NASA names new space bacteria after APJ Abdul Kalam

NASA researchers discovered a new bacteria on the filters of the International Space Station and named it Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president

In a great news for India, scientists at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have named a new organism discovered by them after the much-loved A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Till date, the new organism—a form of a bacteria—has been found only on the International Space Station (ISS) and has not been found on earth!

Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the foremost lab of NASA for work on inter-planetary travel, discovered the new bacteria on the filters of the International Space Station (ISS) and named it Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president, who was a renowned aerospace scientist.

Kalam had his early training at NASA in 1963 before he set up India’s first rocket-launching facility in the fishing village of Thumba in Kerala. “The name of the bacterium is Solibacillus kalamii, the species name is after Dr Abdul Kalam and genus name is Solibacillus which is a spore forming bacteria,” said Dr Kasthuri Venkateswaran, senior research scientist, Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at JPL.

The filter on which the new bug was found remained on board the ISS for 40 months. Called a high-efficiency particulate arrestance filter or HEPA filter, this part is the routine housekeeping and cleaning system on board the international space station.

This filter was later analysed at JPL and only this year did Venkateswaran publish his discovery in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. According to Venkateswaran, even as it orbits the earth some 400 kilometres above, the ISS is home to many types of bacteria and fungi which co-inhabit the station with the astronauts who live and work on the station.

Venkateswaran said even though Solibacillus kalamii has never been found on earth till date, it is really not an extra-terrestrial life form or ET. “I am reasonably sure it has hitch hiked to the space station on board some cargo and then survived the hostile conditions of space,” explained Venkateswaran.

Naming the new microbe after Kalam was natural to Venkateswaran and his team. “Being a fellow Tamilian, I am aware of the huge contributions by Dr. Kalam,” he said. New bacteria are usually named after famous scientists.

Venkateswaran is part of a team which is asking that eternal question “are we alone in the universe?” Towards that, his responsibilities include monitoring the bug levels on the ISS and he also has to ensure that all spacecraft that fly to other planets are free of terrestrial bugs.

One of his big jobs was to ensure that NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover—the massive car-sized almost 1000 kg buggy—was totally sterile when it left earth. By international law, this extreme hygiene is required else other planets could get contaminated by bugs that reach the Martian or other planets hidden on human satellites.

Today the ISS is the size of a football field and its construction started with a launch in 1998 and as of now it is the largest human-made object orbiting the earth. Weighing about 419 tonnes, it can house a maximum of six astronauts and has costs roughly $150 billion.

Till date, 227 astronauts have flown to the space station. This makes the space station actually a very dirty place and maintaining hygiene is critical so that humans can live on it with ease. On the space station all the air and water is recycled, being a completely closed environment there is a rapid build- up of moulds and bacteria on the station. These not only have to be cleaned but monitored to ensure that they do not corrode the walls of the space station and do not turn hazardous to the astronauts.

Venkateswaran’s main job is to monitor the environment of the space station so that harmful bugs do not proliferate. He heads the ‘Microbial Observatory’ on the ISS projects to measure microorganisms associated with compartments owned by the US.

According to NASA, he also directs several research and development tasks for the JPL—Mars Program Office, which enables the cleaning, sterilisation, and validation of spacecraft components. He directs several NASA competitive awards on the microbial monitoring of spacecraft and associated environments for the Exploration System Mission Directorate, closed habitats like ISS or its earth analogues for the Human Exploration and Operation Mission Directorate. But is the new bug of some use.

“These spore formers tend to withstand high radiation and also produce some useful compounds protein wise which will be helpful for biotechnology applications,” Venkateswaran said. His team has not characterised the bacteria fully but he hints that the new bug could be a key source for chemicals that can help protect against radiation damage.

