THE HEADLINES:-

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the annual NCC- PM rally in New Delhi; Says, youth of the country are benefiting from defence sector reforms.

• The Prime Minister to share his thoughts with people in 'Mann Ki Baat' programme on All India Radio tomorrow.

• Indian Air Force orders an inquiry to determine the cause of accident of two fighter planes at Morena.

• Beating the retreat ceremony marking the culmination of Republic Day celebrations to be held at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi tomorrow.

• In Australian Open Tennis, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus wins Women's Singles title, defeating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in finals.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today stated that the youth of the country are benefiting from the reforms in the defence sector. The Prime Minister was addressing the annual NCC-PM rally at the Cariappa Parade Ground in New Delhi this evening.

"भारत जि‍स  तरह अपने डिफेंस सेक्‍टर में लगातार रिर्फोम्‍स कर रहा है। उसका लाभ भी देश के युवाओं को हो रहा है। एक समय था जब हम असोल्‍ट राइफल्‍स और बुलट प्रुफ जैकेट विदेशों से मंगवाते थे। आज सेना की जरूरत के सैकड़ों ऐसे सामान है जो हम भारत में बना रहे हैं। आज हम अपने बार्डर इंफ्राक्‍ट्रक्‍चर पर भी बहुत तेजी से काम कर रहे हैं। ये सारे अभ‍ियान भारत के युवाओं के लिए नई संभावनाएं लेकर आए हैं।"

Mr Modi said, this is the time for new opportunities for the youth of the country as India's time has arrived.

"किसी भी राष्‍ट्र को चलाने के लि‍ए जो ऊर्जा सबसे अहम होती है। वो ऊर्जा है, युवा और भारत के युवाओं के लि‍ए ये समय नए अवसरों का समय है। हर तरफ एक ही चर्चा है क‍ि भारत का समय आ गया है।  India's time has arrived. आज पूरी दुनि‍या भारत की तरफ देख रही है और इसके पीछे सबसे बड़ी वजह भारत के युवा है।"

The Prime Minister said Yuva Shakti is the driving force of India's development journey. He said new sectors are opening up for the youth in India today.

Mr Modi said NCC is also completing 75 years when India is celebrating its milestone of 75 years of Independence. He congratulated the entire team of NCC.

During the event, the Prime Minister released a special Day Cover and a commemorative specially Minted Coin of 75 rupee denomination.

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The Prime Minister will share his thoughts with the people of the country and abroad in 'Mann Ki Baat' programme on All India Radio tomorrow. It will be the 97th episode of the monthly radio programme.The programme will be broadcast on the entire network of All India Radio and Doordarshan, AIR News website and Newsonair mobile app from 11 a.m onwards. It will also be live-streamed on YouTube channels of AIR News, DD News, the PMO and Information and Broadcasting Ministry. AIR will broadcast the programme in regional languages immediately after the Hindi broadcast.

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Beating the Retreat ceremony, marking the culmination of four-day long Republic Day celebrations will be held at the historic Vijay Chowk in New Delhi tomorrow. Indian tunes based on classical ragas will be played during the ceremony. Twenty nine captivating and foot-tapping Indian tunes will be played by the music bands of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the State Police and Central Armed Police Force. President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will witness the ceremony.

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Nearly 75 scientists from G20 member countries and India would participate in the forthcoming Science 20 Inception Meeting on the 31st of this month. Puducherry District Collector Vallavan today informed  the media that theme of the meeting is Disruptive Science for Innovative and Sustainable Development. On the second day, the participants will visit Auroville to know the spirit behind the International City.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that many civilizations of the world have ended with time but no power could destroy India. He said that many attempts were made to break India geographically, culturally, socially and ideologically but they could not succeed. Mr. Modi was addressing the ceremony commemorating 1 thousand 111th 'Avataran Mahotsav' of lord Devnarayan at a place called Malaseri Dungri in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan today. The Prime Minister said that for the last eight-nine years, the country is trying to enable every section of the society which has been deprived and marginalised. He said that due to the efforts of the government, electricity, water, health, housing and banking facilities are reaching the common people.

The efforts of the government are also going on to provide water for agriculture and to protect livestock. For the first time, the facility of Kisan Credit Card has also been provided to the cattle rearers.

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The Indian Air Force has ordered an inquiry to determine the cause of the accident of its two fighter aircraft the Sukhoi-30 and Mirage-2000. In a tweet, the Air Force said that the fighter aircraft were involved in an accident near Gwalior this morning. The aircraft were on routine operational flying training mission. The Indian Air Force said, one of the three pilots involved, sustained fatal injuries. Later one of the pilots succumbed to injuries.

