"Nari shakti" and women empowerment dominated the theme of tableaux of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Tripura at the Republic Day parade.

Kerala presented the tableau of "Nari Shakti and Folk Traditions of Women Empowerment" that includes Kalaripayattu, a martial art with more than 2,000 years history, percussion and tribal traditions.

Kerala has the highest women's literacy rate in the country and has the world's largest women's self-help network, Kudumbashree.

The tableau connected women empowerment with literacy mission.v

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that the government has decided to open Rajiv Gandhi Model Day-Boarding Schools in each assembly constituency in a phased manner for providing education to poor children.

Sukhu said that the government has set up Chief Minister’s Sukh-Ashray Sahayata Kosh with an outlay of Rs 101 crore for providing higher education to beneficiaries of the Kosh for Vocational training in engineering colleges, IIIT, NIT, IIM, IIT, polytechnic institutes, nursing and degree colleges.

The state government give an apparel allowance of Rs 10,000 per person per year would be given to people living in old age homes and shelter homes, besides Rs 500 as festival allowance so that they could also celebrate the festivals, like others, he said. 

India and Egypt decided on to elevate their ties to the level of a strategic partnership, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi resolving to broadbase the bilateral engagement in the areas of defence, security and trade, and calling for “zero tolerance” towards terrorism.

Sisi is on a three-day visit to India, and will be the first Egyptian leader to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day on January 26. This is the 68-year-old General-turned-politician’s third visit to India. An Egyptian army contingent will also take part in the parade.

The two nations have signed agreements for cooperation in IT, cyber-security, culture, youth matters and broadcasting. Bilateral trade is expected to increase from the existing $7 billion to $12 billion in the next five years.

There has also been an interest in promoting trade in the Indian rupee.

India has lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points (PP) in eastern Ladakh, reports said.

PPs are benchmark locations on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) mutually agreed by both India and China.

Reports quoting a document submitted at the annual Director General of Police (DGP) Conference (January 20-22), attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, noted that the 65 PPs start from Karakoram pass to Chumur which are patrolled regularly by the ISFs (Indian Security Forces). However, out of the 65 PPs, India lost presence in 26 PPs "due to restrictive or no patrolling by the ISFs."

Later on, China has forced India to accept the fact that, as, such areas have not seen the presence of ISFs or civilians since long, the Chinese were present in these areas. This leads to a shift in the border under control of ISFs towards Indian side and a buffer zone is created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to loss of control over these areas by India.

This tactic of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to grab land inch-by-inch is known as Salami Slicing,” reports added.

Further, the recent disengagement agreements at two patrolling points has resulted in the loss of pasture lands at Gogra hills, North Bank of Pangong Tso, and Kakjung areas.

German luxury sports carmaker Porsche delivered 779 new cars in the Indian market in calendar year 2022, clocking a growth of 64% year on year (Y-o-Y). Like few other luxury carmakers, this is the highest sales figure for Porsche in the local market in a single calendar year. Porsche had sold 474 units in 2021, which was at the time Porsche India’s best result since 2014.

IBM will slash some 3,900 jobs, slightly more than one percent of its workforce, related to businesses it has divested.

The computing company based in New York state did not talk of job cuts in its quarterly earnings report published on Jan 25 , however, nor in a call with analysts to discuss the financial results.

IBM said it would take a one-time $300 million charge in its first quarter this year, which the source said was related to the layoffs.

The company founded in 1911 announced late last year that it will invest $20 billion in semiconductors, quantum computing and other cutting-edge technology in New York state.

Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet have all recently laid out plans to reduce workforces, after hiring heavily during the pandemic to meet increased demand for digital services.

Siraj went past New Zealand's Trent Boult and Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood to become the top-ranked ODI bowler for the very first time.

Swashbuckling Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav was on  Jan 25 named the ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year for his ridiculously good run in the shortest format of the game.

Surya had a stellar 2022, breaking an array of records and setting a benchmark in the format.

He beat the likes of Sam Curran, Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and Zimbabwe's batting all-rounder Sikandar Raza for the top honour.

However, India's vice-captain and last year's Cricketer of the Year Smriti Mandhana lost out to Australia's Tahlia McGrath in the women's category.