Indian Railways raked in a revenue of Rs 12,159.35 crore from ticket sales during the festive period that stretched from September 1 to October 31 this year, according to data tabled in Parliament.

The two-month period was marked by festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, and Diwali, which usually witnesses a spurt in passengers travelling through the railways.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the zone-wise data on the revenue from ticket sales in answer to a question in the Lok Sabha.

His statement showed that 143.71 crore passengers used the railways between September 1 and November 10. The maximum footfall was recorded in the central zone, at 31.63 crore. The western zone secured the second position with 26.13 crore passengers, followed by the eastern zone with 24.67 crore passengers. The south-east central zone recorded the lowest passenger count at 1.48 crore.

As festive season saw robust growth in India across all parameters, credit card spending crossed Rs 2 lakh crore in October, a 14.5 per cent rise from September.

According to latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), credit card spending in October reached Rs 2.02 lakh crore, up 13 per cent (year-on-year).

As per the Central Bank’s data, outstanding credit cards in the system increased 12.85 per cent to 106.88 million, a 0.74 per cent increase from September.

HDFC Bank led the chart with issuing 241,119 credit cards, followed by SBI Cards with 220,265 cards and ICICI Bank with 138,541 cards.

Meanwhile, as UPI-based digital payments surge, debit card-based transactions dropped almost 8 per cent from nearly Rs 43,350 crore in August to about Rs 39,920 crore in September, according to the RBI’s monthly data.

India and France have a huge potential for partnerships in renewable energy with the International Solar Alliance (ISA) spearheaded by the two countries turning out to be “a runaway success,” Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

Addressing the Asia Pacific Commission (APAC) 2024 Forum organised by the French Foreign Trade Advisors here, the minister said over 100 countries have taken membership of this alliance co-sponsored by India and France.

Elaborating on the solar alliance, he underlined the efforts of both countries to take clean and renewable energy to the emerging countries and lesser developed countries of the world.

He further stated that using sustainable practices can have a mitigating factor on climate change and its emerging adverse impact across the world.

India is the only large economy showing robust growth in the consumption of steel with a double-digit jump of 13.5 per cent in the first half of 2024-25, according to a statement of the Ministry of Steel issued on Wednesday.

Even with a conservative demand growth of 10 per cent, the country will need 300 million tonnes of capacity by the year 2030 to cater to about 265 million tonnes of demand. If adequate domestic steel production capacity is not created, the country will become a net importer of steel and will depend on imports of steel for its infrastructure creation, the statement pointed out.

As per the National Steel Policy, the country aims to achieve 300 million tonnes of steel production capacity by the year 2030 with the present capacity at about 180 million tonnes.

This means an additional capacity creation of 120 million tonnes, which corresponds to investment of estimated $120 billion or over Rs 10 lakh crore.

The levelised cost of green hydrogen is expected to decrease to around $2.1 per kg by 2029-2030, largely driven by the projected 35-40 per cent drop in electrolyser prices and a 12 per cent-14 per cent improvement in efficiency apart from supportive government policies, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The CareEdge Ratings report believes that this reduced cost, along with the policy push and lower renewable energy prices, will provide a significant competitive advantage for India.

According to the report, the momentum of green hydrogen (GH2) in India will be driven by lower renewable energy costs and the country’s decarbonisation goals.

Additionally, PLI incentives announced by the Indian government, such as a direct production incentive of up to $0.50/kg of GH2 production for the first 2 years and an incentive on electrolyser capex of $54/Kw are a welcome move to help achieve targeted levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH).

The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom and networking products has seen 42 applicant companies (including 28 MSMEs) with a cumulative investment of Rs 3,925 crore and exports reaching Rs 12,384 crore (till September 30), the government informed the Parliament on Wednesday.

This PLI scheme was launched in June 2021 with a total financial outlay of Rs 12,195 crore.

Till September, the applicant companies had clocked total sales worth Rs 65,320 crore, Minister of State for Communications, Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question.

Salient features of the scheme are 33 telecom and networking products, incentives ranging from 4 to 7 per cent, an additional 1 per cent incentive for MSMEs for the first 3 years, and an additional 1 per cent incentive for products ‘Designed in India’.

Online pre-owned car retailer platform Cars24 has reported a loss of Rs 498 crore in the last financial year (FY24), compared to Rs 468 crore in FY23, which is a 6.4 per cent increase.

The company's expenses saw 23.3 per cent increase (year-on-year) to Rs 7,461 crore, from Rs 6,053 crore in FY23, as per its latest financials.

In FY24, Cars24 spent most on purchasing vehicles at Rs 6,106 crore. This cost increased by 23.8 per cent year-on-year, constituting 81.8 per cent of the total cost.

Apart from this, the remaining expenses were related to employee benefits, advertising, legal, commission to brokers and other items.

Australia are set to add uncapped fast-bowling all-rounder Beau Webster into their squad for the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test, to be played with the pink ball in Adelaide, starting on December 6.

A report by News Corp on Wednesday said Webster has been picked up as an injury cover for fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who has pulled up “sore” following the series opener, where Australia suffered a 295-run loss to India inside four days at Perth Stadium.

Though there’s a ten-day gap between first and second Tests, if Marsh fails to recover in time for the Adelaide game, after bowling more than ten overs in Perth, then Webster has a chance to become Australia’s 468th men’s Test cricketer.

As private consumption rises in India, tier 2 and 3 cities have emerged as a critical growth engine for motor insurance, driven by increasing vehicle ownership and greater awareness of the importance of insurance, according to a report on Wednesday.

These regions contributed to more than 90 per cent to the number of policies sold and the premium amount in the festive season this year, as per data InsurTech platform Turtlemint.

Turtlemint said it issued over 4 lakh motor insurance policies through its extensive network of insurance advisors, marking an almost 2 times increase in sales compared to the same period last year.

Post Vistara-integration, national carrier Air India on Wednesday announced an optimisation of its domestic route network that will prioritise deployment of its best narrowbody cabin products on five key metro-to-metro routes, beginning December 1.

This will see all flights between select metro cities operated with erstwhile Vistara A320-series aircraft offering business, premium economy and economy class.

The routes are Delhi and Mumbai; Delhi and Bengaluru; Delhi and Hyderabad; Mumbai and Bengaluru and Mumbai and Hyderabad, Air India said in a statement.

These flights will operate with ‘AI’-prefixed four-digit flight numbers beginning with ‘2’, such as AI2999 from Delhi to Mumbai.