Railway Budget is the first indicator of possibly better days
Incessant rains apparently caused cracks in the bridge, resulting in its collapse, an official said.
'You will really wish oh! Had I stayed in Dharavi I would have got a nice house. I can assure you that. We will make dreams come true.'
Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
Sharma said 2,500 tankers that supply potable and non-potable water across Mumbai have been on strike since February 8 and it's a do-or-die situation for them.
UAE would help India develop strategic petroleum reserves
While inaugurating the projects, Modi said highways construction has reached 27-km a day from mere 12-km a day during the Congress regime.
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.
Notwithstanding the recent sharp decline in the stocks of public sector companies, analysts at Jefferies remain bullish on this segment. State Bank of India, Coal India, and NTPC are their top picks in this space, they said in a recent note. The public sector undertaking (PSU) or state-owned enterprise (SOE) index, with a 70-percentage-point outperformance versus the National Stock Exchange Nifty50 over the past 12 months, comes after a decade of underperformance before 2020.
Indian Railways plans Rs 39,000 crores non-fare revenue. Via: Branding of trains. Vinyl-wrapping of Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Garib Raths. Moving billboards.
The interim Budget proposals that will be presented on February 1 in the backdrop of the general elections scheduled in April/May 2024 are likely to have a hint of populism, believe analysts, but are unlikely to derail the government from its path of fiscal prudence.
The Union Cabinet will soon take a call on setting up Railway Development Authority of India, an independent regulator, which will decide on passenger and freight rates
The CM will be accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the tunnel site on Sunday.
The year 2015 has seen eight accidents because of derailments.
'Historically, the markets tend to perform well during election years as governments aim to increase spending and call attention to growth.'
Public-sector enterprise stocks have seen a good run thus far in 2023-24 (FY24), with the S&P BSE PSU Index surging by over 26 per cent during the period, compared to an 11 per cent increase in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
India's decrepit state-run train services stand to receive at least a 25 per cent boost in investment to over $9 billion.
A piece of slightly negative news can cause a serious setback, warns Debashis Basu.
While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
Experts suggest that a revamp in the surrounding infrastructure should take care of the issues plaguing the VB-2, stressing that the lightweight nature of the trains is what allows for higher speeds, and that needless design additions may hamper the train's efficiency.
Minister of State for External Affairs B Muraleedharan said India is committed to developing friendly and mutually beneficial relations with all its neighbours under its 'Neighbourhood First' policy.
The funny thing is that the government has the money - but it is going into subsidies that Mr Jaitley has chosen to leave untouched.
The ministry has also decided to offer station for redevelopment by inviting open bids from companies.
A baby died in Shakur Basti area in West Delhi where a demolition drive was carried out by railways, triggering an angry reaction from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who slammed the railways and suspended three officials for "failing to arrange" food for those evicted.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu aligns priorities, funding and organisation to shape a transformation agenda.
Unfortunately, in India, infrastructure projects are lost in a miasma of political and personal vanity, observes Shyam G Menon.
'These are people whom very few give importance and they were doing a mammoth job for the nation.'
'All Shatabdis and Rajdhanis should be converted to this type of high-speed train.' 'There should be a sleeper version of the train.' 'Right now, there is only a day version of the train.' 'Unless you develop a sleeper version, it will not be possible to replace the Rajdhani.' 'Work on the sleeper version was stopped for some reason. It should be revived now.'
In a first of its kind move, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ticket booking arm of the Indian Railways, is looking to monetise its bank of passenger data while conducting business with private and government companies. IRCTC has a large bank of data related to every online railway ticket ever generated as it is the country's only railway ticketing platform, an IRCTC official told Business Standard. The public sector undertaking, which has sought the services of a consultant to assist with the monetisation process, plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore through this exercise.
Modi also virtually flagged off a new train between Antagarh in Kanker district and Raipur and kickstarted the distribution of cards of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme to beneficiaries in the state.
The rally in the equity markets in the second half of 2023 has led to a sharp surge in the cutoff for stocks to qualify as largecaps and midcaps. On the latest list put out by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the smallest largecap stock now has a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 67,000 crore, 35 per cent higher than in July 2023. In the case of midcaps, the cutoff has surged 26 per cent to Rs 22,000 crore.
The prime minister sought to allay slowdown concerns saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong, with low inflation and a potential to boost exports.
A view of the under-construction Chenab bridge above the clouds, in Reasi, Jammu and Kashmir, February 8, 2022.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) are in talks for a partnership to run private trains. According to officials in the know, the two public sector undertakings (PSUs) are planning to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to run passenger trains on routes for which IRCTC has put in bids. "BHEL will be putting in the money required for private rail service, while IRCTC is going to focus on operational requirements," an official said. "IRCTC's business model has not been capital expenditure-focussed. It has built only operational enhancements," he added. Bids for public private partnerships (PPPs) in passenger train operations were opened last month.
It is a Budget 'high on promises but low on design,' the agency said.
Has the rail ministry taken care to draw up a transparent framework?
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 held a "productive meeting" with his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed Ali on a day when BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders officially endorsed Ethiopia's entry into the bloc.
'If you are constructing the tunnel in the Himalayan region, then if you have constructed 10 metres of tunnel, first you will have to do proper treatment and ensure the stability of this constructed structure.' 'You cannot just throw concrete on the ceiling and sidewall of the tunnel for permanent stability. That will not work.'
