DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

MUMBAI, July 7 (Reuters) - India's federal police have arrested three railway employees on Friday in connection with the country's deadliest train crash in two decades that killed 292 people last month, the crime agency said in a statement. It is India's worst train crash in more than two decades. The accident happened when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped off the tracks and hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction. Reuters reported earlier this week that workers repairing a rail-road barrier had made faulty connections in the automated signalling system on the network. The malfunctioning system directed the passenger train onto the path of the freight train, it said.

Persons: Narendra Modi's, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Krishn Kaushik, Jatindra, Shivam Patel, YP Rajesh, Hugh Lawson Organizations: Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI, Reuters, of Railway Safety, CRS, Local, Indian Railways, Railway Board, Railways Ministry, YP, Thomson Locations: MUMBAI, Bahanaga Bazar, Odisha

BHUBANESWAR, India, July 4 (Reuters) - Workers repairing a rail-road barrier in India made faulty connections in the automated signalling system on the network, leading to the country's worst rail disaster in two decades, an official probe has found. The June 2 crash at Bahanaga Bazar station, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed 288 people and injured more than 1,000. The disaster struck when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped off the tracks and hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction. The malfunctioning system directed the passenger train onto the path of the freight train, it said. Indian Railways, the fourth largest train network in the world, is a state monopoly run by the Railway Board.

Persons: Narendra Modi's, Jatindra Dash, Krishn Kaushik, Sudipto Ganguly, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Workers, Reuters, of Railway Safety, CRS, Local, Railways, Railway Board, Railways Ministry, Thomson Locations: BHUBANESWAR, India, Bahanaga Bazar, Odisha, New Delhi, Mumbai

The surge in deaths this months follows a warning from the country’s meteorological department about potential heat-related casualties. Temperatures in northern and eastern India have reached 46 degrees Celsius (114.8 degrees Fahrenheit) this week, AFP reported. A local health official acknowledged heat may have been a factor in the deaths of 25 people on June 16. Later, the Chief Medical Officer of Ballia, Dr. Jayant Kumar, said the spike in deaths was due to “various other ailments,” including old age. Not a single district hospital has been built in the last six years.

Persons: Diwakar Singh, Singh, Ballia, Jayant Kumar, ” Kumar, N Tiwari, “, ” Akhilesh Yadav, ”, Mansukh Mandaviya Organizations: CNN, AFP, BBC, heatwave, Express, India’s Locations: Uttar Pradesh, Ballia, India

New Delhi CNN —Eleven people have been shot dead and 14 injured in a fresh outbreak of ethnic violence that has gripped the northeast Indian state of Manipur. The current unrest has seen some of the worst violence in recent years and has sparked criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs Manipur. If they are given this status, other ethnic groups – many of whom are Christian – say they fear they will not have a fair chance for jobs and other benefits. People wait at a temporary shelter in a military camp on May 7, after being evacuated by the Indian army, as they flee ethnic violence that has hit the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Metei community dominates positions within the state government, and have been privy to more economic and infrastructural advancement than the other ethnic groups.

Persons: JNIMS, Deben, Arun Sankar, Narendra Modi, Modi, Amit Shah’s, Christian Organizations: New, New Delhi CNN, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Raj Medicity Hospital, CNN, Getty, Indian, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Union, Indian National Congress Locations: New Delhi, Manipur, state’s, Imphal, Indian, Arun, Myanmar, Kashmir, India, Kuki

☆ How India’s deadly train accident affected poorest passengers the most
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

On the Howrah they were the farthest from the engine, and were hit by the derailed Coromandel Express carriages. Graphic shows the sequence of coaches behind the engine on the Coromandel Express and Howrah Superfast Express. On the Coromandel Express, the engine is closely followed by non-air conditioned coaches, including three unreserved coaches. Deaths and injuries in Indian railway accidents Graphic shows the number of deaths and injuries in Indian railway accidents annually since 2001. Drone footage shows aftermath of train crash in the Indian state of Odisha Drone footage shows aftermath of train crash in the Indian state of Odisha | ReutersThe site of the accident is rural.

