• The men's singles finalists at the Syed Modi International badminton event will share the prize money after the title clash was declared a "no-match" with one of the players testing positive for COVID-19.

• The two men's singles finalists at the Syed Modi India International 2022 will receive finalist World Ranking points and an equal share of the prize money.

• The all-French final between Arnaud Merkle and Lucas Claerbout was scheduled on Jan 23

• Indian star P V Sindhu had won the women's singles title beating compatriot Malvika Bansod.

• India's teen sensation Shafali Verma on Jan 25  moved up one place to regain her position at the top of the ICC Women's T20I rankings for batters while her opening partner Smriti Mandhana dropped a spot to fourth.

• The Australian duo of Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning occupied the second and third positions in the rankings respectively.

• In the bowler's rankings, the top three remained unchanged with England's Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn occupying the first and second spots respectively while the third place stayed with South Africa's Shabnim Ismail.

• The all-rounders' rankings didn't see much change either with Sophie Devine and Natalie Sciver holding on to their first and second places respectively.

• Deepti Sharma gained one place to third.

• On the final day of the Commonwealth Games cricket qualifiers in Malaysia, the Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 22 runs to seal the only berth that was available in the main event at Birmingham.

• The Railways suspended its NTPC and Level 1 exams on  Jan 26  after the candidates went on a rampage in some states alleging irregularities in the process whilst minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged them not to destroy public property and assured redressal of their grievances.

• The suspension of exams and the statement by the minister are being seen in certain quarters as a step down from the earlier decision to bar applicants found indulging in vandalism given that elections are due in five states, including the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.

• The Railway Ministry formed a high-level committee, headed by Deepak Peter Gabriel, the principal executive director of industrial relations in the ministry, to examine the aspirants' grievances.

• Sources say it was the protests by the job aspirants in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh for two days and the fear that the agitation may fan out in other parts of the country through the aggressive social media campaigns being run by the candidates forced the Railways' hand.

• Bihar, home to a majority of the job aspirants, saw violent protests for the third day in a row.

• A crowd stormed the Gaya Junction and set on fire the Bhabhua-Patna InterCity Express.

• In Sitamarhi, police fired in the air to disperse the demonstrators at the railway station.

• Protests were also reported from Patna, Nawada, Muzaffarpur, Buxar and Bhojpur districts.

• In Uttar Pradesh, police arrested two persons and lodged a case against around 1,000 unidentified people for allegedly rioting and blocking the train tracks.

• Six police personnel were suspended with immediate effect for using unnecessary force.

• The candidates are opposing the Railways' decision to hold the exam in two stages, claiming the second stage for final selection tantamount to "cheating" those who appeared and cleared the first stage of the Railways' Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) for computer-based test released on January 15.

• Around 1.25 crore candidates had applied for the exams that had advertised over 35,000 posts from levels 2 to 6.

• It is being alleged that the exam is designed to favour those with a higher qualification, even for jobs that require lesser qualification.

• Of the total vacancies, 24,281 are open to graduates and 11,000 for under-graduates.

• Meta (formerly Facebook) reportedly charged its Internet users in developing countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, in the name of offering them free access to the Web.

• Meta's Internet service, called Free Basics, is offered via Meta Connectivity (formerly Facebook Connectivity) and is supposed to provide users with "access to communication tools, health information, education resources and other low-bandwidth services" at no charge.

•  Launched in 2013, the initiative currently serves more than 300 million people globally.

• According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the users in Pakistan have been charged the most for using Facebook's "free" Internet at a total of $1.9 million, with nearly two dozen additional nations also affected.

• The Free Basics programme is not available in India as in 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had disallowed service providers from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services purely on the basis of content.

• Facebook later cut off free internet service for India, saying "Free Basics is no longer available to people in India".

• In a goodwill gesture, Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Army exchanged sweets and greetings at the Attari-Wagah border on India's 73rd Republic Day on Jan 26.

• The officials of the BSF and Pak Rangers exchanged sweets and pleasantries.

