NEWS

The Indian Railways has identified 27 routes of Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains in the first phase of replacing them with indigenously manufactured semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains. Ahead of the mass production of the next generation of Vande Bharat trains, the railways have marked the route of Delhi- Lucknow, Delhi- Amristar, Puri- Howrah among the total 27 such routes, reported Swarajyamag.

Shatabdi trains running between Delhi- Bhopal and Delhi- Chandigarh are also likely to be part of this replacement plan. The railways had already awarded the contract to build 44 new Vande Bharat trains at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and are in the process of tendering 58 more such train sets.

A source close to the development told Swarajysmag that 27 possible routes for running Vande Bharat trains replacing the Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi services have been identified. The railway is also likely to replace some intercity trains with the modern Vande Bharat trains.

Assuring that professional historians will decide content of text books without any interference from his side, new NCERT director Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani said work on the national curriculum framework for school textbooks was on schedule.

On claims that the current history textbooks glorify Mughal rulers, he said: “I will invite professional historians and they will look into it. I will not intervene or dictate terms. Whatever they decide, will be followed. ”

Speaking to media, Saklani, who took charge as the director on Monday, said: “The first priority is the NEP, work on which is going on. The steering committee for framing the NCFS has been constituted by the government. I have been briefed by the curriculum department that it is going well and we plan to complete it within the lime limit.

Even as neighbouring Karnataka is on the boil with agitations and counter agitations over hijab, a related incident was reported at a college in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, reports Madhu Rasala. However, the issue was resolved quickly before any controversy could be created to blow it up.

It started with three girl students coming to the class late by 10 minutes at the Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada. College principal Father GAP Kishore said two of the girls, both second year BSc students, arrived in their traditional dress, which is normally removed in the girls’ waiting room before they enter the classrooms.

A powerful RDX-based improvised explosive device (IED) was recovered from a flat in northeast Delhi's Seemapuri on Wednesday afternoon in the aftermath of a raid conducted by the Delhi Police's special cell, who were in pursuit of suspects involved in planting an IED at the flower market in east Delhi's Ghazipur on January 14.

A major terror strike was averted as the IED contained around 2.2kg RDX and was packed in a rectangular iron casing weighing around 800 grams. Like the IED in Ghazipur, this also had an ABCD switch and a programmable timer, an ISI speciality. The bomb was later destroyed by the National Security Guard (NSG) explosive squad in a controlled explosion.