Persons: Bahanaga, Sandeep Mathur, Long, Narendra Modi Organizations: Coromandel, Reuters, Indian Railways, Commission of Railway Safety, Railways, CRS, Superfast Express, Express, Railway Ministry Locations: Chennai, Odisha, Balasore, Indian, Kolkata, Bengaluru, India, Coromandel, Howrah, Bihar, Odisha’s Balasore

Indian and international media have previously reported that a possible malfunction in the automated signalling system may have led to the crash. However, details of the frequent malfunctions at the nearby rail-road barrier and its possible connection to a manual bypass of the signalling system are reported by Reuters for the first time. A spokesman for Indian Railways said "repair works keep happening as per requirements" but tampering with the automated system is not allowed. "(Indian) Railways believes the system was tampered with," said the second source, who has access to briefings on the investigation. The Indian Railways spokesman did not directly address the authorisation issue and only said it is not allowed under Indian Railways rules.

Persons: Amitabh Sharma, Sharma, Soubhagya Ranjan Sarangi, Narendra Modi's, Jaya Varma Sinha, Sinha, Sandeep Mathur, Mathur, Sudhanshu Mishra, Krishn Kaushik, Jatindra, Sarita Chaganti Singh, YP Rajesh, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Railways, Reuters, of Railway Safety, CRS, Railway Board, Railways Ministry, Indian Railways, police’s Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI, Coromandel Express, Express, YP, Thomson Locations: India, DELHI, Bahanaga Bazar, Balasore, Odisha, Bahanaga, Niranjan, Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi

They cram themselves every day by the millions onto India’s overtaxed trains, chasing a shred of economic opportunity across the vastness of the world’s most populous nation. Tickets costing about $5 — nearly a day’s wage — are all they can afford. Almost all of the 288 dead were in those three cars at the front of the train — a fact, confirmed by officials, that has gone almost unnoticed in India. Unlike the 1,200 people in reserved seats, those in the general coaches were officially nameless; the rail service had no record of their identity. Their names and other details emerged only when they were taken to hospitals, or when a loved one traveling hundreds of miles identified their bodies in a morgue.

Persons: chai Organizations: Express Locations: India

☆ Fact Check-Video shows train collision in India’s Hyderabad in 2019, not Odisha 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CCTV footage of a train crash in Hyderabad, India in 2019 has been miscaptioned online to say it shows the deadly rail crash in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on June 2. The footage, which features a Voice of America (VOA) watermark in some posts, was shared by the broadcaster in November 2019 following a train collision in Hyderabad, India (here). VOA has credited the Indian Railways for the footage in the caption of the YouTube video. The same footage was also used by Indian news outlets to report on the same incident (here) and (here). The video dates from 2019 and shows a train collision in Hyderabad, not Odisha in 2023.

Persons: Read Organizations: Facebook, America, Indian Railways, YouTube, Reuters Locations: Hyderabad, India, Odisha, Balasore

☆ India train crash: Devastating scenes of despair after one of the worst train crashes the country has ever seen
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Ivan Watson Kunal Sehgal Deepak Rao Rhea Mogul | Ivan Watson | Kunal Sehgal | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Some of the coaches rolled to the other side,” the 32-year-old restaurant worker told CNN from a hospital in India’s eastern Odisha state. Their story is just one of hundreds unfolding across the country as India deals with one of the worst train crashes it has ever seen. Doctors confer as they attend to survivors of a train accident in a hospital in Balasore, India, on June 4, 2023. A drone view shows derailed coaches after two passenger trains collided in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha, India, June 3, 2023. In 2011, scores were killed when a train jumped tracks in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Persons: CNN — Manto Kumar, “, ’, Punit Paranjpe, “ I’ve, I’ve, Laluti Devi, ”, Abhishek Chinnappa, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Laxminaranyan, Stringer, Reuters Anushuman Purohi, ” Vaishnaw, Rafiq Maqbool, Narendra Modi, Modi’s, Vaishnaw, Kumar Organizations: CNN, Express, Getty, Mojo, India’s, Government Medical College, Howrah, Reuters, Sunday, Indian, Crime Records, AP Railways, Central Bureau of Investigation, Authorities Locations: India’s, Odisha, India, Balasore, AFP, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kolkata, Bahanaga Bazar, Bangalore, Tamil Nadu, Balasore district, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh

