The Supreme Court on Jan 9  granted time till March 15 to the Centre for payment of arrears of One Rank-One Pension (OROP) to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha asked the Centre to ensure that all arrears are paid expeditiously to the pensioners of the armed forces and that there is no further delay.

The top court granted liberty to ex-servicemen association to file an application if they feel aggrieved by any action of the Centre on payment of arrears of the OROP.

Last month, the government has moved the top court seeking an extension of time till March 15, 2023, for payment of arrears of the OROP scheme to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces.

This is the second extension given by the top court to the Union government to pay the arrears after it had first moved the top court in June, last year and sought three months to compute and make payments in accordance with the March 16, 2022 verdict of the top court.

On day one of the three-day 17th Prawasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in the country's cleanest city Indore, the Narendra Modi government engaged with the young Indian diaspora spread across the globe through the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (YPBD).

Addressing the inaugural session of YPBD, External Affairs minister S Jaishankar mentioned on  Jan 8 that ties with the 34 million Indian diasporas became stronger as a result of the trials and tribulations of the COVID pandemic.

While detailing the growth saga in the eight years of the Modi government, Jaishankar said, "Those of you who are coming to India after a gap, must have surely noticed the changes that have happened here during the last eight years, particularly during the last three years. Notable among them is the extraordinary state of digital delivery that has made possible access to social benefits without leakage. Equally evident is the health infrastructure and indeed the greater awareness of expectations on that score. Enormous infrastructure activity too has been visible to all.”

While underscoring that Indian-origin youth residing abroad have more opportunities to stay connected with their roots than before, Jaishankar said, it’s also expected that the country’s New Education Policy (NEP) will create more pathways for the deeper involvement of the Indian diaspora.

Addressing the inaugural function and subsequent plenary session on the ‘Role of diaspora’s Youth in Innovations and new Technologies,” minister of state for youth affairs and sports, Anurag Singh Thakur said, “the more you travel in India, not only will you know about the country’s specialities, but will also be acquainted with its challenges and problems and also help in resolving those problems.”

The inaugural session of the Youth PBD was also addressed by Zaneta Mascarenhas, the Indian origin young member of the Australian House of Representatives.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has been selected for the "Award for Global Leadership" by the Harvard Law School Center in recognition of his lifetime service to the legal profession in the country and around the world.

The award will be presented to him at an online event on January 11.

Chandrachud obtained an LLM degree and a Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD) from the Harvard Law School in the United States.

Former Assam MLA along with two others were arrested by the police for allegedly attempting to float a militant organisation.

The police had conducted a search at the residence of the former MLA, Hitesh Basumatary, in Kokrajhar district and recovered one AK 47 and one M16 rifle along with 100 live cartridges.

Basumatary had won the 2011 Assembly elections from the Chapaguri constituency as a candidate of the Bodoland People’s Front. He also served as an Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Militancy is down in the BTR after the signing of a tripartite accord among the Centre, Assam government and Bodo representatives, including all factions of the insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland, in January 2020.

Former cabinet minister of Uttar Pradesh Yakub Qureshi and son Imran Qureshi were arrested by the Meerut police in coordination with the Delhi police team from Chandani Mahal area of Delhi.

Yaqub Qureshi has been arrested for running an unlicensed business of meat processing and packaging.

Yaqub Qureshi was a minister in UP's Mayawati government.  He had contested his first election in 2007 as UP United Democratic Front candidate and had won the assembly seat of Meerut. After that in 2012, he joined the BSP and was fielded from Meerut-Hapur Lok Sabha constituency by Mayawati. Qureshi lost the election to BJP’s Rajendra Agarwal by a margin of 3000 votes.

Punjab Minister Fauja Singh Sarari resigned from the Cabinet on Jan 7 , months after he was embroiled in a controversy over an audio clip in which he allegedly discussed ways to "trap" some contractors in order to "extort" money.

Senior AAP leader and Patiala Rural MLA Dr Balbir Singh was on  Jan 7 sworn in as the new Punjab Cabinet Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  on Jan 7  launched the Aspirational Block Programme on the lines of a similar exercise aimed at developing backward districts and asserted that India is focussing on the four pillars of infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusion to be a developed country.

Chairing the second national conference on chief secretaries from states on its third and last day, Modi said the entire world is looking to India to bring stability to the global supply chain and asked them to take steps for making the MSME sector "global champions" and a part of the global value chain.

He said the country can take full advantage of this only if states take lead by maintaining focus on quality and making decisions with an "India-first" approach.