Home Minister Amit Shah is in all eight key cabinet committees announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi started a second term last week. PM Modi is in six of them and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is in two. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is in seven panels and Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in five.

Rajnath Singh, who was moved from the Home Ministry that he headed in the previous term, is in the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs and Security. He is notably missing from the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, which decides on policy; it has Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi and allies Ram Vilas Paswan, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Arvind Sawant.

Rajnath Singh’s exclusion is significant because the minister who is number two in the government – by convention the person who is sworn in right after the prime minister — usually presides over the cabinet and the political affairs committee in the absence of the Prime Minister. Also, Nirmala Sitharaman as Defence Minister was part of the previous government’s political affairs committee.

Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will be in the panel for Accommodation.

The Cabinet Appointments Committee has only PM Modi and Amit Shah.

PM Modi will also head the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which includes, apart from Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, DV Sadananda Gowda, Narendra Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Dharmendra Pradhan.

Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs includes Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Pralhad Joshi.

One of the most important panels, the Cabinet Committee on Security, includes the Prime Minister, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar.

The Prime Minister is also a part of the new Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth, whose members are Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. The group will examine how to arrest the growth slide.

Another new panel, the Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development, which will look into tackling the jobs crisis, has PM Modi, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar, Piyush Goyal, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Santosh Gangwar, and Hardeep Singh Puri.

Union Minister Smriti Irani is among the special invitees to this pane

Piyush Goyal, reassigned the charge of the crucial railway ministry, is likely to focus on safety, generation of non-fare revenue, track renewal, modernisation and increase in the production of state-of-the-art coaches in his second stint at the helm of the national transporter, official sources said Friday.

Mr Goyal, having achieved the lowest accident figures in his previous tenure, had repeatedly said that his goal was to reach the zero accident standard.

His biggest challenge would be to maintain the record by timely track maintenance and renewal. His aim would be to ensure that railway factories ramp up production of state-of-the-art coaches for trains such as Vande Bharat Express so that more such services can be introduced.

Mr Goyal, who had pushed for generating resources through non-fare revenue, had hit a stonewall during his last stint, but the minister is likely to drive this idea as he believes that this will bring in additional funds to boost the beleaguered railways’ finances.

Known to work with a team of around 20 trusted advisors, mostly graduates of top business schools, Mr Goyal keeps track of every operational detail through spreadsheets and is usually quick with facts and figures.

Not shy of keeping bureaucrats in line, Mr Goyal burns the midnight oil reading reports and documents related to different aspects of his ministry.

In his first stint as railway minister, Mr Goyal, a Rajya Sabha member, achieved several firsts — it was during his tenure the government announced its first bullet train which would run from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, manufactured its first indigenously-built and engine-less high-speed train Vande Bharat Express, commissioned its longest bridge, converted a diesel loco into an electric one for the first time, built its first transport university, and its first air-conditioned local train.

The national transporter also registers the lowest accident rate in the past three decades during Piyush Goyal’s tenure.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Wednesday arrested three people, including a tribal woman at Agartala Railway Station and seized five pistols and six magazines from their possession.

“On the basis of specific information, the RPF personnel arrested a tribal woman from the Agartala bound Deoghar Express along with five pistols, six loaded magazines, some Indian currencies, two mobile sets and an ATM card,” said Assistant Commandant of RPF Abhay Kumar Singh.

He said that the woman who had boarded the train from Lunbding was carrying the arms and ammunition and was supposed to hand them over to two tribal youths at Agartala Railway Station.

Those arrested have been identified as Larence Debbarma, Binod Debbarma and Soilo Rani Chakma.

All of them have been handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP)

Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wednesday said it has signed an agreement to provide USD 750 million equivalent in Indian rupee long-term financing to electrify railway tracks in India.

It is the largest single non-sovereign loan ever committed by ADB to Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) to fund the railways track electrification project, ADB said in a release.

As part of a broad modernisation programme that will help India’s railway sector transition to electric power and away from dependence on fossil fuels, it said.

Two train stations in Punjab’s border district of Pathankot are on high alert after intelligence inputs of the threat of explosions triggered by Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.

The Railways issued an alert for the Pathankot Cantonment station and Pathankot Junction station on Saturday.

The advisory asks staff at the stations to conduct thorough checks in parking areas and at points where people have gathered. Employees were also told not to park their vehicles in the parking area or on railway station platforms where bicycles often parked.

Railways employees were also asked to check unattended items lying in and around the two stations.

An Air Force station in Pathankot was attacked in January 2016 by heavily-armed terrorists who sneaked into India from Pakistan. Seven soldiers were killed in the attack. The six terrorists were shot dead after an intense four-day operation.

The Pathankot Cantonment station is 2 km from the Air Force station and around 20 km from the International Border.