The other passenger train was a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express train, running from a commuter hub in Bangalore to Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal. India’s railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that he had ordered an investigation into the cause and that those affected by the crash would receive compensation. Site of the train crash An initial government report said that the Coromandel Express passenger train derailed while traveling at full speed. Dozens of trains had been canceled but crews were rushing to restore service after pushing off the train cars involved in the crash off the tracks. In 2016, 14 train cars derailed in India’s northeast in the middle of the night, killing more than 140 passengers and injuring 200 others.

Persons: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Derailments, Jitendra Prakash, Narendra Modi, Modi, Modi’s, Amit Dave, Suresh Prabhu, Mr, Vaishnaw, Mujib Mashal Organizations: Chennai Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway, Express, Coromandel, INDIA, Sunday, Economic, Disaster Management, Reuters Rail Locations: India, Balasore, Odisha State, Shalimar, Chennai Coromandel, India’s, Howrah, Bangalore, Kolkata, West Bengal, Bahanaga Bazar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s, Bihar, Pukhrayan, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad

☆ Money for Show Horses, Not Work Horses, on India’s Rails
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Alex Travelli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Those decisions loomed large on Sunday in the aftermath of a devastating train wreck that killed at least 275 people in eastern India. Investigators said they were focused on the possibility that signal failure might have led to the three-train crash on Friday, the worst rail wreck in the country in years. The crash, which also injured more than 1,100 people, occurred when a passenger train heading south about 80 miles per hour toward the city of Chennai veered onto the wrong track and hit a parked freight train, the authorities say. The first train’s derailed cars then plowed into a second passenger train that was heading toward it, leaving a scene of carnage. The government spent almost $30 billion on the rail system during the past fiscal year, up 15 percent from the year before.

Organizations: Investigators Locations: India, Chennai

A second passenger train, heading in the opposite direction, then struck some of the dislocated cars. More than 2,200 passengers in all were onboard the passenger trains, according to railway officials, and at least 23 cars were derailed. The other passenger train was a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express train, running from a commuter hub in the southern city of Bengaluru to Kolkata, the capital of the northeastern state of West Bengal. Site of the train crash An initial government report said that the Coromandel Express passenger train derailed while traveling at full speed. In 2016, 14 train cars derailed in India’s northeast in the middle of the night, killing more than 140 passengers and injuring 200 others.

Persons: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Vaishnaw, Derailments, Jitendra Prakash, Narendra Modi, Modi, Modi’s, Amit Dave, Suresh Prabhu, Mr, Mujib Mashal Organizations: Chennai Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway, Express, Coromandel, INDIA, Economic, Disaster Management, Reuters Rail Locations: India, Balasore, Odisha State, Shalimar, Chennai Coromandel, India’s, Howrah, Bengaluru, Kolkata, West Bengal, Odisha, Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s, Bihar, Pukhrayan, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad

☆ India Train Crash Live Updates: Relatives Identify Crash Victims as Modi Visits Derailment Site
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Sameer Yasir | Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

The other passenger train was a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express train, running from a commuter hub in Bangalore to Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal. India’s railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that he had ordered an investigation into the cause and that those affected by the crash would receive compensation. Site of the train crash An initial government report said that the Coromandel Express passenger train derailed while traveling at full speed. In 2016, 14 train cars derailed in India’s northeast in the middle of the night, killing more than 140 passengers and injuring 200 others. Within hours of Friday’s disaster, some opposition politicians were already calling for the resignation of Mr. Vaishnaw, India’s railway minister.

