1) The Budget session of Parliament opens on Tuesday. As part of a major overhaul of the Budget process, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs recommended advancing the holding of the Budget Session from January 31, followed by the presentation of the Budget on February 1. Both the address of the President and tabling of the Economic Survey are to take place on January 31. The first phase of the Budget Session will run till February 9.

2) The Supreme Court is to hear today all applications filed to challenge Tamil Nadu’s amendment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, allowing Jallikattu to be held in the State. A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman will have a scheduled hearing of the challenges against the new jallikattu law. Meanwhile, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi informed a Bench led by Justice Misra, in a mentioning, that the Centre has filed an interim application seeking to withdraw its notification of January 7 last year, bringing bulls back into the stable of performing animals under the 1960 Act in the light of the new law passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly on January 23. Justice Misra told Mr Rohatgi that the government’s application would also be heard along with the applications filed by Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), Compassion Unlimited Plus Action, other animal rights organisations and activists against the Tamil Nadu law on January 31.

3) The Lenovo K6 Power 4GB RAM variant is set to launch in India on Tuesday. The smartphone will be unveiled exclusively on Flipkart at noon. Lenovo K6 Power was announced in the 3GB RAM option on December 6 last year. Lenovo unveiled its K6 series at IFA 2016 in Berlin with K6 Note, K6 and the K6 Power smartphones back in September. Given the 4,000 mAh battery, it competes against the Redmi 3S series, which also boasts of a 4000 mAh plus battery, but at under Rs 10,000 budget pricing.

4) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is to dedicate the Bhakta Ramadasu Lift Irrigation scheme in Khammam district, which would irrigate 60,000 acres, to the people on January 31, the birth anniversary of 17th century saint-poet Bhakta Ramadasu. In a major success for the state government, the project was completed two months ahead of schedule.

5) The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is expected to conduct a fresh trial of its long-range nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) K-4 from an underwater platform today. The indigenously built underwater missile has a strike range of around 3,500 km and will be test fired from a submerged pontoon, which is almost identical to a submarine. Though the missile has been designed to be launched from a depth of 50 metres, scientists are planning to fire it from an undersea platform nearly 20-30 metre deep in the Bay of Bengal.

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