Bowing to pressure, the finance ministry may give industry relief from some of the new levies proposed in the Budget.
Passengers can now book a meal from the different menu options available as per the choice, for delivery at the opted station or train.
Amid railways eyeing higher revenue from travellers in air conditioned coaches, the number of passengers in AC First Class and AC 3 Tier registered a decline in 2013-14 as compared to the previous fiscal.
Debates on changing the name of India to Bharat continue to spark a crisis of identity without answering moot questions that stare us in the face. Ramesh Menon asks a few of those questions that do not have easy answers.
On August 15 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the Indian Railways would launch 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 2023. Later, in her 2022 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 400 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next three years, which are expected to cost between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Those upbeat announcements come after a series of cancelled tenders, vigilance actions against officials and interdepartmental rivalry that delayed the addition of these iconic trains developed entirely indigenously by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
'They have started becoming an important player, but not at the same level as they were in the earlier part of the decade.'
'In the final analysis, all Budgets everywhere are like the schemes hatched by A A Milne's lovable Winnie-the-Pooh.' 'They may be well-intended, but often go awry.' 'Although Pooh and his friends agree that he 'has very little brain', he is occasionally acknowledged to have a clever idea, usually driven by common sense.' 'This Budget at a first glance does not appear to belong to that latter category,' says economist Shreekant Sambrani.
No increase in passenger and freight fares. Ticket reservations over mobile phones to be introduced soon.
Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday announced a marginal hike in passenger fares.
"Thenga mila hai", scoffed Yadav using the Hindi slang to repudiate the ED's claim of huge recovery in the raids conducted in connection with the land for jobs scam
'The aim is also to probe how the ministry and testing agencies made negligence in examining these OEMs, so that such negligence is avoided in the future.'
This Budget will be a litmus test of the government's resolve to ensure Make in India strategy works
Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
There would be a marginal 3% increase in freight rates.
'If private capex has to kick in, there should at least be 2-3 years of visibility.'
At an event at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in south Mumbai, Modi first flagged off the the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat Express and later another semi high-speed train linking the financial capital to Sainagar Shirdi temple town in Ahmednagar district.
After bumbling for years since 2014, the Modi government seems to believe that massive government expenditure will lead us to prosperity supported by 'seat-of-the-pants' decision-making, observes Debashis Basu.
It would be interesting to see what the government proposes to investors.
'Rhetoric and chest-thumping are running high on India's recent growth record.'
'But will the giant waves developing elsewhere allow us to sail smoothly into fair winds?' asks Debashis Basu.
Modi knows that the BMC elections are critical for his party which has never won a majority in the city's 227 wards.
The Budget loosened the reins on public spending to drive growth.
The larger virtue of maintaining fiscal credibility should not be unduly diluted by quibbles on the fiscal math, says Sajjid Chinoy.
'George Fernandes will always be remembered in history as the man who successfully called the railway strike.'
High fiscal deficits raise inflation which hits the lowest income and salaried classes.
A Trinamool Congress member on Wednesday used the debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha to attack BJP over Tuesday's incident in the House where members came to the verge of a clash.
India Inc hailed the Railway Bugdet on Monday as promising and said measures, especially those on containers and freight services, will not only help the industry but benefit the general public as well.
Year by year, our cities remain defeated in the face of weather conditions, costing us time, money, resources and often lives, observe Amit Kapoor and Bibek Debroy.
Steel scrips have found reason to celebrate what with freight rates for steel being reduced in the Railway Budget announced on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Modi took over power in mid-May with high expectations that it would strengthen India's fragile macro economy and faltering investment and growth.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav will present his maiden Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that is widely expected to be pro-poor with no increase in second class suburban and passenger fares and freight charges.
On the lines of entertainment provided by airlines, Prasad may announce launching of this scheme beginning with Shatabdi trains, Rail Bhawan sources said.
Jaitley said a 10 per cent tax long on capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh made from the sale of shares has been introduced but those made till Janaury 31 would be grandfathered. A 10 per cent tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds has also been proposed in the budget.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the fiscal deficit slippage this financial year (2017-18) was largely statistical.
Even as several trains have more than 200 waitlisted passengers every day, running some trains with so many vacant seats is a criminal waste of scarce resource.
The government also proposed promoting 'one product one district' for better marketing and export of horticulture crops. It also called on states for early implementation of three key central model laws on land leasing, agriculture produce and livestock marketing and contract farming.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways. She also said the asset monetisation does not involve selling of land and it is about monetising brownfield assets. Projects have been identified across sectors, with roads, railways and power being the top segments.
Modi claimed that some other parties were also helping the opposition alliance from behind but any vote for them will take Tripura several years backward.
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