Indian Railways' idea is to raise revenue through higher utilisation of seats and not by passing the burden on the travellers.

Gross NPAs of banks may improve to 10% in March 2019 as resolution process picks up pace; Vedanta bags 41 out of 55 oil blocks in first round of open acreage auction; Google makes a play for India's e-commerce market; New Hyundai Santro to be launched during the festive season; from food to service, Indian Railways is upgrading Rajdhanis, Shatabdis in full force. Watch more in this episode of Business Wrap.

Gross NPAs of banks may improve to 10% in March 2019 as resolution process picks up paceThe gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) of the banking sector is likely to improve to 10 per cent in March 2019, from 11.52 per cent as on June 30, 2018, as nearly 60 per cent of the bad loans of the sector are under active resolution, a report has said. The net NPA is also expected to decrease to 4.3 per cent, from 5.92 per cent as of June-end this year, ICRA said in its report. The rating age...

The Ministry of Railways has been gradually changing the face of Indian trains.

As part of the Railways' plan to increase the speeds of all long-distance passenger trains by 25km per hour by 2022, it has decided to replace the Shatabdi Express trains with much-awaited semi-high speed 'Train 18'.

Indian Railways has revised the schedule of over 300 Northern Railways trains. The new schedule will be effective from August 15, which means the previous timings will be applicable till August 14.

In its report for year ending March 2017, the CAG has found that the flexi-fare system in premium trains led to increase in passenger earnings but the number of travellers during September 9, 2016 to July 31, 2017 came down by over six lakhs when compared to the corresponding period in 2015-2016.

Features like train search without login, easy-to-use web interface, alternative accommodation facility, etc, have been incorporated in the new IRCTC portal, whose final version was launched on June 13.

The IRCTC manager would attend to the complaints even when the train is in motion and would report to the train captain at the railway station where the train originates.

Not only trains, the Railways has been modernizing train stations by incorporating state-of-the-art features and services which would be at par with those available at airports.

Some of the features of the new IRCTC website include convenient next generation interface, easy search queries, train search without login and probability of ticket confirmation.

The Indian Railways has taken several initiatives to make passenger service better during train journey. Last week, the IRCTC launched its trial run of environment-friendly, bagasse-based food packaging on eight select Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains originating from New Delhi.

Farmers protests make fresh fruits, vegetables expensive; restaurants may also increase pricesIt's Day 5 of the ongoing nationwide agitation by farmers, and if its runs the planned course till June 10, not only is the supply and price situation of fresh produce likely to worsen but there may also be spill-over effects on dining out. According to The Economic Times, ecommerce firms like BigBasket and Grofers have managed to so far keep prices in check because of pre-arranged suppli...

Passengers on these trains would be served meals on eco-friendly bagasse-based disposable plates instead of the polymer ones.

Indian Railways is now stressing on quality over quantity, which means some of the popular items might be taken off the plate.

In the last couple of years, Indian Railways has taken multiple initiatives to make train journey for passengers safer and faster. This year in February, it was reported that the Indian Railways is planning to construct 10,000 km of new high speed corridors to run trains at the speed of 200-250 kmph.

Around 980 trains have got On Board Housekeeping Service which ensures clean coach toilets, doorways, aisles and passenger compartments.

Electricity rates reduced across all slabs; DERC has also introduced special tariff for peak hours and off-peak hours

If caught travelling without a ticket, travellers typically have to shell out the original fare for the journey along with a penalty of Rs 250.