Persons: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Derailments, Jitendra Prakash, Narendra Modi, Modi, Modi’s, Amit Dave, Suresh Prabhu, Mr, Vaishnaw, Mujib Mashal Organizations: Chennai Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway, Express, Coromandel, INDIA, Economic, Disaster Management, Reuters Rail Locations: India, Balasore, Odisha State, Shalimar, Chennai Coromandel, India’s, Howrah, Bangalore, Kolkata, West Bengal, Bahanaga Bazar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s, Odisha, Bihar, Pukhrayan, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad

☆ More Than 270 Killed in Train Derailment in Eastern India
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Does Apple Copy Ideas From App and Accessory Makers? Big software updates by Apple often include new features which are similar to popular third-party apps. Developers find that out by watching events like WWDC. WSJ’s Dalvin Brown explains why, how Apple does this and who might be next. Photo illustration: Noah Friedman

Persons: WSJ’s Dalvin Brown, Noah Friedman Organizations: Apple

A train crash in eastern India on Friday was the country’s worst rail disaster in two decades, killing more than 230 people. The crash occurred when several cars of a train derailed and hit a second one, the train’s operator, South Eastern Railway, said in a statement. Local officials said that a third train, carrying freight, was ultimately involved, but details of this were not yet clear. One of the trains involved was a Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express train, according to South Eastern Railway. The Coromandel Express service has been known for connecting the biggest cities on India’s east coast at relatively high speed.

Persons: Pradeep Jena Organizations: Eastern Railway, Chennai Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway, Express Locations: India, Balasore, Odisha, Shalimar, Chennai Coromandel, India’s

But rescuers expect the death toll to rise further, as many people are thought to be trapped under upturned carriages. A damaged train carriage, following the deadly collision in Balasore, India, on June 2. Video footage and photographs from Friday’s crash site show scenes of chaos and despair. Rescuers search for survivors at the site of the crash in Balasore district, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, on June 2. The latest crash comes as India carries out a major overhaul of its infrastructure, with the country investing millions to modernize transport links.

Persons: Sudhanshu Sarangi, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Narendra Singh Bundela, ” Bundela, ”, “, Narendra Modi, Modi Organizations: CNN, Rescuers, Fire Services, NDTV, Railway Minister, Response Force, Press Trust of, Force, Rapid Action Force, Soro Block, “, Bharatiya Janata Party, National Crime Records, Western Locations: India, Balasore, Odisha, Bahanaga, Balasore district, Press Trust of India, Soro, Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Mumbai, country’s Jammu, Kashmir

☆ Factbox: India's deadliest rail accidents
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 3 (Reuters) - At least 207 people were killed and 900 injured when two passenger trains collided in Odisha on Friday, according to government officials in the eastern Indian state, in one of India's worst rail accidents in years. Here are details of some of the deadliest rail accidents in India in recent decades:June 1981: At least 800 people are killed when seven rear coaches of an overcrowded passenger train are blown off the track and fall into a river during a cyclone. July 1988: An express train leaves the rails and plunges into a monsoon-swollen lake near Quilon in southern India, killing at least 106 people. October 2005: Several coaches of a passenger train derail in southern Andhra Pradesh state, near Velugonda. January 2017: At least 41 people are killed after several coaches of a passenger train go off the rails in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Persons: Akriti Sharma, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Odisha, India, Quilon, Delhi, Balasore, Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, Velugonda, Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India's Amritsar, Bengaluru

☆ At least 50 dead, 350 injured in train crash in eastern India, media report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BHUBANESWAR/KOLKATA June 2 (Reuters) - At least 50 people were killed and 350 injured when two passenger trains collided in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Friday, Indian media reported. The Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, collided with another passenger train, the Howrah Superfast Express, railway officials said. The Howrah Superfast Express derailed and became entangled with the Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway authorities said in a statement. Media reports had earlier said that the crash was between the Coromandel Express and a goods train. Media reports said at least 50 people had died.

