In the wake of one of the worst train accidents last Friday at Balasore, Odisha, journalists have turned an unsparing spotlight on rail safety. Many unsavoury features of Indian Railways now stand exposed in the glare of public scrutiny, ranging from the systematic underfunding of the rail safety fund and the snail -pace rollout of the rail safety mechanism, Kavach, to the damning CAG report on train derailments, and the sorry state of the Railways' finances.
It is a terrible tragedy that more than 280 people have died and 900-odd injured in twin rail accidents in Odisha’s Balasore district. The Chennai-bound Coromandel Express ran headlong into a stationary goods train at Bahanaga station, Balasore, tearing away and throwing bogeys on to the parallel track, directly in the path of the oncoming Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, creating a second collision. This happened at 7 pm on June 2. Rescue work started fairly soon – that is the only good part of the story.
The official GDP growth data hides the reality of tepid growth and a decline in good employment.
BRICS on a mini-lateral level is focusing and yielding rather significantly on what other major groupings and multilateral organisations are aiming at. It has begun to provide an alternate avenue of cooperation from trade, and finance to resolving regional and global issues to counter-terrorism and capacity building. But, it is not free of issues.
PM Modi's three-nation tour was a testament to how New Delhi has managed the turbulence of global politics effectively and positioned itself well for the future.
The way to make AT1 bonds attractive again is to clarify the insurance-linked role that sets them apart from pure debt, revert to valuation as per the time period of call options, and vastly improve banking supervision via enhanced management of banking data.
At this stage, it looks like a great point for discussion at the Conference as the climate diplomats from the developing world express hope of some forward movement and justice to the ‘Loss & Damage’ agenda. But the wealthy economies are apparently covering their backs through the recession and Eurasian war by pumping in more money into buying more dangerous weapon systems. So, the concern is that will there be again a tepid response to a meaningful financial commitment.