• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has approved the setting up of the country's first geo park at Lamheta village on the banks of the Narmada river in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
• GSI has sanctioned Rs 1.30 crore to prepare a detailed project report of the geological rock formations in five acres in the Lamheta village, located 20 km away from the Jabalpur district headquarter, where the park will come up.
• The estimated cost of this project is Rs 35 crore and there is a provision to sanction additional funds if required, as the area around the upcoming geopark will be developed.
• A geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way and promotes the economic well-being of the people who live there.

• The Border Security Force (BSF) court-martialled 33 personnel, mostly for their involvement in cattle smuggling that is prevalent along the India-Bangladesh border.
• After being tipped-off about a section of its personnel being involved in cattle smuggling, the BSF investigated a nexus between BSF, police and smugglers following which a commandant of the central security agency was arrested two years ago
• The intelligence wing of BSF initiated a probe after the nexus behind cattle smuggling came to light. Among those who have been court-martialled, 14 of them were involved in cattle smuggling. Others were charged with molestation and taking bribe from infiltrators, smugglers.

• The Pegasus expose by The New York Times is likely to cast its shadow on the budget session of Parliament started on 31 jan , with the Opposition preparing to paralyse it.

• Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury set the ball rolling by demanding a privilege motion against Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for allegedly misleading the Lok Sabha on the matter. In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, he cited the NYT report that claimed India  had bought the spyware in 2017. Yet, the minister claimed on the floor of the House that the Centre had nothing to do with Pegasus, he said. The Editors Guild of India, too, pitched in, urging the Justice R V Raveendran committee set up by the Supreme Court to examine the Pegasus deal, to take cognisance of the “startling claims” made by NYT and seek responses from the government and the ministries that may have been involved in the alleged deal in 2017.

• The Guild also urged the panel to keep its proceedings open to the public so that there is complete transparency on the witnesses being called and their responses.

• As for the government, it sought to brush the issue aside with former Army Chief and Union minister V K Singh calling NYT supari media. But BJP leader Subramanian Swamy asked the Centre to rebut NYT, saying India’s Pegasus purchase would amount to a scandal akin to Watergate.

• Meanwhile, advocate M L Sharma approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to register an FIR against the Centre for probe to recover public money paid for the deal in view of the NYT report.

• President Ram Nath Kovind on Jan 31 said that  the areas where naxals operate and perpetrate violence have come down significantly over the years and now 70 districts in the country are affected by the menace, from an earlier 126 districts.

• Addressing the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget Session, Kovind also said that a peace accord has been signed with insurgent groups in Assam's Karbi Anglong district to end decades long conflict, and a new chapter of peace and prosperity has been ushered.

• On September 21, 2020, the then Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy had informed Rajya Sabha that a total of 90 districts in 11 states in the country are considered naxal or left-wing extremism (LWE) affected, and are covered under the Security Related Expenditure scheme of the home ministry.

• Reddy had also said that LWE-related violent incidents were reported in 61 districts in 2019 and in only 46 districts in the first half of 2020.

• According to home ministry data, between 2004-2020, 8,380 people were killed by the Maoists in different parts of India.

• The majority of civilians killed were tribals.

• They were often branded as 'police informers' before being brutally tortured and killed.

• The Union Government on Jan 31  barred the telecast of Malayalam news channel MediaOne citing "security reasons", but the Kerala High Court stayed the implementation of the order for two days.

• The Centre's move drew the ire of many with the Opposition Congress party terming the move as "undemocratic".

• The media house challenged the order before the Kerala High Court which put on hold its implementation for two days.

• While putting on hold the order, Justice N Nagaresh also sought the Centre's stand on the plea moved by Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd which operates MediaOne channel.

• MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was briefly suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders then saying they covered the violence in a manner that "highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community".

• The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on December 14, 2021, and January 29, 2022, has recommended the elevation of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Judge of Madras High Court as Chief Justice of Madras High Court.

• In another resolution, the Collegium said in its meeting held on January 29, 2022 that it has approved the proposal for elevation of seven advocates as Judges in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

• The advocates who are elevated as Judges are - Konakanti Sreenivasa Reddy, Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda, Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao, Satti Subba Reddy, Ravi Cheemalapati, and Vaddiboyana Sujatha.

• The Collegium, in its meeting, has also approved the proposal for the elevation of advocates Maninder Singh Bhatti, Dwarka Dhish Bansal, and Milind Ramesh Phadke as Madhya Pradesh High Court Judges. It has also elevated judicial officers -- Amar Nath Kesharwani, Prakash Chandra Gupta, and Dinesh Kumar Paliwal as the MP High Court Judges.

• In another resolution, uploaded on Jan 30 the top court website, the Collegium has approved the proposal for the elevation of advocates V Narasingh, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, and Raman Murahari as Judges in the Orissa High Court.

• Former Jharkhand minister and AICC member, Geetashree Oraon has resigned from the Congress party.

• She further stated that the recent controversy and uncalled for complications of tribal and regional language for 3rd and 4th grade jobs and the dilutions of 5th Schedule provisions in 13 districts of Jharkhand was "highly condemnable".

Israel’s figurehead president flew to the United Arab Emirates on Jan 30  in the first official visit by the country’s head of state, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations as tensions rise in the region.

The UAE and Israel normalized relations in the fall of 2020, part of a series of U.S.-brokered diplomatic deals between Israel and Arab states that had long avoided formal relations with Israel over its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.

The office of President Isaac Herzog said he would be meeting top officials including Abu Dhabi’s powerful Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the de facto Emirati leader, along with members of the country’s small but growing Jewish expat community. He also was expected to visit Expo 2020, the world’s fair in Dubai, where Israel has hosted a series of events at its national pavilion.

The president plays a largely ceremonial role as a national unifier in Israel’s parliamentary system, where the prime minister holds the most power. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last month made his first official visit to the Gulf Arab sheikhdom and discussed strengthening relations on a number of fronts with Sheikh Mohammed.

Shortly before takeoff, Herzog said his visit sought to bring “a blessing of peace and a message of peace to the entire region.”

The show of Israel-Emirati cooperation comes at a delicate time for the Middle East.

Fighting in Yemen’s seven-year civil war has intensified, widening to reach Emirati soil for the first time this month. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-led coalition claimed aerial attacks against Abu Dhabi – one that killed three workers at an industrial area and another that was intercepted and scattered missile shards over the capital.

The assaults shocked residents, puncturing the sense of safety pervasive in the region’s globalized business hub. The Houthis have threatened further strikes this week.

Meanwhile, negotiations in Vienna between world powers and Iran to curb Tehran’s rapidly expanding nuclear program paused on Jan 28 , with European officials saying the talks had approached “the final stage.” Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark nuclear deal nearly four years ago in a move welcomed by Israel and America’s Gulf Arab allies and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran.

Shared enmity of Iran and mutual fears over its nuclear program helped push the UAE and Israel to formalize relations after years of clandestine ties.