Missing the coastal growth opportunity

Coastal Regulation Zone norms are an example of a top-down, heavy-handed, legislative diktat from Delhi that ignores local dynamics

India has a significantly large coastline measuring close to 7,517km, covering large swathes of territory across nine states and four union territories. The total population of all the coastal districts in India is around 171 million, which makes up 14.2% of India’s population. Contrasting this with China, where the coastal population stood at 590 million in 2010, roughly half the population of the country, India’s coastal regions have witnessed tepid growth in terms of size and economy.

Burdensome laws, accompanied by the onerous rules and regulations they impose, restrict economic activity in the entire country. The coastal regions suffer from the additional liability of having to comply with far-fetched coast protection norms originating under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA). Passed under the powers conferred on the Central government by Section 3 of the EPA, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules were first notified in 1991 and were further amended in 2011.

As per the norms created by the Central government, a CRZ is the land area from the high-tide line to 500m inland. There is a long list of proscribed activities within this zone, such as the setting up of new industries, expansion of existing industries, establishment of fish processing units, warehouses, land reclamation, etc. Although the norms carve out exceptions within these prohibited activities for certain undertakings, such as building ports or reconstructing dwelling units for local communities, it interestingly carves out a singular exception for the development of a greenfield airport proposed at Navi Mumbai. The regulation is replete with such curious exceptions to some specific cases, which raise questions pertaining to the criteria that was followed to determine permissible and non-permissible activities.

The peculiarity of the CRZ directives is further evidenced from the universal allowance granted to areas adjoining bays, estuaries, backwaters, lagoons and other tidal-influenced water bodies. For areas falling under this category, the regulated zone extends only 100m inland from the high-tide line. As a result, many developers, entrepreneurs and builders have been asking the coastal zone management authorities to declare the water around the coastal land area within their project plans as bays or tidal-influenced water bodies. Some have approached several high courts for such declaration to avail the benefits of a smaller regulated zone.

Going even further with the regulatory tangle created by these CRZ guidelines, the norms demarcate the zones into different numbered categories—CRZ I, CRZ II, CRZ III and CRZ IV. This demarcation, it seems, is based primarily on the level of previous construction or developmental activity that’s been conducted in a region now within the regulated zone of either 500m or 100m. Another set of permissible and impermissible activities are also listed under these defined demarcated zones. Supplementary arbitrary exceptions have also been carved out for the city of Mumbai, and the states of Kerala and Goa, based on the above- mentioned demarcated zones, unusually leaving out other coastal states and districts.

The multiplicity of definitions, exceptions, permissible and impermissible activities not only lead to high regulatory and legal expenditure in obtaining project clearances, there is all-round confusion in implementation as well. The execution of the CRZ rules falls within the domain of several coastal zone management authorities created by the state governments for this purpose. The authorities have to prepare coastal zone management plans based on the complicated regulation which also lists the guidelines that the authorities must follow in preparation of the plans. Most authorities are themselves unaware of the implementation scheme and a significant number of cases concerning clearances and bay designation are sent to the Central government for clarification. This not only creates uncertainty, it also increases the time taken for permissions, burdening the firms with high compliance outlays.

The CRZ norms are another example of a top-down, heavy-handed, legislative diktat from Delhi that ignores local dynamics and the diverse needs and realities of states. Regulations like CRZ create significant entry barriers for firms unable to negotiate the myriad, complex guidelines or lobby for rent-seeking special concessions from the government. Restrictive market entry adversely affects economic development and consumer welfare, increases prices owing to high costs and constrains technological improvement.

Even though the CRZ rules stand amended as on 6 January 2011, the new rules have done little to ease the regulatory burden imposed on a wide array of economic and development activities that may be pursued in coastal regions. The Central government must assert its political will and rescind these regulations, leaving the task of administering coastal zones to the already created state coastal zone management authorities. State governments in coastal regions will be better suited to devise laws concerning coast development, given their substantial political interest in the matter and superior knowledge of state goals as well as needs. The Central government must restrict its role to advising state governments on the prospective benefits and costs of any regulation that the states propose.

