Live news: Covid positivity rate rises, second OBC leader quits UP govt

Live news updates: India’s case positivity rate—the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back as positive--has gone up from 1 per cent on December 30, 2021, to over 11 per cent on Wednesday. Daily Covid-19 cases are touching nearly 200,000.

Uttar Pradesh environment minister Dara Singh Chauhan quit the state cabinet on Wednesday, becoming the second prominent other backward classes (OBC) leader to resign in 24 hours after labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya and dealing a blow to the ruling BJP.

India’s retail inflation rate shot up to a five-month high in December and industrial output growth decelerated to a nine-month low in November, signalling that economic recovery remains fragile.