LIVE: FM to talk about 'important economic issue' at 4:30 pm today

Live news updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a press conference in Delhi at 4:30pm, multiple news reports said.

TV news channels CNBC-TV18 and NDTV said Sitharaman will address "an important economic issue" in her press conference. Sitharaman is nowadays meeting business associations and other group as she prepares her Union Budget speech on February 1.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will field Bhagwant Mann as its chief ministerial candidate in Punjab elections, said Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday. The party, last week, had released a phone number and asked the people of Punjab to tell them who they want to see as AAP's candidate for the post.

Mann, 48, received more than 93 per cent of the votes received through phone and WhatsApp, Kejriwal told reporters.

India reported 238,018 new cases of Covid-19 overnight to total 37.62 million, said the health ministry on Tuesday. Daily new infections are 7 per cent less than Monday.

Total fatalities increased to 486,761 after 310 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, said the health ministry. The positivity rate dropped from 19.65 per cent to 14.43 per cent, referring to the number of cases that turn out to be Covid positive per hundred tests.