Indian Railways to get biometric identification system

October 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Railways Wednesday said it would transport for free relief material to flood ravaged places in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The railway minister (Mamata Banerjee) has taken this major humanitarian gesture as a special case with a view to facilitate movement of relief material to flood affected areas for the benefit of millions of people marooned by the recent floods in these two states, the Indian Railways said in a statement.

September 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has said an external agency would probe allegations of graft during her predecessor's tenure. Lawmakers belonging to Bihar's Janata Dal (United) had alleged that that during the tenure of former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, people were asked to cede land to the railways in exchange for jobs and contracts in the organisation.

September 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday inaugurated a biometric identification system in his ministry to ensure punctuality among the staff. "I hope that people will absorb the spirit and the purpose behind the system which is being introduced.

August 11th, 2009 KARAULI - The district authorities of Karauli in Rajasthan have introduced the thumb impression system to register the physical presence of workers engaged in the projects under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This move has been initiated by them to minimise the leakage of allotted government funds through fake job cards and bogus attendance records.

July 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nandan Nilekani took charge as the chairman of the Unique Identification Database Authority of India Thursday and started work on the government's ambitious project to provide a single identity number and card to each of the country's 1.17 billion people. Nilekani, who met with reporters briefly after assuming office at Yojana Bhavan, the headquarters of the Planning Commission here, said the main task of the authority would be to create a database that will help in issuing unique identity cards.

July 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nandan Nilekani took over as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) here today. Interacting with the media on the occasion, Nilekani said Unique Identification Numbers would ensure multifarious benefits by enabling different applications.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The railways ministry has asked the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) to set up budget hotels at all major stations either directly or through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. "IRCTC follows the two packet open competitive bidding system to grant licenses.

July 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Municipal Corporation of Delhi's commissioner K.S. Mehra Thursday said there were no bogus employees in the civic authority and said the reports that there were fake 45,000 workers in the corporation were untrue.

July 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Wednesday said the discovery of thousands of bogus employees in the civic body was made possible due to biometric attendance systems. Nearly 45,000 of MCD employees are said to be existing only on the paper and are not traceable, according to reports.

June 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After it was revealed that a huge chunk of employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were fake, civic body's standing committee chairperson Vijender Gupta Tuesday said the bogus work force will be identified soon. "We have more than 100,000 employees but there was no streamlined system to check how many were actually working.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI J - The Union Cabinet has appointed the Infosys Chief Nandan Nilekani as the Chairman of National Authority for Unique Identity. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said the new authority will function under the planning commission, and Nilekani will be enjoying cabinet tatus.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said that Indian Railways' determined efforts will be to keep enhancing passenger amenities and comforts to a higher level, both in trains and on railway stations. In her message to the Railway personnel after assuming the charge of office of the Union Railway Minister, Banerjee urged all the railwaymen to provide 'service with smile'.

February 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A new book explaining how the second largest railway network in the world is managing disasters - both man-made and natural - was released here Tuesday. Railways Minister Lalu Prasad released the book, titled 'Disaster Management in the Indian Railways', written by Minister of State for Railways R.

January 22nd, 2009 RANCHI - Indian Railways Friday paid tributes to freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by renaming a railway station in Jharkhand after him. Railways Minister Lalu Prasad announced the new name of the Gomo railway station that comes under the Dhanbad railway division.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Rakesh Kumar Tandon, an Indian Railways Traffic Service (IRTS) officer of the 1978 batch, took over as managing director of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) Wednesday. Prior to this, Tandon was executive director (passenger marketing, and efficiency and research) in the railways ministry.