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President Droupadi Murmu will grace the opening of the Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan - Udyan Utsav 2023 tomorrow. Among several other attractions, the visitors will be able to see specially cultivated Tulips of twelve unique varieties which are expected to bloom in phases. This time the Gardens will be open for about two months. The Gardens will open for general public on 31st January and will remain open till the 26th March except on Mondays which are maintenance days. From 28th to 31st of March, the Gardens will be open for special categories. The garden will open for farmers on 28th March, for differently-abled persons on 29th, for personnel of Defence Forces, Paramilitary Forces and Police on the 30th, and for women including tribal women’s Self Help Groups on the 31st of March.

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In Tripura, the BJP and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) have finalised the seat-sharing agreement for the ensuing assembly polls.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference this evening in Agartala. As per the seat-sharing agreement, BJP will contest on 55 seats, whereas, the IPFT will field its candidates on 5 seats.

Senior BJP leader and Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhowmik will contest from Town Bardowali and Dhanpur seats, respectively.

Earlier this week, CPI-M led Left Front has announced the list of candidates for 46 assembly constituencies. Left party leaders indicated to go for seat-sharing with Congress, for which they have left 13 seats for Congress.

The Congress on the other hand today announced the list of 17 candidates.

The last date for filing of nomination is 30th January and the polling will be held in one phase on 16th of February.

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G-20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant today said Startup-20 is discussing strengthening the start-up ecosystem in the world and how Startups contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking to All India Radio, he said the stakeholders are also discussing how to increase the flow of investments and how to use Indian digital public infrastructure among others. Stating that quite a good number of delegates attended the inception meeting being held in Hyderabad, Mr Kant said, India is going to take forward several issues relating to young energy, technological disruption, Artificial Intelligence, web 3.0, electric mobility, battery storage among others which need constant technological disruption and how the world can go about it.

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Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and, Housing and Urban Development, Hardeep Singh Puri rededicated Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) iconic drilling rig Sagar Samrat, as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) today.

The Minister met the ONGC employees who manned the Sagar Samrat as a drilling rig and also the team which worked on converting it to a MOPU. The Minister highlighted how Sagar Samrat is a testimony of India’s vision of producing its own oil when it was globally labelled as “barren” in terms of hydrocarbon exploration. The Minister stated that in harnessing India’s most prominent and prolific oilfield, ONGC has consistently committed itself to the pursuit of knowledge, continued excellence and the willingness to evolve technologically. He said they were the crew which is driving India’s energy transformation. Your efforts fuel our journey towards realizing our national energy goals, the minister added.

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The President of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Csaba Korosi will be on a three-day visit to India from tomorrow. This will be his first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed UNGA Presidency in September last year.

During the visit, Mr Korosi will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on key multilateral and regional issues of mutual interest. He has outlined a few priorities for his UNGA Presidency. These include standing firm on basic principles of the United Nations Charter and making significant and measurable progress in sustainability transformation. Enhancing role of science in decision-making and increasing solidarity to better endure new chapters of crises facing the world, are some of his other priorities.

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The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested 6 members of the banned terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami from different parts of the capital city Dhaka on Friday. Briefing media in Dhaka today, CTTC Chief Md. Asaduzzaman said that the terror group was planning some ‘big event’ in Bangladesh which was foiled with their arrest.

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In Australian Open Tennis, fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka has won the Women's singles title. Sabalenka of Belarus defeated 22nd seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the finals today.

In the Men's Singles, fourth seed Novak Djokovic will take on third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the title clash tomorrow. Djokovic of Serbia defeated unseeded American player Tommy Paul in the last four encounter 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 to book spot in the finals. Djokovic seeks a record-extending 10th Australian Open and a 22nd Grand Slam crown. In the second semi-final, third seed Tsitsipas registered victory over 18th seed Karen Khachanov.

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In Cricket, the second T20 International between India and New Zealand will be played in Lucknow tomorrow. The match will start at 7 PM, Indian Time. In the first T20 of the three-match series, New Zealand defeated India by 21 runs in Ranchi.

Earlier, India claimed the top spot in the ICC Men’s ODI ranking after clean sweeping the Kiwis 3-0 in the series. The hosts won the third and final ODI at the Holkar stadium in Indore by 90 runs, secured a comprehensive eight wicket win in the second ODI in Raipur and won the first one-dayer by 12 runs in Hyderabad.

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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN:-

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the annual NCC- PM rally in New Delhi; Says, youth of the country are benefiting from defence sector reforms.

• The Prime Minister to share his thoughts with people in 'Mann Ki Baat' programme on All India Radio tomorrow.

• Indian Air Force orders an inquiry to determine the cause of accident of two fighter planes at Morena.

• Beating the retreat ceremony marking the culmination of Republic Day celebrations to be held at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi tomorrow.

• In Australian Open Tennis, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus wins Women's singles title, defeating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in finals.

For details of these stories and more, log on to our website www.newsonair.gov.in and News On Air App.

THAT IS ALL IN THE NEWS AT NINE

GOOD NIGHT.