Persons: Pradeep Jena, Naveen Patnaik, Narendra Modi, Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, Abinaya, Jatindra, Nag Choudhury, Shubhendu Satish Deshmukh, Andrew Heavens, David Holmes, Frances Kerry Organizations: Eastern Railway, Media, Coromandel, Reuters, REUTERS, Railways, Force, Thomson Locations: BHUBANESWAR, KOLKATA, Odisha, Kolkata, Chennai, Howrah, Balasore district, Balasore, India, Odisha's Bhubaneswar, West Bengal, Bengaluru

☆ Passenger trains derail in India, killing at least 50, trapping many others
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Rescuers work at the site of passenger trains that derailed in Balasore district, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, Friday, June 2, 2023. Two passenger trains derailed Friday in India, killing at least 50 people and trapping hundreds of others inside more than a dozen damaged rail cars, officials said. The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, and up to three coaches of the second train also derailed, Sharma said. In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in the worst train accident in India's history. More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.

Persons: Amitabh Sharma, Sharma, Kaleda, Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, Pradeep Jena, Shinde, Narendra Modi, Modi Organizations: The Press Trust of India, New Delhi Television, Press Trust, Rescuers, The Press Trust, Indian Locations: Balasore district, Orissa, India, Kolkata, Balasore, Howrah, West Bengal, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, New Delhi

☆ Scientists discovered a smiling, paragliding gecko that flies from tree to tree in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Scientists discovered a new species of paragliding gecko in India. The smiling reptiles use skin flaps along their body to fly from tree to tree. The wide-eyed, smiling reptiles were discovered while researchers were surveying gecko populations in northeastern India. The creature's scientific name is Gekko mizoramensis, but scientists have dubbed the mini-lizards "parachute geckos" due to their habit of gliding from tree to tree. Scientists found that the geckos discovered in India are distinct from other types of parachute geckos, some of which can glide up to 200 feet.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Privacy Locations: India, Nature, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia

☆ India Struggles to Eradicate an Old Scourge: Witch Hunting
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Suhasini Raj | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

They ushered the young woman into their home and closed the door behind her. Then the beating began. “You are a witch,” shouted one of the attackers, as she, her parents and her uncle rained punches, kicks and slaps on the 26-year-old woman’s stomach, chest and face. When the pummeling finally ended, after nearly two hours, the young woman was pulled outside by her hair, dragged through her village and dumped, unconscious, next to a temple, her clothing barely clinging to her battered body. The attack, in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand in 2021, was evidence that India is still struggling to eradicate the age-old scourge of witch hunting, despite a raft of laws and other initiatives.

☆ Why has India's Manipur state exploded in ethnic violence?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

People are evacuated by the Indian army to a temporary shelter as they flee ethnic violence that has hit the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, near Imphal on May 7, 2023. Manipur, a lush, hilly state which borders Myanmar, has long history of civil conflict since modern India’s creation. The divide between the Meiteis and the other ethnic groups is cut sharply across political and geographic lines. People wait at a temporary shelter in a military camp, after being evacuated by the Indian army, as they flee ethnic violence that has hit the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on May 7, 2023. Modi, who is in the southern Indian state of Karnataka to campaign for state elections, is yet to speak publicly about the unrest, sparking widespread anger among Manipur’s residents.

New Delhi CNN —Authorities in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur have issued “shoot-at-sight” orders after violence broke out this week between tribal and non-tribal groups that saw properties and vehicles set ablaze. Shoot-at-sight orders were authorized for “extreme cases whereby all forms of persuasion, warning, reasonable force etc. If the Meitei community are given scheduled tribe status, other tribal groups say they fear they will not have a fair chance for jobs and other benefits. Marginalization from societyAbout 25% of India’s population of 1.4 billion are grouped under the scheduled castes (Dalits) and scheduled tribes (Adivasis) in India’s constitution. “It has been seen that most Dalits and Adivasis, find it difficult to get these government ID cards … or ration cards.

☆ Ima Keithel: The world’s largest women-run market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —At first glance, Ima Keithel is much like any other market. Priya Kharaibam, for example, is the third generation of her family’s pottery traders at Ima Keithel, following on from her grandmother. The creation of Ima Keithel dates back to the 16th century Kangleipak Kingdom, when it began as a makeshift, open-air market for bartering crops. An overhead shot of a busy afternoon at Ima Keithel. We want to be responsible mothers.”These days Ima Keithel is a microcosm of Manipur’s egalitarian society.

Search resuls for: "Eastern India"

25 mentions found