• Star batter Jemimah Rodrigues was on Jan 6  dropped from the 15-member Indian women's cricket squad announced for the ICC ODI World Cup to be held in New Zealand from March 4 to Apr 3.

• Veteran Mithali Raj will lead the last edition's runner-up side with Harmanpreet Kaur as her deputy.

• The 39-year-old Mithali has announced that she would chalk out her retirement plans after the mega-event.

• The same 15-member squad will also feature in a five-ODI series against New Zealand from February 11 to 24.

• India will open their World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on March 6 at the Bay Oval, Tauranga before facing hosts New Zealand on March 10 at Hamilton, followed by the West Indies (March 12, Hamilton), defending champions England (March 16, Tauranga), Australia (March 19, Auckland), Bangladesh (March 22, Hamilton) and South Africa (March 27, Christchurch).

• In a meeting held on Jan 6  All India Women's Selection Committee also named a 16-member squad to be led by Harmanpreet Kaur for the lone T20 International against New Zealand to be played on February 9 before the ODIs.

Squads:

ICC Women's World Cup 2022 & New Zealand ODIs: Mithali Raj (C), Harmanpreet Kaur (VC), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.

Standby Players: Sabbhineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur.

One-off T20I against New Zealand: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Sabbhineni Meghna, Simran Dil Bahadur.

• South African umpire Allahudien Palekar is having a fine Test debut in the ongoing second match against India at the Wanderers in Johannesburg but very few would know that his family traces its origins to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

• Palekar traces his roots to Shiv village in Khed tehsil of Ratnagiri district. 

• The Border Security Force lodged a strong protest with Pakistani Rangers at a commander-level meeting on Jan 5 over smuggling of arms and narcotic substances from across the border.

• The BSF reiterated that these types of activities from the Pakistani side are unacceptable. It also strictly objected to the drone operations carried out by Pakistan regularly violating the International Border.

• The BSF delegation was led by DIG Border Security Force Surjit Singh. This was the first commander-level meeting in 2022 .

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Jan 5 cancelled his visit to  Ferozepur in Punjab where he was scheduled to lay the foundation stones for several projects worth over Rs 42,000 crore.

• The farmers blocked the road on which the PM was travelling from Bathinda to Ferozepur. His cavalcade got stuck for 15-20 minutes on a flyover, some 30 kilometres away from Hussainiwala near Ferozepur and had to turn back.

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has described the event as a "major security lapse" and sought a detailed report from the state government.

• The Centre has given nod to set up six new branches of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Patna, Jaipur, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar. The move will also lead to the creation of 300 new posts.

• The Finance Ministry approved the proposal moved by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs which had sought the establishment of the NIA offices in six cities and the creation of 435 posts.

• The Haryana government has proposed to set up the first heli-hub of the country in Gurugram designed to have many aviation facilities like heliport, hangars, repairs, and any other related services.

• Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said this heli-hub is proposed to be the first of its kind in the country to have all the facilities at one place for helicopters.

• In an ambitious project of the Indian Railways (IR), the second round of proof of concept trials of ‘End of Train Telemetry’ (EoTT) devices have started on the sections of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited after their successful trial under the North Central Railway (NCR) recently.

• This project is under operating jurisdictions of the East Coast (ECo) and the South Eastern (SE) railways.

• The renowned social worker Sindhutai Sapkal, fondly known as `orphan children's mother', died following a heart attack at a private hospital  in Pune .

• Sapkal, who had received the Padma Shri last year, had completed 74 years in November.