The stations are on high alert on a day when Indian and Pakistani officials are meeting along the border in Punjab to discuss technical points for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor project.

Indian Railways allows linking of two PNRs (Passenger Name Records) for connecting journey for both online and offline tickets. The one having first journey lap is considered the ‘main journey PNR’ and the later one is considered ‘connected journey PNR’, according to the official website of IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation)- irctc.co.in. Only confirmed and partially confirmed tickets are allowed for connecting journey ticket booking. The difference between main journey and connecting journey should not be more than 5 days, Indian Railways noted.

Here are 10 things to know about Indian Railways’ connecting journey bookings:

1. For linking of two PNRs, the journey terminating station (or principal station) of main journey should match with journey originating station/boarding station (or principal station) of connecting journey, according to Indian Railways.

2. Passenger details including name in both PNRs should be same for connecting journey bookings.

3. Name/age/gender changes are not allowed for connected PNRs.

4.To link counter ticket with online ticket, counter ticket must have a valid mobile number. For such case, OTP (for authentication) is sent on counter ticket mobile number.

5.On partial cancellation of any connected PNR, it gets de-linked, noted Indian Railways.

6. Quota ticket or current booking PNR is not allowed for connecting journey ticket booking.

7. Minimum and maximum difference of time between scheduled arrival at destination of main journey and scheduled departure at boarding of connecting journey is 1 minute and 5 days respectively.

8. Modification of journey is not allowed for connected PNRs.

9. Boarding station change is not allowed for connected PNRs.

10. Vikalp option is not allowed on connected journey tickets.

Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) have released new dates for the aptitude test for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician in Odisha. The examination was scheduled on May 10 but was postponed on account of the Cyclone Fani. The Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician will now be held on May 21 for all such candidates whose examination had been postponed.

The official notice released by RRBs says, “Due to cyclone FANI, the Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) scheduled on 10.05.2019 in the cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur under the jurisdiction of Railway Recruitment /Bhubaneswar and in the city of Balasore under the jurisdiction of Railway Recruitment Board/Kolkata was postponed as per notice issued on 07 05-19.”

The exam shift and city details for these candidates will be released shortly on the official RRB website. Candidates will also be informed through email and SMS on their registered email id and phone number.

All important services such as rail & road communication, power supply, water supply, mobile, internet etc. were badly affected in Odisha in the aftermath of Cyclone Fani. As a consequence, not just RRB CBAT, but several other recruitment and entrance examinations were postponed for applicants in the area affected by Fani.

As per the official recruitment notice for RRB ALP and Technician, “Candidates will have to qualify in each of the test battery of Computer Based AT for considering them for the post of ALP. The Computer Based Aptitude Test shall have questions and answer options only in English and Hindi. There shall be no negative marking in Computer Based AT.”

A train driver on the tracks between Rukadi and Hatkalangane railway stations on Friday averted a major accident by applying emergency brakes on time. Pune Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Milind Deuskar said that miscreants had kept iron pieces on railways tracks.

“The train driver averted a major mishap by applying emergency brakes on time as some miscreants had kept iron pieces on railways tracks,” said Pune Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Milind Deuskar.

“Iron pieces were found twice on tracks between Rukadi and Hatkalangane railway stations in the past 10 days. Loco pilot saw it at the right time and pulled emergency brakes, averting a major mishap,” Mr Deuskar said on Friday.

“In December last year, some children placed steel pieces on rail track in Vathar, derailing 6 wheels of the engine. 8-10 such incidents have taken place so far. Loco pilots averted them, but it is not actually their work. They have other works and we cannot depend on them for safety,” he added.

A Government Railway Police (GRP) inspector and two others were arrested for allegedly robbing a businessman in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.

Police said that GRP inspector Lalit looted Rs. 8.43 lakh from the businessman in the early hours on May 13.

“Lalit was the incharge of the control room in Agra. He has been arrested by Saharanpur Police based on a loot case against him. Two other GRP personnel are wanted,” Superintendent of Police, GRP Abhishek Yadav said.

Upon arrest, Rs. 4.94 lakh was recovered from the possession of the accused.

Mr Yadav added that the GRP personnel have been suspended and the matter is under investigation.

A murder accused who was missing for almost 16 years was arrested from Borivali railway station in Mumbai by Palghar police, an official said today.

Kamlesh Jain (57), a resident of Bhayander, was accused of involvement in the shooting of builder Rajesh Patange in Tulinj area on October 25, 2003, said senior inspector Jitendra Vankoti of the Palghar Crime Branch.

“A total of 14 people, including Jain, were made accused in the murder case registered at Nalasopara police station at the time. While 10 were arrested, one was killed in an encounter with Mumbai police and three, including Jain, were missing,” he said.

“We got a tip-off that Jain was to arrive at Borivali railway station on Monday. We kept watch and arrested him,” he said.