Nov 8: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav were “hell-bent” on making Bihar’s Seemanchal region a “den” of infiltrators, and asserted that the Centre will detect and identify every illegal immigrant, delete their names from electoral rolls and deport them.

Addressing an election rally in Purnea, Shah asserted that the NDA would form the government in Bihar by securing over 160 seats in the 243-member House.

“Half of the state has already shown the door to the Congress-RJD combine,” he claimed, referring to the first phase of the polls held on November 6.

“Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav are hell-bent on turning the Seemanchal region of Bihar into a den of infiltrators… We will detect and identify every illegal immigrant, delete their names from electoral rolls and deport them to their country,” he added. (Agencies)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Vande Bharat network connecting India’s pilgrimage sites is joining the country’s culture, faith and the development journey.

Speaking after flagging off four new Vande Bharat Express trains here from the Banaras railway station, Modi said pilgrimages in India have been considered a medium of national consciousness for centuries.

The pilgrimages are not just a way to visit sites of religious importance, but “a sacred tradition that connects India’s soul”.

“Countless pilgrimage sites like Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Haridwar, Chitrakoot, and Kurukshetra are centres of our spiritual stream,” he said, addressing a gathering for the launch of the Vande Bharat trains.

He said the Vande Bharat network serves as a way to “connect India’s culture, faith, and development journey.”

“This is an important step toward making India’s heritage cities symbols of the country’s development,” Modi said.

He added that the economic aspect of these pilgrimages is not often discussed.

“The development work undertaken in Uttar Pradesh over the past 11 years has taken spiritual tourism to a new level. Last year, 11 crore devotees visited Kashi to visit Baba Vishwanath. After the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, more than six crore people have visited Ram Lalla. These devotees have benefited Uttar Pradesh’s economy by thousands of crores of rupees,” Modi said.

The prime minister added that religious tourism has provided Uttar Pradesh’s hotels, merchants, transport companies, local artistes, and boatmen with the opportunity to earn a steady income.

“As a result, hundreds of young people in Varanasi are now starting new businesses in everything from transportation to Banarasi sarees. All this is opening the doors of prosperity to Uttar Pradesh and Kashi,” Modi said.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also attended the event.

The four new Vande Bharat Express trains flagged off on Saturday will operate on the Banaras-Khajuraho, Lucknow-Saharanpur, Firozpur-Delhi and Ernakulam-Bengaluru routes.

The semi-high-speed trains will significantly reduce travel time between major stations, enhance regional mobility, promote tourism and support economic activity across the country, the government said in a statement. (Agencies)

Airline operations at the Delhi airport, the country’s busiest airport, were slowly returning to normalcy on Saturday morning, a day after a glitch with the air traffic control system delayed more than 800 flights.

The technical problem with the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports the air traffic control’s flight planning process, continued for over 15 hours from around 5:45 am on Friday before the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said at around 9 pm that the issue has been addressed.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital that has four runways, handles more than 1,500 flight movements daily.

Delhi airport operator DIAL on Saturday morning said the technical issue which affected the AMSS is gradually improving.

“Airline operations at Delhi Airport are returning to normal, and all concerned authorities are working diligently to minimise any inconvenience caused,” it said in a post on X.

Apart from over 800 flights that faced delays, some services were also cancelled on Friday, impacting hundreds of passengers.

The country’s largest airline IndiGo on Saturday morning said the airport operator and Air Traffic Control (ATC) teams were working on priority to fully restore systems and stabilise operations.

“The situation is expected to be normalised over the next few hours. During this period, some departure and arrival timings may continue to be adjusted,” it said in a post on X.

Information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed that over 200 flights were delayed at the airport, including arrivals and departures, on Saturday morning.

It could not be immediately ascertained whether the flight delays were only due to the AMSS issue which is gradually improving.

While the AMSS started facing the technical issue Thursday late afternoon, the outage with the system happened at around 5:45 am on Friday, following which air traffic controllers had to prepare flight plans manually, according to sources.