Planting trees no substitute to cutting carbon dioxide emissions: study

A new study warns that growing trees cannot replace cutting emissions from fossil fuel burning

Growing trees and then storing the carbon dioxide (CO2) they have taken up from the atmosphere cannot replace cutting emissions from fossil fuel burning, a new study warns.

“Reducing fossil fuel use is a precondition for stabilising the climate, but we also need to make use of a range of options from reforestation on degraded land to low- till agriculture and from efficient irrigation systems to limiting food waste,” said Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter in the UK.

“If we continue burning coal and oil the way we do today and regret our inaction later, the amounts of greenhouse gas we would need to take out of the atmosphere in order to stabilise the climate would be too huge to manage,” said Lena Boysen from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany.

Plants suck CO2 out of the atmosphere to build their woody roots, stems and leaves. This is low-tech terrestrial carbon dioxide removal that could be combined with high-tech carbon storage mechanisms, for example underground, the researchers said.

They calculated that a hypothetically required plantation would in fact replace natural ecosystems around the world almost completely. If CO2 emissions reductions are moderately reduced in line with current national pledges under the Paris Climate Agreement, biomass plantations implemented by mid-century to extract remaining excess CO2 from the air still would have to be enormous, the researchers further added.

In this scenario, they would replace natural ecosystems on fertile land the size of more than one third of all forests we have today on our planet, they said. Alternatively, more than a quarter of land used for agriculture at present would have to be converted into biomass plantations — putting global food security at risk.

Only ambitious emissions reductions and advancements in land management techniques between 2005-2100 could possibly avoid fierce competition for land. However, even in this scenario of aggressive climate stabilisation policy, only high inputs of water, fertilisers and a globally applied high-tech carbon-storage-machinery that captures more than 75% of extracted CO2 could likely limit warming to around 2 degree Celsius by 2100.

To this end, technologies minimising carbon emissions from cultivation, harvest, transport and conversion of biomass and, especially, long-term Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) would need to improve worldwide, researchers said.

“What happens in the worst case, a widespread disruption and failure of mitigation policies? Would plants allow us to still stabilise climate in emergency mode? The answer is: no. There is no alternative for successful mitigation,” Wolfgang Lucht from PIK said.

“In such a scenario, plants can potentially play a limited, but important role, if managed well,” Lucht further added.

Researchers investigated the feasibility of biomass plantations and CO2 removal from a biosphere point of view. So far, biomass plantations as a means for CO2 removal have often been considered as a comparatively safe, affordable and effective approach.

“Our work shows that carbon removal via the biosphere cannot be used as a late-regret option to tackle climate change. Instead we have to act now using all possible measures instead of waiting for first-best solutions,” Lenton from the University of Exeter in the UK, added.

Designing cybersecurity for the financial sector

There is no dearth of regulatory intervention at present to secure India’s financial ecosystem, and more of the same need not necessarily lead to better outcomes

The most recent ransomware attacks, currently estimated to have locked up more than 100,000 computers across 100 countries, yet again highlights the very real peril of cyber-threats in the virtual world. The Mirai botnet’s distributed denial of service attacks last year, soon followed by BrickerBot’s permanent incapacitation of several devices forming part of the Internet of Things, exposed the vulnerabilities of a world where everything from room heaters to wearable fitness trackers is connected. Attacks of this kind have proved themselves capable of even imperilling national security, economic stability and public health.

The critical information infrastructure rules framed in 2013 under the Information Technology Act, 2000, identified banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) as one among five critical sectors. Yet, the past years have seen an increasing number of large-scale cyber-attacks in this sector. About 3.2 million debit cards were compromised last year through a hack on Hitachi’s ATM switch server. Phishers assumed the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) identity to hoodwink a gullible staffer in the Union Bank of India and inject malware into the bank’s servers. The $171 million, transferred through unlawful access to the bank’s SWIFT codes for cross-border transactions, was fortunately rolled back due to early detection. At a lesser level of sophistication, software vulnerabilities in the Bank of Maharashtra’s Unified Payment Interface app were recently exploited to complete digital transactions even when there was insufficient balance in the sender’s account.

