A man was shot dead in police firing in Telangana's Secunderabad, trains went up in flames, and public and private vehicles attacked, as railway stations and highways turned into battleground in many states on Friday amid burgeoning protests against Agnipath, the contentious defence recruitment scheme.
Industrial metals (ferrous and non-ferrous) suffered great volatility once the Ukraine War began in February 2022. First, there was a sharp price rise due to fears of supply disruption, followed by weak global demand. China's weakness and rolling lockdowns have hit production and demand.
Mumbai, India's financial capital, is set for a mega transformation with a massive patch of land opening up for redevelopment; a new metro railway ready to start services by the year-end; and the country's oldest railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, going for modernisation with private sector participation. Work on Mumbai's second airport will start from next month, while construction of the sea link connecting central Mumbai to Navi Mumbai has already moved into a fast lane despite Covid-induced lockdowns. Also, a coastal road project, connecting Nariman Point to Worli, is under way and will help decongest the city to quite an extent. Of all these mega infrastructure projects, the one that has a huge potential to change the city's skyline is the Eastern Waterfront project - to be built on the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land.
Lok Sabha on Monday passed a bill seeking to expeditiously evict persons occupying unauthorised public premises amid concerns that the provisions could be used by the government to harass members of Parliament.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar, tremors of which shook the northeast, several parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and even Delhi and NCR on Wednesday.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, meanwhile, said the sixth flight under India's evacuation mission 'Operation Ganga' left for Delhi from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals.
If the Indian Railways thinks it can get away with this sassy attitude, it is because it is, in a sense, a monopolist in the business of transporting people. The distances one has to cover, say from Thane or Virar to Mumbai is impossible by road provides railways the arrogance, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
An eyewitness said some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.
Unfortunately, in India, infrastructure projects are lost in a miasma of political and personal vanity, observes Shyam G Menon.
The building of the metro in south Bangalore has represented, to borrow a line, not the building of a city, but the sacking of a city.
The station with the most annual revenue is CST Mumbai, followed by Dadar.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend.
Around 6,000 security personnel will be deployed and a total of 24 help desks will be set up in the New Delhi district for those who attend Republic Day celebrations, the police said.
Flood situation in south Bengal turned grim on Saturday with 1.19 lakh people taking shelter in relief camps in 12 districts of the state even as weatherman forecast more heavy rains in the next two days.
"Around 1,000 buses, including 40 luxury Volvo buses, refused to enter Delhi through the Badarpur, Kundli, IFFCO Chowk and Bahadurgarh borders," said Haryana Roadways Workers' Union leader Sarbat Punia.
He accused the previous governments of being sluggish on implementing railway projects and said the work of ambitious eastern and western dedicated freight corridors expedited only in the last six-seven years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a Rs 100 lakh crore national master plan for multi-modal connectivity that aims to develop infrastructure to reduce logistic costs and boost the economy. PM Gati Shakti targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time, Modi said at a function to launch the plan. The plan aims to lend more power and speed to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform, he said, adding the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments will be designed and executed with a common vision.
The Delhi government has banned construction and demolition activities in the city till November 21.
Passengers complained that they had to wait a long time for Ola and Uber cabs, and added that those were available at inflated rates.
...or just a Covid-era practice, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
The Congress party on Tuesday vowed to oppose the present format of the land bill both inside the Parliament and outside.
He said his government's goal is to make Delhi a grand city equipped with all the facilities as expected of the capital of the country.
The city's 24-hour average AQI was recorded in the 'poor' category at 265 on Saturday as residents flouted the ban on firecrackers in parts of the national capital ahead of Diwali, according to Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) data.
In order to maintain social distancing, the NTA has increased the number of exam centres from originally-planned 2,546 to 3,843, while the number of candidates per room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12.
Amid protest over the proposed ambitious semi-highspeed SilverLine rail project, also known as K-Rail, the Kerala government on Saturday published the detailed project report that estimated the cost of project to be Rs 63,941 crore.
Patients and pregnant women, people out to buy essential items, and those travelling to or from railway stations, bus stops and airports will be exempted from the night curfew that kicks in at 11 pm on Monday due to rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi, according to a DDMA order.
'My joining the BJP will definitely result in a landslide migration of votes to the BJP.'
Train movement halted between Andheri and Churchgate railway stations as the power supply stopped, Western Railway's chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.
Accusing the Centre of setting a new trend of playing "dirty politics" for votes through the budget, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said the allocation of more funds to poll-bound states is a kind of "bribery".
Services of about 300 trains, including premier ones like Rajdhani, Shatbadi and Duronto, were severely affected due to collapse of the Northern grid in the early hours on Monday, causing inconvenience to passengers.
"People who want to get Covid-19 vaccination will be exempted but will have to get an e-pass. Shopkeepers selling essential goods like groceries, fruits, vegetables, milk, and medicine will be allowed to move after getting an e-pass. Print and electronic media will also be allowed to move only through e-pass," the Delhi government's order stated.
The move prompted a strong reaction from the Congress, with its state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu equating it with the 1919 Rowlatt Act or Black Act and saying that the party will explore legal options to challenge it.
The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi stood at 398 at 11 am, worsening from 357 at 4 pm on Friday. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali).
Heavy rains that lashed the national capital on Wednesday morning led to waterlogging and traffic snarls in many parts of the city, including the Minto Road railway underpass, while several low-lying areas were submerged.
The government has partially deregulated diesel price allowing a hike of 40-50 paise a litre per month for retail customers and nearly Rs 11 for bulk consumers, a step that is feared will have a cascading effect on inflation.
The minimum temperature in the capital dropped to 9.6 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal and the lowest this season so far. The maximum is likely to settle around 27 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department said.
L&T is the preferred pick, but given the opportunities in the power T&D space analysts are also positive on KEC, ABB and Kalpataru
'Dharavi will be completely slum free by 2040'
This State-corporate 'cooperation' didn't begin with the arrival of the Modi government.
Many of the big licences, contracts, and even environmental clearances for the Adani group had come in the UPA's time, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Bola nikal jao. Sala firing karte hai Russi.'