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A parliamentary standing committee on Railways has raised concern over the pace of production of Vande Bharat trains and said that in 2022-23, only eight rakes have been manufactured till now against the target of 35 for the year.

The fourteenth report of the Standing Committee on Railways headed by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh, in its 14th report on the demand for grants, has asked that the Railways need to intensify efforts for the production of Vande Bharat rakes/coaches to meet the aspirations of rail commuters.

"The Committee while expressing their concern to find that out of 35 rakes of Vande Bharat planned for the year 2022-23, only 08 rakes have been turned out till date, are of the view that with this pace of production, the Railways may find it difficult to achieve their set target," the report, which was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, said.

Final arguments over legal recognition to same-sex marriages in India will be heard on April 18 by a five-judge Constitution bench, the Supreme Court said today. Any decision on the subject would have a huge bearing on society, the Supreme Court commented, calling it " a matter of seminal importance".

The hearing will be live-streamed on the Supreme Court website and on YouTube.

"This judgment will have a huge bearing on society - don't cut down anyone's time and this must be considered," a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.

In a boost to "Aatmanirbhar Bharat", The Defence Ministry on Monday signed a contract for a normal refit submarine Sindhukirti at Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam. The cost of the entire project will be Rs 934 crore.

Notably, Sindhukirti is the third Kilo Class Diesel Electric Submarine. "After completion of refit, Sindhukirti will combat worthy and will join the active submarine fleet of the Indian Navy," the Defence Ministry said.

This refit has been offloaded to develop an alternate repair facility for submarines. notably, is a further step towards undertaking Medium refit with Life Certification at HSL. "The project involves more than 20 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and would lead to employment generation of 1,000 mandays per day for the project duration," the ministry added.

The Government of India has opposed the legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the country. In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Centre said same-sex relationships and heterosexual relationships are a “distinctive” class of relationships and cannot be treated identically.

Citing the concept of Indian families, the Centre, in its affidavit, said, “Notion of marriage… necessarily and inevitably presupposes union bet 2 persons of the opposite sex. This definition is socially, culturally & legally ingrained into the very idea and the concept of marriage & ought not to be disturbed or diluted by judicial interpretation.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on Monday.

Indian Railways is betting on these new age modern trains to transform passenger travel in the coming years. From Rajdhani-style sleeper versions to aluminium trains for the first time, we take a look at important facts about the Vande Bharat trains project:

4 of 15 Photos in Gallery©Provided by The Times of India

Since then 8 more Vande Bharat Express trains have been rolled out in upgraded versions by ICF, Chennai.