The AAI, which provides navigation and other services, had also deployed additional manpower to prepare the flight plans manually which is a time-consuming process.

On Friday evening, the AAI said it has addressed the “technical issue in the AMSS, which caused delays in processing flight plan messages”.

The issue was detected in the IP-based AMSS system on November 6.

“The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) was engaged, and additional staff were deployed to manually process Flight Plans for the Air Traffic Control system to ensure uninterrupted and safe air traffic operations immediately.

“A team of ECIL officials and AAI personnel is still on site. The AMSS systems are up and functional now. Due to some backlogs, there may be some delays in the normal functioning of automated operations, but the situation will be normal soon,” the AAI had said. (Agencies)

At least 100 flights were delayed on Friday morning at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) due to a technical issue with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, according to Delhi Airport.

Passengers have been advised to contact their respective airlines for the latest flight updates.

In a post on X, Delhi Airport shared, “Due to a technical issue with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, flight operations at IGIA are experiencing delays. Their team is actively working with all stakeholders, including DIAL, to resolve it at the earliest.”

“Passengers are advised to stay in touch with their respective airlines for the latest flight updates. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused,” the post read.

Air traffic control (ATC) refers to a ground-based service in which controllers manage and guide the movement of aircraft both on the ground and within controlled airspace.

Meanwhile, earlier, Air India introduced a “Flexi Contract for Pilots,” a new work model that allows flight crew to choose shorter duty patterns while maintaining operational smoothness. The airline says the plan aims to match pilots’ preferences with roster needs, focusing on work-life balance without compromising efficiency.

Under the policy, Line Pilots and Line Training Captains on A320, B777 and A350 fleets are eligible. Junior First Officers, Type Rating Instructors and Direct Entry pilots are not. The contract offers two fixed patterns: for wide-body aircraft, 15 days on and 15 days off; for narrow-body aircraft, 20 days on and 10 days off. Annual leave aligns with these rosters–eight privilege and four sick leaves for wide-body pilots, and 12 privilege plus six sick leaves for narrow-body colleagues. The contract tenure will be 12 months, which can be extended at the company’s discretion. After the contract ends, pilots return to their original terms.

Air India states that selection is made through an Expression of Interest process, with seniority and operational needs guiding the final list. An exit needs three months’ notice. If a pilot is selected for a fleet or command upgrade, the pilot returns to the original contract from the start of training; if an upgrade is refused, the existing career policy on freezes applies. The company may also revert a pilot to the old contract if required, and this does not change pay terms that applied before switching to flexi terms. (Agencies)

‘Vande Mataram’, the national song of India, continues to symbolise the emotional consciousness and unity of the country’s people, President Droupadi Murmu said on Friday.

On the occasion of the song’s 150th anniversary, “let all of us countrymen take this firm resolve that we will keep Mother India endowed with ‘Sujala’ (good water), ‘sufala’ (good or fine fruit) and ‘sukhda’ (bestowed with happiness), in accordance with the spirit of this song. Vande Mataram,” Murmu said in a post on X in Hindi.

The president also recounted how, in the nineteenth century, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay composed Vande Mataram against the backdrop of the Sannyasi rebellion against British rule, which, since the 1905 Swadeshi movement, has become a source of inspiration.

“Since then, this song of reverence to Mother India has remained a proclamation of the emotional consciousness and unity of our countrymen, and it will continue to be so,” the president said, adding that after independence, the country reverently adopted it as the national song. November 7, this year, marks the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, which translates to “Mother, I bow to thee.” This composition, an enduring anthem, has inspired countless generations of freedom fighters and nation builders, standing as a lasting emblem of India’s national identity and collective spirit, according to an official statement.

Vande Mataram was first published in the literary journal Bangadarshan on November 7, 1875, and was set to music by Rabindranath Tagore. (Agencies)