PM Modi extends New Year greetings to citizens; prays for everyone's joy & good health

As the world celebrates the beginning of a New Year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended greetings to the countrymen on Saturday and prayed that the year 2022 would bring abundant joy and good health in everyone’s lives. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi expressed hope that all keep scaling new heights of progress and work even harder to fulfill the dreams of India's great freedom fighters.

PM Modi will be celebrating the first day of the New Year 2022 with farmers of the country. The PM had informed on Friday that he will be interacting with the farmers of the nation on January 1, and will also be releasing the 10th installment of the PM Kisan Yojna on the occasion. The scheme will cover over 10 crore farmer families and around 20,000 crores will be transferred to the beneficiaries.

India celebrates New Year amid Omicron concern

As the New Year rings in, most countries are either on the verge of or in the middle of a new wave of COVID-19 pandemic, due to the increasing spread of the new Omicron variant. While both the US and UK have been reporting a record number of cases each day, experts in India believe that the country is on the verge of a third wave.

Restrictions have been clamped across India on New Year celebrations to curb the transmission of the virus, which sees an uptick during the festive season. While festivities have been completely banned in states like Delhi, Mumbai, and Karnataka, others have imposed strict restrictions, such as curfews, to control the spread of the virus.