The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved four railway multitracking projects worth around Rs 9,450 crore, adding approximately 410 km of new track across four states.

The projects cover eight districts spread across West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and are targeted for completion between 2030 and 2031.

The largest of the four is a 173-km fourth line between Kharagpur and Bhadrak via Ranital, passing through West Bengal and Odisha to add capacity to a heavily used eastern railway corridor.

A separate 75-km fourth line has been approved between Bhadrak and Haridaspur in Odisha, aimed at easing congestion on another busy section of the state’s railway network.

A third project covers a 90-km stretch between Gummidipundi and Gudur across parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while the fourth adds a third and fourth line across 72 km between Cuttack and Paradeep in Odisha.

The government said the combined multitracking projects are expected to improve connectivity to around 6,448 villages with a combined population of roughly 60 lakh people.

Officials said the additional track capacity would help ease congestion on some of the country’s busiest passenger and freight corridors, reducing delays for both categories of traffic.

The projects form part of a broader push by the Railways Ministry to expand multitracking across high-density corridors, a strategy officials say delivers faster capacity gains than building entirely new lines.

The Cabinet has approved several similar multitracking packages in recent months, including an earlier Rs 18,658 crore package covering Maharashtra, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, and a separate Rs 11,169 crore package spanning six states.

Multitracking projects generally take less time to complete than new greenfield railway lines, since they largely follow existing alignments and require comparatively less land acquisition.

The eastern and southern rail corridors covered by the latest approval handle a mix of passenger and freight traffic, including coal and mineral movement from the Odisha coalfields toward port and industrial destinations.

Photo by Indrajit Das, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the creation of the Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool with a sovereign guarantee of Rs 12,980 crore.

The pool is designed to ensure continuous and affordable maritime insurance coverage for Indian trade, covering risks including hull and machinery, cargo, protection and indemnity, and war risk.

Policies under the pool will be issued by member insurers using the pool’s combined underwriting capacity, estimated at around Rs 950 crore.

Coverage will extend to Indian-flagged vessels, Indian-controlled ships, and all vessels with either an origin or destination in India, including those transiting volatile maritime corridors.

The government said the initiative aims to reduce Indian trade’s dependence on international insurance clubs amid global volatility and geopolitical instability affecting maritime routes.

The sovereign guarantee has been structured for an initial ten-year period, with a provision for a five-year extension, according to the Cabinet’s approval.

Officials said the pool would give Indian shipowners and traders more predictable access to insurance even when transiting through regions affected by conflict or heightened security risk, where global insurers have periodically withdrawn or restricted coverage.

The scheme is expected to particularly benefit smaller Indian shipping companies that have historically found it harder to secure competitively priced cover from the international marine insurance market.

In a separate decision on the same day, the Cabinet also approved the establishment of a bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the Union Territory of Ladakh, aimed at improving access to justice for residents of remote areas.

Industry bodies representing India’s shipping and logistics sector have broadly welcomed the maritime insurance pool, saying it addresses a long-standing gap in affordable coverage that has periodically disrupted trade flows during periods of heightened global tension.

The finance ministry said the pool would be reviewed periodically to ensure its underwriting capacity keeps pace with growth in Indian-flagged shipping tonnage and overall trade volumes moving through Indian ports.

Photo by Kandukuru Nagarjun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisted the national flag at Red Fort on Saturday as India marked its 80th Independence Day, addressing the nation around 7:39 am.

Modi reaffirmed the government’s target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2047, saying five new reactors are expected to become operational within six to seven years.

He said seven to eight new semiconductor manufacturing plants should be operational within one to two years, as part of efforts to strengthen domestic chip production.

The prime minister also announced AI-driven skill training for one crore young people over the next year, free online coaching for competitive exams, and a nationwide sports talent search for children aged five to 15.

Modi said previously restricted maritime zones would be opened for mineral and crude oil exploration, part of a wider energy security push tied to the ‘Viksit Bharat’ goal for 2047.

He said the youth have a major role in that journey, framing the announcements around Viksit Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat, or self-reliant India.

Celebrations were held across the country to mark the occasion, with flag-hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes organised at state capitals, schools and government offices nationwide.

Modi opened his address by expressing solidarity with families affected by floods, landslides and other natural calamities across the country in recent weeks.

The prime minister also warned against what he described as ‘dimaagi Naxals,’ or intellectual Naxalism, calling for such elements to be identified and isolated to keep the country’s development on track.

Around five thousand special guests were invited to witness the celebrations at Red Fort, including artisans under the PM Vishwakarma scheme, women entrepreneurs under the PM Mudra Yojana, street vendors under PM SVANidhi, and taxi drivers of Bharat Taxi.

This year’s address marked Modi’s 13th consecutive Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort since he first took office in 2014.

Photo by Mr. Debapriya Hore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0