These attacks, coupled with the exponential growth of fintech platforms and solutions partly fuelled by the demonetisation exercise, underscore the need for strong cybersecurity initiatives. In this regard, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget speech this year, which announced the formation of a sectoral Computer Emergency Response Team for Finance (Cert-Fin), merits closer scrutiny. The design and approach of this newly proposed body is central to its success. There is no dearth of regulatory intervention at present to secure India’s financial ecosystem, and more of the same need not necessarily lead to positive outcomes.

To quickly take stock, RBI circulars have identified the key features of an optimal cybersecurity framework for banks, including network management, user access, customer authentication, and incident response and management. Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) have issued guidelines for strengthening the cybersecurity framework in capital markets and insurance, respectively. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Icert) continues performing its statutory mandate—information sharing and management, cybersecurity alerts, emergency responses, etc.—on a non-sectoral basis. Even assuming Cert-Fin entirely replaces Icert as the cyber-warrior for the BFSI sector, can it add real value over and beyond what sectoral regulators such as RBI, Sebi and Irdai are already addressing? Or would it just be an additional layer of compliance and friction for innovators in the fast-changing fintech landscape?

We believe there are gaps in the cybersecurity framework that an appropriately designed Cert-Fin can still address better than the existing framework. Broadly these are in the areas of research, talent-building and industry-academia coordination; digital literacy; and better information flows between various actors in the security ecosystem.

Without undermining Icert’s vigilance thus far in issuing timely advisories, it is clear that the body has been unable to take leadership in knowledge creation. The white papers and other research material it has managed to put out are mostly outdated and fail to keep pace with current security trends.

A body built on the foundational principle of shared responsibility with a larger body of stakeholders, including banks, fintech start-ups, cybersecurity companies, and academic institutions, is better placed to effectively fund advanced research and even incubate cybersecurity solutions on a co-creation basis. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council serves as a good precedent.

Cert-Fin should also have a valued say in the revamping of engineering course curriculum to mitigate the existing skills and supply gap for cybersecurity professionals. The financial sector, with its growth potential highly dependent on the presence of security and trust, is a prime candidate for both skilling and hiring new talent.

Another key intervention, without which any security measure at the service provider end remains likely to fall short, is digital literacy and cybersecurity awareness for customers. Apart from taking the lead, Cert-Fin should also be vested with powers to mandate and evaluate on-the-ground initiatives by private players towards educating end users on safe and responsible access practices. Many a hack has been caused by poor password security.

Finally, Cert-Fin must serve the function of a data escrow, taking important decisions on real-time data sharing and ideally veering towards more information flows than less. A common trend today is the denial of responsibility by all actors in the security chain as soon as news of a hack breaks out. Only a well-designed Cert-Fin can prevent this attitude from regressing into a collective action problem. Suitable exceptions to the law of evidence must also be fashioned to encourage maximum information disclosure to the Cert-Fin.

If these normative goals are sought to be achieved by building them into the very design of Cert-Fin, it could hopefully serve as a healthy template for other jurisdictions too, in addition to facilitating the transition to a digital India for financial transactions.

Maoist war: For the right cause in a wrong manner

Fifty years into the violent Maoist uprising of Naxalbari, which milestones has the red revolution crossed?

One morning, while going to school in Allahabad, I read a slogan in Bengali reading: Aamar badi, tomar badi, Naxalbari Naxalbari. It means, “my home, your home, Naxalbari.” Many years later, while passing through Almora, I again noticed slogans propagating the message of rebellion. What was common both times was the symbol of hammer and sickle next to the slogans. A question came to my mind: Down the generations, which milestones has the Maoist revolution crossed?

It is the right time to discuss this subject because 25 May will commemorate 50 years of the violent Maoist uprising of Naxalbari.

