The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday decided to continue the ban on large rallies and road shows for next month’s Assembly elections till January 31, but allowed outdoor meetings of up to 500 people for candidates of the first two phases of polling.Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election from Karhal in the Yadav family bastion of Mainpuri. While he has been a Member of Parliament from Kannauj and Azamgarh, and also elected to the State Legislative Council, this would be Mr. Akhilesh Yadav’s first Assembly election. He won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Azamgarh in Purvanchal.Following an unprecedented controversy in Germany and a diplomatic incident with Ukraine, German Navy Chief Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach tended his resignation late on Saturday over his comments in New Delhi that Ukraine can never get back Crimea and Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably” deserved respect.The Antrix-Devas saga may be the most high profile case of a technology deal gone sour in India, but little has changed in India to incentivise high-technology deals involving private and public companies and prevent similar occurrences in the future.Two militants affiliated to the Resistance Front (TRF) were killed during an anti-militancy operation of the security forces in Shopian of south Kashmir on Saturday.The police said Sameer Ahmad Shah from Shopian’s Dhangam and Rayees Ahmad Mir from Pulwama’s Takiya Wahgam were cornered during a search operation, based on a specific input generated by the police, in Kilbal village of Shopian.The Gati Shakti programme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year envisages a digital platform for a national masterplan of infrastructure projects in the country which will be ready by March 31, 2022, according to a senior government official.The Taliban’s first official talks with the West on European soil since seizing power in Afghanistan will help to “transform the atmosphere of war” after a two-decade insurgency against NATO forces, the group’s top spokesman said on Saturday. No country has yet recognised the Taliban’s government.The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen denied targeting a detention centre in Yemen’s Saada province, saying the facility hit was not a site restricted from strikes, the Saudi official news agency SPA reported on Saturday.The death toll from the airstrike climbed to at least 82 detainees, the rebels and an aid group said on Saturday.India imported $16 billion more of its key top 100 imports from China in the last year, an increase of almost two-thirds from the previous year, an analysis of trade figures shows, underlining deepening dependencies on many crucial imports.India’s total imports from China crossed a record $97.5 billion last year, making up a large chunk of the bilateral trade that reached $125 billion, for the first time crossing the $100 billion-mark, figures released earlier this month by China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed.The Lieutenant-Governor’s administration in Jammu & Kashmir is pushing hard to convince Dubai-based investors to explore investment possibilities in the Union Territory, even as JSW Steel Ltd. and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. became the first major corporations to buy land for their projects after the reading down of Article 370 in 2019.The Indian team’s strategy is expected to undergo paradigm shift as it faces a possibility of a clean sweep against South Africa in the third ODI, on Sunday. With the two players having flopped completely, it needs to be seen whether to try out Jayant Yadav and Deepak Chahar in the next game.The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is tentatively scheduled to begin on March 27. While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is trying its best for the tournament to be organised in India, it has identified United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Africa as back-up venues.