Dec 26, 2019 | Business
Railways has successfully completed the work of providing free public Wi-Fi at 5500 stations across the country. Mahua Milan Railway Station of East Central Railway zone, became the 5500th station in the country to have free public Wi-Fi. This is a unique initiative as this Wi-Fi network is one of the largest Wi-Fi networks of the world.
To transform the Railway stations into the hub of Digital inclusion, Indian Railways mandated RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, to provide free high-speed Wi-Fi at the Railway stations. The journey started in January 2016 from the financial capital of India – Mumbai Central station and in a span of 46 months Railways has successfully provided Wi-Fi at 5500 stations across the country. The mission is to provide Wi-Fi at all Railway stations (except the halt ones). Along the journey, RailTel has roped in partners like Google, Tata Trust, PGCIL for some parts of the project and also got funding from Department of Telecom USOF for 200 stations. The Wi-Fi is being provided under the brand name of RailWire.
The month of October 2019 saw total 1.5 crores of user logins in ‘RailWire’ Wi-Fi services across all stations consuming 10242 TB of data. Free access to high speed Wi-Fi will help in bridging the digital divide between rural and urban India. Students using their waiting time to download study materials, vendors using the service for digital payment transactions, daily passengers using their time at stations learning new skill or surfing net- the free Wi-Fi has been a boon to these people who otherwise suffer from poor connectivity issues.
Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, RailWire Wi-Fi at Railway stations will be available to any user who has a smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations. To use the Wi-Fi the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode on the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. The RailWire homepage automatically appears on the smartphone. The user has to enter his or her mobile number on this homepage. The user will get one-time password (OTP) in form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP Users will be able to access high speed internet < can start internet browsing.
Dec 26, 2019 | Business
The Central GST and State GST authorities have organized a nationwide GST Stakeholder Feedback Diwas on New GST Returns on 7th December 2019 for getting an on-the-spot response to the new GST Returns to be introduced from 1st April 2020. The focus would be on assessing the ease of compliance and uploading of these new returns so that the trade does not face any difficulty when the returns are made legally mandatory. These feedback sessions would be attended by all prominent chambers of commerce and industry and other organisations representing taxpayers and tax practitioners < compliance managers. The tax officers shall be available to hand hold the taxpayers and assist them in trying out the new returns. This is the first time after introduction of GST that taxpayer consultation is being done on such a large scale.
On 16th November 2019 Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had invited some GST taxpayers, Chartered Accountants and Tax practitioners to assess first-hand the response to the various GST returns especially the new Returns to be introduced w.e.f. 1st April 2020. Several useful suggestions were also received. This initiative by the Finance Minister was widely welcomed by the entire tax fraternity and hailed as a step in the right direction for greater transparency in tax administration. Accordingly, Finance Minister decided that such interaction with stakeholders should be replicated nationwide on 7th December 2019 to get a much larger feedback on the new return system .
All GST stakeholders are requested to actively participated in these feedback sessions in their nearest CGST or SGST Office cross the country.
Dec 26, 2019 | Business
Indian Railways has planned to source about 1000 Mega Watt (MW) Solar Power and about 200 MW of wind power progressively by 2021-22. 201 MW (98 MW solar and 103 MW wind power) has already been set up till 31.10.2019.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce < Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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Dec 26, 2019 | Business
As far as market-linking of urea prices is concerned, the MRP of urea is statutorily fixed by the Government. The MRP of 45 kg bag of urea is Rs.242 per bag (exclusive of charges towards neem coating and taxes as applicable) and the MRP of 50 kg bag of urea is Rs.268 per bag (exclusive of charges towards neem coating and taxes as applicable).
As far as market-linking of P
Dec 26, 2019 | Business
Union Minister of State Road Transport and Highways Gen (Retd) Dr V K Singh has said that the government is focussed on aligning national standards for design, construction, maintenance and operation of roads, bridges and flyovers with global standards. He said, this will bring down the cost of construction, while maintaining high standards of quality through adoption of innovative technologies and materials for road construction.
Addressing a FICCI conference on New and Emerging Technologies in Road Construction here today, Gen V K Singh hailed the participation of private sector in development of road infrastructure in the country. He said, increased industrial activities have supported the overall growth of the transport sector. The Minister Said, government’s policy of increasing private participation has yielded positive results, with India becoming world’s second largest road network of 5.8 million kms.
The Minister informed that nearly 65 per cent of all goods in the country are transported through roads, while 90 per cent of the total passenger traffic uses road network to commute. He said, the government is committed to building quality roads and highways in the country. He referred to the Bharatmala Pariyojana, which aims at building over 66 thousand kms of economic corridors, border and coastal roads, and expressways to boost the highway network. The Pariyajana envisages to provide 4-lane connectivity to 550 districts, increase vehicular speed by 20-25 per cent, and reduce the supply chain cost by 5-6 per cent.
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