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India’s Omicron tally went past the 2000-mark on Tuesday with 153 more cases taking the total number of patients to 2,043, even as the variant spread to Meghalaya, thereby covering 24 states and UTs in the country. Maharashtra continued to report maximum daily cases in the country even as BMC commissioner IS Chahal said in a TV interview that according to experts, Omicron was responsible for 80 per cent of the Covid cases in Mumbai, reducing the Delta variant to the remaining 20%. Chahal’s revelations came days after the seventh round of genome sequencing last week that had found that 55% of the people in Mumbai were infected by the Omicron variant, while the rest were mainly Delta and Delta lineages.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today (January 5, 2022) visit Ferozepur in Punjab to lay the foundation stone for various development projects worth more than Rs 42,750 crore. This, notably, is PM's first visit to the state since repealing the farm laws and as per a few reports, it is being opposed by some farmer unions.

According to officials, around 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in the district ahead of the Prime Minister's visit and an anti-drone team has also been deployed in the border district.

China has maintained around 60,000 troops across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh even during extreme winters. India has also maintained a similar number of troops to ensure that the Chinese side does not even think of any misadventure.

The Chinese Army has withdrawn all its summer training troops in the areas opposite Ladakh but is still maintaining 60,000 troops there. The threat perception is there, top government sources told India Today.

The sources said the Indian Army has also moved ahead its counter-terrorism Rashtriya Rifles Uniform Force formation in the Ladakh theatre to bolster the 14 Corps there. The Indian Army has also been maintaining forward deployment to counter any threat there, the sources said. The Indian Army is also keeping the passes open near the LAC to ensure that troops can be moved forward in a quick manner if required.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate multiple developmental projects during his visit to the states of Manipur and Tripura on Tuesday. At around 11 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 22 developmental projects worth over Rs 4,800 crore in Imphal. 

Thereafter, at around 2 PM, in Agartala, he will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and will also launch two key development initiatives, the Prime Minister`s office informed on January 2. 

"In Manipur, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 13 Projects worth around Rs 1,850 crores and lay the foundation stone of nine projects worth around Rs 2,950 crore," the official release said. 

The third wave of COVID-19 has begun and the rate at which cases are increasing is doubling every day, top Dr. Shashank Joshi said on Monday. Dr. NK Arora, on the other hand, has said given the vaccine escape capability of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the efficacy of a booster shot is still being evaluated. Meanwhile, veteran investor Mark Mobius believes the market will be very different in 2022, and going back to basics will work. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said India's exports in December surged 37 percent to $37.29 billion, which is the highest-ever monthly figure. Here are some top news of the day.

As we step into a new year, happy statistics and data from 2021 crowd the mind. The Nifty finishes among the best performing global indexes with again of 24 percent; Nifty midcap returned 46 percent and the Nifty 100, a whopping 59 percent. Dig deeper