A railway station and a police vehicle were torched and several law enforcers injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of protests against Agnipath scheme on Saturday when a bandh was also called to press for the demand for rollback of the new scheme for recruitment in armed forces.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government alleging that there were attempts to suppress the cause of the train accident in Odisha.
The death toll has climbed to 5,24,157 with 54 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The government also stated that the people working in essential sectors must be fully vaccinated and should have completed the 14 days post-inoculation before they can be allowed to board local trains.
India is unlikely to see a repeat of the 2021 energy crisis this festive season as coal-fired power stations across the country have comfortable levels of the fuel stock to meet electricity demand of the world's fastest expanding major economy.
Dearness Allowance for central government employees has been hiked to 31 per cent of the basic pay from 28 per cent with effect from July 1, 2021, the Finance Ministry said. In an office memorandum, the Department of Expenditure, under the Finance Ministry, said the term 'basic pay' means the pay drawn as per the 7th pay commission matrix and does not include any other type of pay like special pay, etc. "....the Dearness Allowance payable to central government employees shall be enhanced from the existing rate of 28 per cent to 31 per cent of the basic pay with effect from July 1, 2021," said the office memorandum dated October 25.
There will be four trips from December 24, 2013 till Januray 2, 2014 of the premium AC special trains on the busy New Delhi-Mumbai sector, said a senior Railway Ministry official, adding 'the tickets will be sold on higher rate than the existing rate as per the dynamic pricing policy.'
The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.75 per cent, the ministry said.
The change in leadership at the railway ministry comes at a time when the national transporter is grappling with low passenger earnings even as it is trying to increase freight loading and open up its doors to private investment. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge from Piyush Goyal who got the railway portfolio in 2017 after Prime Minister Narendra Modii dropped Suresh Prabhu from the Union Cabinet. Completing freight corridors, negotiating land for the bullet train, and speeding up monetisation plans would be some of the major focus areas for Vaishnaw.
An increase of 4,578 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was on Tuesday given a clean chit by the CBI in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post Railway bribery scandal in which the agency filed charge sheet against his nephew Vijay Singla and suspended Board Member Mahesh Kumar along with eight others for graft and other charges.
In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stressed on monitoring and reporting of district-wise influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting the early rising trend of cases.
The health ministry said that 5,22,149 deaths have been reported so far in the country.
The government has developed an asset monetisation dashboard for monitoring real-time progress of its ambitious Rs 2.5 trillion-plus pipeline, and providing visibility to investors. The portal has been prepared as the government tries to provide a one-stop shop to investors keen on taking over assets of government departments and ministries.
The active cases comprised 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.75 per cent, the health ministry said.
The suburban network, called Mumbai's lifeline, use to ferry over 70 lakh commuters daily before the coronavirus outbreak.
The second wave of the coronavirus has put huge pressure on the country's health system, with hospitals facing shortage of oxygen, medicines and equipment to treat COVID-19 patients, besides beds.
India logged 3,377 new COVID-19 infections taking the country's total tally of cases to 4,30,72,176, while the active cases rose to 17,801, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Friday.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the Indian Railways' wholly-owned listed subsidiary, is eyeing partnerships to offset recurring costs incurred in train operations, which is part of its two-year-old diversification from core catering and ticketing businesses. To this end, it is courting public sector undertakings such as Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and others to create a special purpose vehicle for the routes for which IRCTC has bid. The Railway ministry opened bids for public private partnerships in passenger train operations in July 2021 and received bids to operate 29 pairs of trains with around 40 modern rakes that would entail an investment of Rs 7,200 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the revamped Vadnagar railway station where he sold tea during childhood and recalled those days, expressing a desire to visit the new-look facility.
"Why are the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Defence Minister quiet on the Agnipath scheme?" Kharge asked.
The company also said it has reduced supplies of direct sale of diesel to the railways, state road corporations and other large consumers from April 2008 to restrict heavy under recoveries on these sales. In the annual report sent to the shareholders , the company said it has approval to set up 500 retail outlets across the country. The company had opened its first retail outlet in Karnataka early this year.
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.
The Centre has completed asset monetisation worth Rs 96,000 crore during FY22, surpassing the target of Rs 88,000 crore. For FY23, it has set itself a goal of Rs 1.62 trillion, and already has a pipeline of assets worth Rs 1.6 trillion under advanced stages of implementation, an official said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday reviewed the progress made by several ministries and nudged departments to achieve the targets set for them, the official added.
Railway Budget is the first indicator of possibly better days
The prime minister took no names but made an apparent reference to reports about "rate card" for different government jobs in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and prevalence of "cut money" in the state.
A total of 1,59,632 new coronavirus infections were reported in a day, the highest in 224 days.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other ministers took charge of their respective offices on Thursday, a day after taking oath at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Modi said the aim was to turn India's villages into smart economic hubs and connect our farmers better to markets, making them less vulnerable to the whims of weather.
The CBI has said the mall belongs to Yadav who has made investment in the project through a company.
India and Bangladesh signed seven Memorandum of understanding (MoUs) on Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in Delhi. India-Bangladesh delegation-level talks led by PM Modi and Hasina were commenced at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi. "India-Bangladesh delegation level talks led by PM @narendramodi & PM Sheikh Hasina commence. "On the agenda are issues related to connectivity, energy, water resources, trade & investment, border management & security, development partnership and regional & multilateral matters," the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi tweeted.
'These number surges will be the outcome of emerging virus variants, loss of vaccine- or infection-acquired protective immunity in people, and environmental factors'
Seventy two years ago, a newly independent India ventured to hold the the first Asian Games in Delhi with meager resources.
The strike notices were given by workers' unions of various sectors such as coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banks and insurance.
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.
Announcing the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he regretted the departure of the railway minister who had presented a budget which promised the "vision" outlined by his predecessor Mamata Banerjee.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in New Delhi on Monday on a four-day visit to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi following which the two sides are likely to ink pacts in key areas, including defence, trade and river water sharing.
During his first Union Budget in July 2014, former finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the setting up of an institution called 3P India, with an allocation of Rs 500 crore. The intention was to mainstream public-private partnerships (PPPs) in India. The plan was to bring together the capacities of the government and private sector to push PPP projects.
The top court on August 31 had directed the removal of around 48,000 slum dwellings along the railway tracks in Delhi within three months and said there shall not be any kind of political interference in execution of the plan.
Sule, citing Railway Ministry documents, said the largest number of Shramik Special trains -- 1033 -- were operated from Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra (817) and Punjab (429).
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