its entry into an estimated USD 2.7-billion global market.

Aviation gasoline powers unmanned aerial vehicles and piston-engine aircraft used by flying schools.

It is a higher-octane aviation fuel meeting the product specifications with superior performance, and quality standards and is cheaper compared to imported grades.

The fuel that fires the engines of large commercial jets is called aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

The development also has military implications as it can reduce the operating costs of UAVs that are increasingly being deployed by the defence forces as force multipliers.

There is a high demand for fuel in South America, Asia Pacific, West Asia, Africa and Europe.

IndianOil aims to tap into this market after addressing the domestic demand.

IOC is the sole domestic manufacturer of the fuel, having begun production last September at its Vadodara facility, which has an annual capacity of 5,000 tonne.

Till then the country was shipping in fuel from European refiners.

The Grievance Appellate Committees set up by the government to look into users' complaints against large social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will commence operation from March 1, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said.

The Centre on  Jan 28 notified three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) under an amendment to IT Rules 2021 notified in October.

According to the notification, each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from different government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.

The GAC will be a virtual digital platform that will operate only online and digitally -- wherein the entire process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, will be conducted digitally.

According to the notification, each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from different government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.

The first panel will be chaired by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ashutosh Shukla and Punjab National Bank's (PNB) former chief general manager and chief information officer Sunil Soni have been appointed as the whole-time members of the panel.

The second panel will be chaired by the joint secretary in charge of the Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The third panel will be chaired by Kavita Bhatia, a senior scientist at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Former traffic service officer of the Indian Railways Sanjay Goel and former managing director and chief executive officer of IDBI Intech Krishnagiri Ragothamarao have been appointed as the whole-time members of the third panel.