• The exchange of sweets was suspended in the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic whereas

• earlier in 2018, the BSF skipped the tradition on January 26 over growing incidents of ceasefire violations across the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border.

• Even in 2019, both border guarding forces of India and Pakistan did not exchange sweets and greetings on the occasion of Eid along the Attari-Wagah border as the Pakistan chose to skip the friendlier gesture at the border after the special status give to Jammu and Kashmir was revoked

• Similarly, after the surgical strike in October 2016, the BSF did not offer sweets to Pakistan Rangers.

•  Because of the Covid pandemic, the flag lowering ceremony or Beating Retreat border ceremony have been suspended at Attari-Wagah border.

• In 2022, the President has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards including 2 duo case

• The Padma Awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year.

• In 2022, the President has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards including 2 duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one) as per list below. The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards. 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 Posthumous awardees.

Padma Vibhushan    (4)

Name                              Field                                         State/Country

1  Prabha Atre                          Art                                                 Maharashtra

2  Radheyshyam Khemka (Posthumous)    Literature and Education      U.P.

3 General Bipin Rawat (Posthumous)              Civil Service        Uttarakhand

4  Kalyan Singh (Posthumous)          Public Affairs        Uttar Pradesh

• Padma Bhushan (17)

Name                                 Field                       State/Country

1    Ghulam Nabi Azad     Public Affairs       Jammu and Kashmir

2    Victor Banerjee Art    West Bengal

3   Gurmeet Bawa (Posthumous)     Art    Punjab

4    Natarajan Chandrasekaran Trade and Industry      Maharashtra

5     Krishna Ella and  Suchitra Ella* (Duo)   Trade and Industry     Telangana

7     Madhur Jaffery          Others-Culinary  USA

8     Devendra Jhajharia   Sports        Rajasthan

9      Rashid Khan    Art    Uttar Pradesh

10    Rajiv Mehrishi Civil Service        Rajasthan

11    Satya Narayana Nadella   Trade and Industry      USA

12    Sundararajan Pichai Trade and Industry      USA

13   Cyrus Poonawalla     Trade and Industry      Maharashtra

14   Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous)  Sci and Engg       Mexico

15   Pratibha Ray    Literature and Education      Odisha

16   Swami Sachidanand Literature and Education      Gujarat

17  Vashishth Tripathi      Literature ane Education      Uttar Pradesh

• Padma Shri (107)

Name                                        Field                           State/Country

1 Shri Prahlad Rai Agarwala         Trade and Industry      West Bengal

2 Prof. Najma Akhtar Literature and Education      Delhi

3 Shri Sumit Antil       Sports        Haryana

4Shri T Senka Ao                Literature and Education      Nagaland

5 Ms. Kamalini Asthana and   Ms. Nalini Asthana* (Duo)                  Art    Uttar Pradesh

6 Shri Subbanna Ayyappan Science and Engineering       Karnataka

7 Shri J K Bajaj  Literature and Education      Delhi

8 Shri Sirpi Balasubramaniam      Literature and Education      Tamil Nadu

9 Srimad Baba Balia   Social Work        Odisha

10 Ms. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay     Science and Engineering       West Bengal

11 Ms. Madhuri Barthwal     Art    Uttarakhand

12 Shri Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat         Literature and Education      Ladakh

13 Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar          Medicine   Maharashtra

