Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejigged his team only once, in July 2021, in his second term, unlike in his first stint, when he reshuffled and expanded his council three times.
The Madhya Pradesh government has written to the Union ministry of home affairs on renaming the recently redeveloped Habibganj station after Rani Kamlapati, the 18th century Gond queen of the region.
The Northern Railways on Thursday cancelled a slew of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express', stating low patronisation and rising coronavirus cases as the reason behind the decision.
The Modi government's flagship initiative 'Make in India' launched 10 years ago has helped the country boost exports, push investments and promote manufacturing. Under the initiative, launched on September 25, 2014, a series of measures have been taken by the government to boost local manufacturing. These initiatives include the rollout of production linked incentive (PLI) schemes for 14 sectors, easing foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, reducing compliance burden to improve business climate, all approvals through single window, and rolling out of the national logistics policy.
The Dravida Munettra Kazhagam is hopeful of getting the railway portfolio in the next reshuffle, say our sources in Delhi. Buzz is that the DMK had specifically asked for railways even in 2004, which did not happen.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday directed X Corp and Google Inc to remove prima facie defamatory social media posts against Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) officer and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's daughter Anjali Birla.
'Efforts are on to make the data readily available so that it proves useful for policymakers.'
A source in the know said realistically two-three of the seven bullet train corridors could be included as a practical election promise.
Road awards were muted in Q1FY25. But the pace will accelerate with a bidding pipeline of Rs 1.1 trillion (September 2024), mostly dominated by HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model) projects, which contribute 47 per cent and engineering procurement and construction or EPC projects, which have about 36 per cent share. Hence, infrastructure companies mostly reported revenue decline on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis in Q1FY25.
Concerned over the fallout of the Red Sea crisis and severe shortage of containers against the backdrop of a steep decline in merchandise exports in August, the Union government is pulling out all the stops to find a solution. To begin with, the government has devised a strategy aimed at boosting container supply and supporting exporters.
'Look at the response of the railway minister to the question why he was still in Delhi after the fire on Tamil Nadu Express. He said, I don't live in Chennai. This response was at 3 pm, and the accident happened early in the morning. There are at least four flights in the morning from Delhi and he was so callous in his response,' consumer rights activist S Pushpavanam tells Shobha Warrier
While there are some new faces in the cabinet, leaders such as BJP president JP Nadda and Jual Oram have returned as ministers.
Railway employees including station masters, engine drivers, ticket checkers, etc too have been selected for vaccination and their list is being compiled for the exercise.
The development assumes significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month announced 10 lakh government recruitments in the next 1.5 years.
Shah said the Modi government has given highest priority to peace and development in the Northeastern region.
The railways' first such COVID-19 care centre was deployed at Shakur Basti railway stations in Delhi on May 31. It consisted of 10 coaches with a capacity of 160 beds. The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the coronavirus care centres according to guidelines issued by the health ministry.
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state governments had earlier approached the Railways Ministry to explore whether liquid medical oxygen tankers could be moved by the rail network, they said.
A maximum of over 2,200 infections were reported by the South Central Railway, followed by 1,323 cases in the Central Railway, 1,307 in the Northern Railway, 1,145 in the Southern Railway and 1,013 cases in the East Central Railway.
'With the deployment of a higher degree of mechanisation, awarding contractual mining to MDOs and operational efficiency, we feel confident of achieving the desired target.'
In a move to deepen manufacturing in electronics in India, the Centre is targeting 35-40 per cent value-addition through the yet-to-be launched production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics components, sources in the government
The ministry of information and broadcasting is working on a proposal to set up a mega movie production studio -- akin to those in Hollywood -- with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion), which will be supported by the government.
The railways heritage lines that are part of the UNESCO-accorded sites list include Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, and Kalka Shimla Railway.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The notification of the Act comes just a day after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was asked when the legislation would be implemented. The minister had said the law ministry was framing the rules.
The finance ministry on Wednesday reimposed expenditure curbs on ministries and government departments for July-September quarter. There will be no spending restrictions on the ministries of health, rural development, agriculture, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and railways as part of a two-pronged strategy. "The existing guidelines for expenditure control have been reviewed. "Keeping in view the evolving situation arising out of Covid-19 and anticipated cash position of the government, it is felt essential to regulate Quarterly Expenditure Plan (QEP)/Monthly Expenditure Plan (MEP) of specific ministries/departments for July-September, 2021," the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry said in a notification.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday pitched for front loading of capital expenditure, saying it is critical for revitalisting the economy post the coronavirus pandemic. During a virtual meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap ahead, she also asked ministries to aim to achieve more than their capital expenditure (capex) targets. The Union Budget 2021-22 provided a capital outlay of Rs.5.54 lakh crore, a sharp increase of 34.5 per cent over the Budget Estimate of 2020-21.
The 1.3-kilometre-long bridge aims to boost connectivity to the Kashmir Valley and it is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore as part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link project
On this day 167 years ago, the wheels of the first passenger train in the country from Mumbai to Thane started rolling.
'I think governments -- whether this one or the ones earlier -- have not understood the strength of the Indian Railways... that it can easily add 2.5 per cent to GDP.'
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
The suspended WFI, despite being warned of legal action by the Sports Ministry for organising the 'nationals', went ahead with the tournament in Pune from January 29-31.
However, it will run special trains for migrants and others stranded across the country due to the ongoing lockdown.
Railway stations -- Beas, Vishakhapatnam, Khammam, Secunderabad, Ahmednagar and Jammu Tawi are the top ranked railway stations by cleanliness.
Food to be cooked in base kitchens instead of trains; private players to be involved
The time is opportune for doing away with the practice of a separate rail budget, and for replacing the railway ministry with an umbrella ministry of transport.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday urged job aspirants not to destroy public property and assured them that their grievances would be resolved as candidates went on a rampage over alleged irregularities in a recruitment exam by the public transporter.
'The rail network all across the state of Punjab is presently totally clear for uninterrupted movement of goods trains,' a home department statement said in Chandigarh. However, hours after the Punjab government's statement, the Railways accused it of 'misguiding' people over the extent of blockade of rail tracks in the state by the protesting farmers.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a 21-day lockdown across the country, Indian Railways on Tuesday said that its suspension of all passenger services will continue till April 14. However, freight movement will continue to carry essential commodities across the country, officials said.
To boost domestic manufacturing under the Make in India initiative and reduce dependency on imports, the government is expected to announce in the Budget an increase in the minimum local content requirement for public procurement, with certain sectors being granted exceptions. Currently, firms producing goods, services, or works with at least 50 per cent local content are classified as Class-I local suppliers and are preferred the most in government procurement.
The Railway Minister has announced that there is an urgency to attract FDI in Railway projects.