Let me inform the younger generations that during a meeting in West Bengal’s Naxalbari area in March 1967, a decision was taken to embark on an armed rebellion in order to bring in a regime that would uphold the rights of peasants and workers. The brain behind this rebellion was Charu Mazumdar. On 23 May, during a meeting called with this objective, the police and the revolutionaries clashed. A policeman was killed in the violence. This was just the beginning of the turmoil.

Two days later, on 25 May, the police laid siege to a mammoth farmers’ gathering in which nine women and children lost their lives. Jyoti Basu, who was the state’s home minister those days, asked the police to strictly carry out the orders.

Earlier this month, after the killing of 26 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel on 24 April, some people thought the Maoist movement was still going strong. But the truth is that the movement, which began in the name of fighting exploitation, has lost its way. On 17 March 2017, Union home minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that the number of districts affected by Maoist violence had reduced from 106 to 68. Before that, its influence was spread over 20,000 sq km. It has now shrunk to one-fourth of this. It has been an incremental decline over the years. In 2009, the then home minister told Parliament that around 223 districts of the country were affected by Maoist violence. In 2011, this number stood at 203. Of these, 84 districts were witnessing violence and 119 districts were influenced by Maoist ideology. Three years later, 80% of Maoist-related violence was taking place in only 26 districts. Still, seven states of the nation were affected. At present, just six districts are said to be extremely affected by Maoist depredations.

Some experts give the credit for this to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Also, some state governments assisted by the Central government paid attention to development, along with launching anti-terror operations.

Maoists appear to oppose all kinds of development work. Apart from inflicting damage on all projects carried out by the government machinery, they consider roads to be their greatest enemy. The CRPF personnel attacked in Sukma were supervising road construction.

The way the imperial Roman armies did it, Maoists, too abduct innocent children. The Romans used to train children to be gladiators even as Maoists glorify them by anointing them “soldiers of the people’s revolution”. Those innocent children, who are oblivious to the theories of “people’s awakening” and “people’s war”, are made to indulge in violence and carry out spying work. Beating up people, in a way, is part of the training regime of Naxalites. The boy who first participates in a massacre is applauded. The advocates of a violent struggle provoke these children to become bloodthirsty: If you don’t have the instinct to kill enemies of the class, then you are not fit for the movement, they are told.

No wonder the number of comrades disenchanted by this movement is rising. If 394 Maoist extremists surrendered in 2011, the number rose to 1,442 in 2016. Similarly, 1,840 people associated with Maoist organizations were arrested last year.

A surrendered Maoist militant told the police that he wanted to get married, have children and lead a normal life. He said his dreams had been shattered and he was disillusioned by the leadership. Just this month two area commanders have given up arms. This is the other face of the Maoist slogan: Jal, jangal, zameen, izzat aur adhikaar (Water, forests, land, respect and rights).

That is the logic which gives peaceniks the assurance that despite Sukma-like attacks, violence is the last stop in a one-way street. Why don’t the Maoist guerrillas understand that they are waging a war for the right cause in a wrong manner?

Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ for the 21st century

‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ is a dysfunctional construct, with different power centres vying to secure their interests even at the risk of trampling over common values

From Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, India’s leaders have often evoked the phrase vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family), taken from the Maha Upanishad, to elucidate the country’s global outlook. While the term has become a mantra of India’s diplomatic lexicon, it has remained ambiguous and rarely elaborated.

Indeed, despite their differing political and religious hues, almost every leader has used the phrase to convey varying concepts and address different issues at different times. For instance, in 1989, Rajiv Gandhi cited vasudhaiva kutumbakam to challenge the concept of first, second and third worlds, revive the idea of “One World”, and put forward the vague notion of an “Earth Citizen”. In 2002, Atal Bihari Vajpayee employed the phrase at a meeting on the national human rights institutions of the Asia Pacific Forum to assert that “India’s understanding and advocacy of human rights are as universal as they are ancient”. In 2007 ,Manmohan Singh deployed the term to defend India’s approach to climate change and global warming while accepting its global responsibility at the Heiligendamm G8 summit. Finally, in his maiden speech at the United Nations in 2014, Narendra Modi used the locution to reassert India’s fading case for reform of the Security Council and lament on the inability of the world body to effectively deal with cross-border terrorism.