14 Shri Harmohinder Singh Bedi   Literature and Education      Punjab

15 Shri Pramod Bhagat         Sports        Odisha

16 Shri S Ballesh Bhajantri    Art    Tamil Nadu

17 Shri Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia Art    Sikkim

18 Shri Maria Christopher Byrski   Literature and Education      Poland

19 Acharya Chandanaji         Social Work        Bihar

20 Ms. Sulochana Chavan     Art    Maharashtra

21 Shri Neeraj Chopra Sports        Haryana

22 Ms. Shakuntala Choudhary       Social Work        Assam

23 Shri Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil    Sports        Kerala

24 Shri S Damodaran   Social Work        Tamil Nadu

25 Shri Faisal Ali Dar    Sports        J&K

26 Shri Jagjit Singh Dardi      Trade and Industry      Chandigarh

27 Dr. Prokar Dasgupta         Medicine   U.K.

28 Shri Aditya Prasad Dash   Science and Engineering       Odisha

29 Dr. Lata Desa Medicine   Gujarat

30 Shri Malji bhai Desai        Public Affairs       Gujarat

31 Ms. Basanti Devi     Social Work        Uttarakhand

32 Ms. Lourembam Bino Devi       Art    Manipur

33 Ms. Muktamani Devi       Trade and Industry      Manipur

34 Ms. Shyamamani Devi     Art    Odisha

35 Shri Khalil Dhantejvi (Posthumous)   Lit. and Education        Gujarat

36 Shri Savaji Bhai Dholakia Social Work        Gujarat

37 Shri Arjun Singh Dhurve  Art    Madhya Pradesh

38 Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre         Medicine   Maharashtra

