* India’s Lakshya Sen has won his maiden Super 500 title by winning Yonex-Sunrise India Open.

* In men’s singles event he defeated World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

* This was the 20-year-old’s maiden entry in the final of a BWF World Tour Super 500 event after he came back from a game down to beat Malaysia’s Tze Yong Ng.

* Earlier in the day, India's top-ranked Men's Doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won double title

* The defeated top seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 26-24 in the final.

* Kathak legend Pandit Birju Maharaj (Brij Mohan Nath Mishra) passed away at his home in Delhi after suffering a heart attack.

* A recipient of the country’s second-highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan was born in a well-known family of Kathak dancers.

* Pandit Birju Maharaj donned several hats during his lifetime.

* While he was best known as a Kathak dancer, he was an equally prolific singer, poet and painter.

* Noted environmentalist Prof M K Prasad passed away on 17^th January 2022.

* He was a prominent figure in the historic grassroot level movement to save the evergreen tropical rain forests in Kerala's Silent Valley from destruction.

* He had also led the popular science movement, ‘Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishath’.

* That had undertaken campaigns for popularisation of science in everyday life.

* The Tamil Nadu government will install a statue of Colonel John Pennycuick in the United Kingdom.

* Colonel John Pennycuick was a British engineer who built the Mullaperiyar dam in 1895 in Kerala's Idukki.

* The dam is currently operated by the Tamil Nadu government.

* Pennycuick is highly respected by the people of the five districts in Tamil Nadu and is even worshipped by many.

* The navies of India and Russia conducted a passing exercise in the Arabian Sea.

* Indian Navy's indigenously designed and built guided missile destroyer INS Kochi exercised with Russian Federation Navy's destroyer Admiral Tributs.

* The exercise showcased cohesiveness and interoperability between the two navies and included tactical manoeuvres, cross-deck helicopter operations and seamanship activities.

* A passing exercise is done to ensure that two navies participating in it are able to smoothly coordinate and communicate in times of any disaster or war.

* Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has completed 5-km-long tunnelling work as part of the 18-km-long all-weather Zojila Tunnel.

* The project of the NHIDCL, being executed by the MEIL, is envisaged to ensure connectivity between Srinagar and Ladakh throughout the year.

* Zojila project, Asia's longest bi-directional tunnel, is a challenging development project in India for strategic reasons too.

* Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur has inaugurated 9th women National Ice Hockey Championship-2022 at Ice Skating Rink, Kaza in Lahaul Spiti district.

* Ice Hockey competition and development camp is being organized at the national level for the first time in Himachal Pradesh

* Participants: Himachal Pradesh, Telengana, Ladakh, ITBP Ladakh, Chandigarh and Delhi.

* First Basic Ice Hockey ten days Coaching Camp was organized at Kaza in the year 2019.

* First National Start-up Day is being observed on 16th January 2022 as announced by Prime Miniter Modi.

* The announcement was made on 15th January 2022, via video conferencing during week-long event Celebrating Innovation Ecosystem as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

* During the event, over 150 startups interacted and have been divided into six working groups based on several themes.

* Note: Purple Revolution is Jammu and Kashmir’s contribution to Start-Up India.

* A young Lavni artist from Maharashtra, Sumit Bhale of Fulbari taluka has won a gold medal at the International Folk Art Festival in Dubai.

* Lavani is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra and is a combination of traditional song and dance, which is particularly performed to the beats of Dholki, a percussion instrument.

* It is noted for its powerful rhythm and has contributed substantially to the development of Marathi folk theatre.

* Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal has virtually addressed 16th India Digital Summit, 2022.

* It was a two-day virtual event, that was organized by Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

* Theme of the summit: “Supercharging Startups”.

* It is the oldest event of the digital industry in India.

* During the summit, Minister unveiled ‘LEAP’ as the way forward to further strengthen our Startups ecosystem.