Current Affairs in Short: 31 January 2022

Vistara cancels several flights for February 

•  Vistara airlines has cancelled several flights for February month and many more have been rescheduled due to low demand. The cancellation and rescheduling of flights have affected several passengers. 

•  Addressing one such complaint, Vistara Spokesperson informed on January 31st that the airlines will offer a waiver of change fee for one-time rescheduling on all direct bookings until March 31.

•  The spokesperson said that after a sharp decline in demand for air travel, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and restrictions imposed by various state governments, the airlines is observing a marginal increase in traffic in February in comparison to January. s

Road Safety World Series 2022 to be hosted by four venues across India

•  The Road Safety World Series will be played across four venues in India this year. The tournament organisers are looking to host the series in Indore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Vishakhapatnam. 

•  The tournament that features cricket legends from across the world will kick start in the last week of February. The series will be hosted between February and March. 

•  The matches will be held in Lucknow only after March 10 after the culmination of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022.

•  The inaugural edition of the Road Safety World Series had witnessed participation from teams from India, Sri Lanka, England, South Africa and West Indies. India legends had defeated Sri Lanka legends by 14 runs in the final to win the series last year. 

Roger Federer slips to 30th rank, hits 21-year low, Djokovic retains world no.1 

•  Roger Federer, 20-time Grand Slam champion has slipped down 13 places to the 30th position in the latest ATP Rankings published on January 31, 2022, which is his lowest rank in 21 years. 

•  The last time Federer was ranked this low in ATP Rankings was way back in January 2001 when he was just 19 years old and yet to win his first tour title.

•  The 40-year-old is currently ranked 30 with 1,665 points. He slipped down 13 places after missing the Australian Open 2022. Federer gave the tournament a miss as he is still in recovery mode from his knee surgery last year. He had last competed at Wimbledon 2021.

•  Novak Djokovic continues to rule as world no. 1 for the 358th week. He is followed by Russia's Daniil Medvedev. Rafael Nadal, who recently won his record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, continues to remain at the 5th position. 

Delhi airport implements one-hand bag rule 

•  The Delhi airport has implemented a one-hand bag rule, as per which a domestic passenger is only allowed to carry one piece of luggage or handbag as cabin luggage. The rule has been implemented with some exceptions. 

•  The exclusions include ladies handbag, overcoat or wrap, rug or blanket, umbrella, walking stick, camera or binoculars, infant's feed or carrying basket or a reasonable amount of reading material or a gift item purchased from duty-free shops and a laptop bag. 

•  The one-bag rule has been enforced as passengers carrying 2-3 hand baggage create congestion at the security checkpoint and increase security screening time, resulting in inconvenience for passengers. 

Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari elevated as Chief Justice of Madras High Court

•  The Supreme Court Collegium recommended the elevation of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Judge of Madras High Court as the Chief Justice of the court during its meeting on December 14, 2021 and January 29, 2022.

•  The SC Collegium has also approved the proposal for the elevation of seven advocates as Judges in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

•  The advocates who are being elevated as Judges include Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda, Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, Vaddiboyana Sujatha, Konakanti Sreenivasa Reddy, Satti Subba Reddy, Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao and Ravi Cheemalapati.

•  The Collegium also approved the proposal to elevate three advocates as judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The advocates include Maninder Singh Bhatti, Milind Ramesh Phadke and Dwarka Dhish Bansal.

•  The Collegium also approved the elevation of advocates Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, V Narasingh, Raman Murahari and Sanjay Kumar Mishra as Judges in the Orissa High Court.