-TheWire.in Growth in bad loans raises questions about due diligence measures followed by renewable energy, power PSUs over last five years. New Delhi: Defending the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency’s (IREDA) grant of a Rs 10.35 crore loan to BJP president Amit Shah’s son, railway minister Piyush Goyal recently stated that the financing agency had lent money to about 2,000 applicants “in the past one year or so”. While this growth in lending...

-The Hindu Flight tickets are often cheaper than train fares on these services thanks to the flexi fare system railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement last week that the public transporter was reviewing the scheme of flexi fares introduced in September last year reflects the paradox of a surge in railway revenue even as premium trains run with vacant seats. While railway revenues have surged by Rs. 500 crore in the one year since the...

-Livemint.com India’s new industrial policy is an opportunity to address the problems of low R&D spending and tough competition from cheap Chinese imports The framing of the new industrial policy should be seen as an opportunity to chart a meaningful path for industry’s role in India’s development. The recently released discussion paper by the department of industrial policy and promotion mentions two points that need to be examined closely to grasp the...

-Deccan Herald As a railway buff, I love the technology story of the bullet train. However, it is not appropriate for India, in the current configuration as negotiated by Prime Minister Narendra and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail line, for which they laid the foundation stone on September 14. The Shinkansen bullet trains were introduced in Japan in 1964 and traversed the 500-plus kilometre distance between Tokyo...

-Livemint.com 44% of derailments between 2012-13 and 2016-17 were due to failure of tracks, fittings There have been nine incidents of train derailments in the past one month. The spate of accidents has increased anxiety among passengers and also generated a lot of political heat. What are the concrete facts though? Have train derailments been increasing? What is causing these accidents? Is it sabotage, human error or dilapidated infrastructure? A NITI Aayog discussion...