# polls in five states

• Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur will be held between February 10 and March 7, the election Commission of India announced on Saturday.
• The counting of votes for all 690 constituencies, across the five states, where a total of 18.34 crore citizens are eligible to vote, will be held on March 10.
• The commission banned all physical campaigning till January 15 due to the rise in Covid-19 cases across the states.
• The polling for Uttar pradesh’s 403 assembly seats will be held over seven phases on February 10,14,20,23,27,march 3,7.
• Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand will all vote on a single day, February 14, While polling in Manipur will be held over two phases on February 27 and March 3.

# Srilanka

• India topped Srilanka’s tourist arrivals in December and the Entire year, according to data published by the Srilanka tourism Development authority (STDA).
• For December, Srilanka recorded 89,506 tourist arrivals, of whom 23,566 or 26.3℅ were from India.

# Tejas

• Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAL) expects to deliver all light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas in the final operational clearance (FOC) variant to the Indian Airforce in 2022.
• LCA MK1A with specific enhancements, will take flight by middle of this year, said R Madhavan, director of HAL.
• Last February the Defence ministry had signed a 48000 crore rupees deal with HAL to supply 83 LCA MK-1A to the IAF.
• HAL will deliver the first three aircrafts in 2024 and 16 aircrafts per year for the next 5 years.

# Maldives

• Maldives and china on Saturday signed key bilateral agreements during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to Maldives.
• Agreements included developing and maintaining infrastructure in the Indian Ocean archipelago besides agreeing on a visa free travel agreement for Maldivians intending to travel to China.