Good news from my side, the CC was charged this morning (Jan 24th) by CIC.
My application reached on Jan 6th am, and I was a bit concerned when I saw a lot of folks whose applications had reached after mine (some even on the 9th) posting about their CC being charged. so two guesses here
1. CCs aren't being charged in the exact order in which they are received (which is a positive sign for anyone whose application reached on Jan 3rd or 6th and haven't been charged yet)
2. There was something in my application that required some additional verification because of which my CC was charged later (I do meet all of the sponsorship criteria though, so not sure what this could've been)
In any case, all the best to the folks here who are waiting patiently. This is probably the only group in the world who can't wait for their CCs to be charged