39 Shri Chandraprakash Dwivedi  Art    Rajasthan

40 Shri Dhaneswar Engti       Lit. and Education        Assam

41 Shri Om Prakash Gandhi  Social Work        Haryana

42 Shri Narasimha Rao Garikapati Lit. and Education        Andhra Pradesh

43 Shri Girdhari Ram Ghonju (Posthumous)    Lit. and Education        Jharkhand

44 Shri Shaibal Gupta (Posthumous)      Lit. and Education        Bihar

45 Shri Narasingha Prasad Guru    Lit. and Education        Odisha

46 Shri Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan (Posthumous)       Art    Andhra Pradesh

47 Shri Ryuko Hira       Trade and Industry      Japan

48 Ms. Sosamma Iype Animal Husbandry       Kerala

49 Shri Avadh Kishore Jadia Lit. and Education        Madhya Pradesh

50 Ms. Sowcar Janaki  Art    Tamil Nadu

51 Ms. Tara Jauhar       Lit and Education         Delhi

52 Ms. Vandana Kataria        Sports        Uttarakhand

53 Shri H R Keshavamurthy  Art    Karnataka

54 Shri Rutger Kortenhorst   Lit and Education         Ireland

55 Shri P Narayana Kurup     Lit and Education         Kerala

56 Ms. Avani Lekhara  Sports        Rajasthan

57 Shri Moti Lal Madan         Sci and Engineering     Haryana

58 Shri Shivnath Mishra        Art    Uttar Pradesh

59 Dr. Narendra Prasad Misra (Posthumous)  Medicine   Madhya Pradesh

60 Shri Darshanam Mogilaiah        Art    Telangana

61 Shri Guruprasad Mohapatra (Posthumous)         Civil Service        Delhi

62 Shri Thavil Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan  Art    Puducherry

63 Ms. R Muthukannammal Art    Tamil Nadu

64Shri Abdul Khader Nadakattin  Grassroots Innovation Karnataka

65 Shri Amai Mahalinga Naik        Agriculture Karnataka

66 Shri Tsering Namgyal       Art    Ladakh

67 Shri A K C Natarajan         Art    Tamil Nadu

68 Shri V L Nghaka       Lit. and Education        Mizoram

69 Shri Sonu Nigam     Art    Maharashtra

70 Shri Ram Sahay Panday   Art    Madhya Pradesh

71 Shri Chirapat Prapandavidya    Lit and Education         Thailand

72 Ms. K V Rabiya        Social Work        Kerala

73 Shri Anil Kumar Rajvanshi         Sci and Engineering     Maharashtra

74 Shri Sheesh Ram     Art    Uttar Pradesh

75 Shri Ramachandraiah       Art    Telangana

76 Dr. Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao       Medicine   Andhra Pradesh

77 Ms. Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai    Social Work        Gujarat

78 Ms. Padmaja Reddy         Art    Telangana

79 Guru Tulku Rinpoche       Spiritualism         Arunachal Pradesh

80 Shri Brahmanand Sankhwalkar          Sports        Goa

81 Shri Vidyanand Sarek       Lit and Education         Himachal Pradesh

82 Shri Kali Pada Saren         Lit. and Education        West Bengal

83 Dr. Veeraswamy Seshiah Medicine   Tamil Nadu

84 Ms. Prabhaben Shah        Social Work        Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

85 Shri Dilip Shahani    Lit and Education         Delhi

86 Shri Ram Dayal Sharma   Art    Rajasthan

87 Shri Vishwamurti Shastri Lit. and Education        J&K

88 Ms. Tatiana Lvovna Shaumyan Lit. and Education        Russia

89 Shri Siddhalingaiah (Posthumous)     Lit. and Education        Karnataka

90 Shri Kaajee Singh    Art    West Bengal

91 Shri Konsam Ibomcha Singh     Art    Manipur

92 Shri Prem Singh                Social Work        Punjab

93 Shri Seth Pal Singh  Agriculture Uttar Pradesh

94 Ms. Vidya Vindu Singh     Lit. and Education        Uttar Pradesh

95 Baba Iqbal Singh Ji  Social Work        Punjab

96 Dr. Bhimsen Singhal         Medicine   Maharashtra

97 Shri Sivananda        Yoga Uttar Pradesh

98 Shri Ajay Kumar Sonkar   Sci and Engineering     Uttar Pradesh

99 Ms. Ajita Srivastava         Art    Uttar Pradesh

100 Sadguru Brahmeshanand Acharya Swami Spiritualism         Goa

101 Dr. Balaji Tambe (Posthumous)         Medicine   Maharashtra

102 Shri Raghuvendra Tanwar         Lit and Education         Haryana

103 Dr. Kamlakar Tripathi       Medicine   Uttar Pradesh

104 Ms. Lalita Vakil        Art    Himachal Pradesh

105 Ms. Durga Bai Vyam        Art    Madhya Pradesh

106 Shri Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas         Sci and Engineering     Gujarat

• Indian Army’s six soldiers have been conferred with the Shaurya Chakra Medals for their conspicuous acts of gallantry. Five of them have been awarded posthumously with the country’s third highest peacetime bravery award. Two Indian Air Force personnel and three of the Indian Coast Guards have also been conferred with gallantry medals.

• On the eve of the Republic Day 2022 the President approved awards of 384 Gallantry and other Defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel and others on the eve of 73rd Republic Day celebrations.

• These include 12 Shaurya Chakras, 29 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, 04 Uttam Yudh Seva Medals, 53 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals (AVSM), 13 Yudh Seva Medals, 03 Bar to Vishisht Seva Medals, 122 Vishisht Seva Medals, 03 Bar to Sena Medals (Gallantry), 81 Sena Medals (Gallantry), 02 Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry), 40 Sena Medals (Devotion to Duty), 08 Nao Sena Medals (Devotion to Duty), and 14 Vayu Sena Medals (Devotion to Duty). Of the 12 Shaurya Chakras 6 have been awarded to the Central Reserve Police Force Personnel.

• Of the total awards, this year Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Personnel have been given one Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and three Vishisht Seva Medals which includes one to the official of the General Reserve Engineer Force of the BRO.

• While Naib Subedar Sreejith M, Sena Medal, Havildar Anil Kumar Tomar, Havildar Kashiray Bammanalli, Havildar Pinku Kumar, Sepoy Maruprolu Jaswanth Kumar were awarded with Shaurya Chakra Posthumously in counter terrorist operations in Kashmir, Rifleman Rakesh Sharma was given for his act of bravery in counter insurgency operation in Assam.

• Two helicopter pilots of Indian Air Force officers involved in a daring recovery of mortal remains and casualty evacuation in the vicinity of naxal ambush.  Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry) was conferred upon Wing Commander Chinmaya Patro and Squadron Leader Suraj Nair who also helped in insertion of 120 commandos near the ambush site.