Here are the latest updates and the big news stories to follow today 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate the second phase of the ‘Saansad Khel Mahakum

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate the second phase of the ‘Saansad Khel Mahakumbh’ being organised in Uttar Pradesh’ Basti district, his office said. The ‘Khel Mahakumbh’ is a novel initiative that provides opportunity and platform to the youth of Basti and neighbouring areas to showcase their sporting talent and motivates them to take sport as a career option, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be on a three-day visit to the Maldives and Sri Lanka beginning Wednesday to further expand bilateral engagement with the two key maritime neighbours of India. His visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday comes at a time when the island nation is battling an economic crisis and is looking forward for debt restructuring from New Delhi.

The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana would organise a public meeting at Khammam town on Wednesday which would be attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and CPI’s D Raja. The meeting assumes political significance as it is the first public meeting after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) decided to go national by renaming itself as BRS and also because leaders of different opposition parties -- BRS, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Samajwadi Party and the Left -- would be seen together.

Aleida Guevara, daughter of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara arrived in Chennai on a two-day visit on Tuesday to attend events organised by the state unit of the CPI(M). She was accorded a warm welcome at the airport by CPI(M) state secretary G Balakrishnan and senior leader G Ramakrishnan among others.

The Centre on Tuesday set separate timelines for the institutions conducting geophysical and hydrological studies of the crisis in subsidence-hit Joshimath to submit their reports while the state government decided to demolish 15 completely damaged houses in the JP colony. Meanwhile, the flow of water from an underground channel near JP Colony in Marwari area of Joshimath that burst on January 2 has ebbed further to 123 litre per minute. Water flow stood at an alarming 540 LPM initially.

The CBI on Tuesday filed an FIR against Ashok Saloman of the Chintels Group and took over investigation into the partial collapse of Chintels Paradiso apartment complex in Gurugram last year in which two women were killed, officials said. The Haryana government had transferred the case to the CBI on July 18, 2022 which was forwarded to the CBI by the Centre on December 29 last year, they said. According to the procedure, the CBI took over the investigation in the FIR registered by the Haryana Police.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that the people of poll-bound Meghalaya want a change in the government. Ms. Banerjee, who is scheduled to visit the northeastern state on Wednesday, said there should be a peaceful resolution of the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute.