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India is witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases with sub-variant JN.1 spreading its tentacles to different states, sparking concerns among authorities and common people. This variant belongs to Omicron family and is more transmissible and more infectious, as per Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Former DG, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

She told ANI, "It belongs to the same Omicron family, but because it has certain mutations, which makes it more transmissible, more infectious. So it's been classified as a variant of interest by the WHO."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that average inflation was higher during 2004-2014, as compared to average inflation from 2014-15 to 2023-24 (till November), a news channel reported.

While responding to the Opposition's charges of lack of jobs and rising inflation, PM Modi said, "Let’s put allegations aside and discuss the facts. Despite two years of a once-in-a-century pandemic and global conflicts disrupting global value chains and even causing recessionary pressures across the world, India has shown remarkable resilience."

The Indian government recently again asked Pakistan in a formal communication to extradite Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed to India.

India doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Pakistan and Islamabad has done little to bring Saeed to justice. However, India has in the past too sent a letter rogatory to Pakistan for assistance in the investigation in Mumbai terror attacks, including against Saeed and his associates. Pakistan has never responded.

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the appointment of new Chief Justices for the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Allahabad, Gauhati, and Jharkhand.

The Collegium, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjeev Khanna and BR Gavai, passed the resolutions on December 27, which were uploaded on the official website on Thursday evening.

As the JN.1 worry continues, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (NSACOG) has detected a total of 157 COVID cases in India, which have been linked to the JN.1 subvariant.

As of Thursday, December 28, 2023, the highest number of JN.1 COVID cases in India were reported from Kerala. The southern state was the first to detect the new Omicron subvariant and now has a total of 78 cases.    

After Kerala, Gujarat has reported the maximum number of JN.1 cases. As per INSACOG, Gujarat has a total of 34 cases linked to the new subvariant.