-PTI NEW DELHI: The government is working on a policy to bring down the annual oil import bill by $100 billion by 2030 through extensive use of methanol in cooking gas and transportation fuel, union minister Nitin Gadkari told Lok Sabha on Thursday.   The government was "shortly" going to implement a scheme under which 15 per cent methanol will be blended with petrol and which will reduce the cost of the fuel...

-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...

-The Hindu CAG finds many hazards in catering system; Army’s high-calibre munitions level critical A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in Parliament on Friday has found severe deficiencies in the catering services of the Indian Railways, with several stations and trains serving food items “unfit for human consumption”, unpurified tap water being used for food preparation, and food being left unprotected from insects and rats. “Deficiencies in respect of quality of food...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A Comptroller and Auditor General audit report on the catering services in the Indian Railways, to be tabled in Parliament on Friday, has observed that food articles unsuitable for human consumption, contaminated foodstuff, recycled foodstuff, packaged and bottled items past their shelf life and unauthorised brands of water bottles were offered for sale at stations. The audit has found fault with frequent changes in catering policy...