Cartoonist Narayan Debnath, the creator of Bengali comic characters 'Bantul The Great', 'Handa Bhonda' and 'Nonte Phonte', died in Kolkata after a prolonged illness

• The Gujarat government approved a project worth Rs 4,369 crore for the use of additional one million acre-feet of the Narmada river water for the border district of Kutch  .

• The administrative approval to carry out works worth Rs 4,369 crore has been sanctioned keeping in view the present operation of the Kutch branch canal-- which is a part of the Narmada main canal

• The river water will be diverted to 38 small and medium irrigation schemes through a proposed 337.98-km pipeline to irrigate around 2.81 lakh acres of land, covering 77 villages in six talukas of the Kutch district.

• The number of people that would be allowed to attend the Republic Day parade this year would be curtailed by 70-80 per cent to approximately 5,000-8,000 due to the ongoing wave of COVID-19, senior officials of the defence ministry said on Jan 18.

• Approximately 25,000 people were allowed to attend the last year's parade. Moreover, the decision on whether chief guests will come or not for this year's parade is yet to be taken by the Ministry of External Affairs.

• India has said that it will provide "whatever assistance" is possible to the families of the two Indian citizens killed in a suspected Houthi drone attack near the Abu Dhabi airport that sparked multiple explosions in the United Arab Emirates' capital.

• Two Indians and a Pakistani national were killed and six others injured in attack claimed on Jan 18 by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

• The explosions were caused by "small flying objects", possibly drones, that hit three petroleum tankers in Abu Dhabi.

• The UAE has been part of a Saudi-led military campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.

• The first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic saw incomes of 99 per cent of humanity fall and over 16 crore people were forced into poverty even as the world's ten richest men saw their fortune more than double to USD 1.5 trillion (over Rs 111 lakh crore) at a rate of USD 1.3 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) a day, a new study showed on Jan 17 .

• In its report titled 'Inequality Kills' released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam International further said inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds.

• This is a conservative finding based on deaths globally from lack of access to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger, and climate breakdown.

• Maldives is presently witnessing a growing hate campaign against India reportedly fueled by opposition political parties and teachers are bearing the brunt of this campaign.

• Official sources have so far confirmed two cases of harassment of teachers on the streets by groups who want Indians out of the archipelago.

• The harassers shouted "India Out" slogans as they targetted teachers from India on two different islands. The teachers have requested safety for them at schools.

• The Education Ministry of Maldives confirmed these two cases. The Ministry reportedly said that Indian teachers from public schools of some administrative islands have been targetted by anti-India groups.

• The origin of the hate campaign is stated to be the intensification of anti-India protests by the opposition parties led by former President Abdullah Yameen as they demand an end to the supposed presence of the Indian military in the archipelago.

• Former Guinean President Alpha Conde left the country for medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates after spending more than four months in the custody of the military junta that overthrew him.

• No details were given on his diagnosis, though witnesses at the airport in Conakry, the capital, confirmed that the 83-year-old former president's plane was en route to Abu Dhabi.

• There was no immediate confirmation from the junta-led transitional government, though officials had announced earlier this month that Conde wasn't in good health and would be traveling abroad soon for care.

• Conde's ouster in September came less than a year after he ran and won a third term in office despite widespread protests. The ex-president had backed a constitutional referendum bending the term limit rules in order to do so.

• The regional bloc known as ECOWAS and other members of the international community have called for Conde’s immediate release ever since he was detained in the September coup that overthrew him after more than a decade in power.

• But Guinea’s new military rulers vowed that Conde wouldn't be allowed to leave the country and seek exile. West African regional leaders put travel bans into place after the junta failed to release him. The financial assets of junta leaders also were frozen.

• Conde came to power in 2010 during the country’s first democratic elections since independence from France in 1958. At the time, there were hopes that his presidency would turn the page after decades of dictatorship and corrupt rule in Guinea, home to mineral riches including the world’s largest bauxite reserves.

• However, Conde's bid to extend his rule sparked violent demonstrations by those who said he had bent the rule on term limits to his benefit. He ultimately won another five-year term in October 2020 only to be ousted the following September.

• South Korea's leader arrived in Saudi Arabia on , January 18, 2022, where he was greeted in Riyadh by the kingdom's crown prince and an honor guard marching band.

• It was the second stop on a Mideast tour by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife, who were greeted on the tarmac by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. All were masked and President Moon did not shake hands with the prince, in line with coronavirus social distancing practices.

• It is the latest visit by a head of state to Saudi Arabia as a growing number of world leaders resume bilateral meetings and trips abroad following COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in many parts of the world.

• Prince Mohammed bin Salman has largely taken over day-to-day rule of Saudi Arabia from his father, King Salman. It was unclear whether President Moon would also meet King Salman, who has only made limited public appearances since the outbreak of the virus globally in March 2020.

• President Moon's stop in Saudi Arabia came after his visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he reportedly reached a preliminary $3.5 billion deal to sell Seoul’s surface-to-air missiles to Abu Dhabi and pledged deeper cooperation with the Arab country.

• The oil and gas-dependent South Korea imports fossil fuels from the Persian Gulf to power its energy-intensive economy, dominated by manufacturing industries from cars to petrochemicals.