Hit by Covid waves and slowdown, the Indian Railways has still not been able to return to its pre-pandemic passenger traffic, data by ministry of Railways has revealed. In February, the national transporter received 413 million ticket bookings - 43 per cent higher than the previous year, but only 61 per cent of the 675 million in February 2020. According to the statistics, that was the last time the Railways saw more than 500 million bookings in a single month.
Amid rising demand for coal freight and an aggressive push towards diversifying its freight basket, Indian Railways is planning to buy 100,000 more wagons over the next three fiscal years. The procurement plan will majorly comprise BOXN wagons, which are used to transport coal, said a senior Ministry of Railways official. Notably, the railways recently floated a sizeable tender worth Rs 35,000 crore of wagons, which had been in the pipeline since 2018. "Our Budget Estimates for freight increase were conservative.
If 2019-20 (FY20) was an unusual year for highway construction in India, with the pace of work slowing down for the first time since the Narendra Modi government assumed power in 2014, largely due to the general elections in May and liquidity crunch, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21 (FY21) only made matters worse with lockdowns and labour unavailability. The pace of highway construction in 2021-22 (FY22) has not been able to bulldoze the pandemic barriers in a year marred by two Covid-19 waves - the second at the start of the fiscal year, the third towards the close. With localised lockdowns and restrictions on mobility, highway construction growth in the country has now fallen to a five-year low.
This episode highlights that the country's surveillance systems are not robust enough to ward off and prevent such attacks in the future.
From Ranbaxy to Religare, Aashish Aryan takes you through a maze of legal cases involving Malvinder Mohan Singh and his younger brother Shivinder Mohan Singh. Both are in police custody following a complaint of fund siphoning.
If the apex court agrees to hear the petitions challenging the removal of Article 370, it would be interesting to see if there is an immediate status quo on further proceedings or if it will decide after hearing all the petitions, reports Aashish Aryan.
As NCLAT chair, lack of basic infrastructure remains Justice Mukhopadhaya's biggest challenge. The lack of permanent staff to take down orders in shorthand and later type them out for him to correct is just one among many. In cases where there are a number of intervening parties and applicants, the courtroom is often so jam-packed that even the senior advocates have failed to find place inside.
Court order follows submission of govt lawyers that Serious Fraud Investigation Office was probing a case of misappropriation of fund by Jet Airways and Goyal.
Of the 289 faulty hip implant victims identified, 93 patients had undergone revision surgeries. The company, however, said it could reach only 67 patients and would pay Rs 25 lakh each to the other 26 as well after verifying their claims and if those patients approached J&J.
Hudco had in 2006 given a loan of Rs 62.38 crore to Bakshi's private venture, Ascot Hotels and Resorts, for a commercial project in Noida. The loan, however, turned NPA in 2011.
The two parties have also approached the Delhi high court pleading that two earlier court orders be modified allowing Bakshi to sell his shares in Connaught Plaza Restaurant to McDonald's India.
The app, which has close to 1 million users per day, its lawyer, is losing close to Rs 4.5 crore in revenues every day.
There was no occasion for the woman to interact directly with the CJI, notes Supreme Court Secretary General S S Kalgaonkar.
The total admitted claim of financial creditors of these 88 companies stood at Rs 1.3 trillion, of which they recovered Rs 65,635 crore.
High court orders Swan Telecom's promoter Shahid Balwa, the director of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables, Rajeev Agarwal, and three firms, namely Dynamic Realty, DB Realty, and Nihar Constructions to plant 3,000 trees each in the Delhi's South Ridge forest area.
The plant had been kept shut in violation of the order of the NGT and a subsequent interim order of the top court.
The amendment says that UIDAI can now give directions as it may consider necessary to any entity in the Aadhaar ecosystem
'With the top court's judgment declaring the Right to Privacy a Fundamental Right, the powers under the provision need to be looked afresh.' 'To utilise such sweeping powers in the right manner will also be a challenge.'
Justice S R Sen also wants Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, Khasis, Jaintias and Garos who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to be made Indian citizens without any questions. Aashish Aryan/Business Standard reports.