Clearly, vasudhaiva kutumbakam has become a catch-all notion for India’s diplomatic orthodoxy to be deployed in numerous scenarios. Although it might be open to myriad interpretations, it has been used to broadly convey India’s ideal and liberal concept of global norms, themes of globalization, or global commons. In doing so, it suggests that this is an ideal world worth achieving and it can be created through negotiations alone.

In reality, however, the overly benign and idealist presentation of the concept, which appears to promote values more than interests, has done very little to actually advance India’s cause in any of the issues where it has been quoted. And it is unlikely to do so unless the concept is deconstructed and better understood.

Indeed, the concept needs to be looked at threadbare and regarded through a hard-nosed realist prism. Consider the following:

First, the “family” is regarded as an ideal and highly functional unit with equal rights among all individuals. Nothing could be further from reality; most families tend to be dysfunctional. One need look no further than the two most familiar Indian family sagas—the Ramayan and the Mahabharat—to comprehend just how problematic they can be.

In the former, the idealist interpretation notwithstanding, the chief protagonist was exiled after losing his throne to palace intrigue, banishes his wife after regaining the throne, and faces a challenge from his sons. In the latter epic, again the popular notion notwithstanding, a family is torn apart over a property dispute, which leads to a bitter and brutal fratricidal war that decimates the clan. Moreover, in both instances, interests invariably overshadow values which are compromised to achieve realpolitik goals.

Second, assuming for a moment that the one world family might be less dysfunctional than a normal family, there is still the question of who is the head of the family and how power is shared? More importantly, how will disputes be resolved and decisions enforced? Given the patriarchal nature of most Indian families, who does India consider as the leader of the one world family? Alternatively given the emerging multipolar world how will power be shared among the various leaders and centres? Or is the expectation that vasudhaiva kutumbakam can thrive even if it is headless?

Clearly, if India wants to regard the world as one family, then it needs to examine the concept through a realist perspective as well. According to this viewpoint, vasudhaiva kutumbakam is not a peaceful construct but a dysfunctional one with different power centres vying to secure their interests even at the risk of trampling over common values.

Dealing with such a world would require not only the ability to develop common norms to address contentious issues ranging from climate change to cross-border terrorism but also the political, economic, and military prowess to enforce these agreed upon norms. India is developing reasonable skills in norm setting but is still woefully inadequate in contributing to building, supporting and enforcing them.

It could be argued that until Donald Trump’s presidency the US had accepted this realist interpretation of vasudhaiva kutumbakam and had been adhering to it by both setting norms and implementing them. However, it now appears to be relinquishing its role as the upholder of these global norms.

In contrast, China, which has done very little to create global norms until now, is building institutions and infrastructure that will serve its interests the best without binding it down to common norms. In this context, the recent Belt and Road Forum will make the “one world” concept more beholden to a China-first policy.

The concept of vasudhaiva kutumbakam has stood India in good stead. However, New Delhi needs to reinterpret it for the 21st century. That will be the easy part. Developing the political, economic and military wherewithal to implement and enforce the concept will be the real challenge.

Tejas Express to make its debut today on Mumbai-Goa route

Tejas Express, which can run up to the speed of 200km per hour, will make its first run today between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Karmali, North Goa

India’s state-of-the-art high-speed train Tejas Express, which can run up to the speed of 200km per hour, will make its first run on Monday between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, and Karmali, North Goa. The train is going to cover a distance of 579km in 8.5 hours with halts at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Ratnagiri and Kudal.

The 15-coach train will have two classes—chair car and executive chair car—and is equipped with facilities like secured gangways, automatic doors, LCD screens, Wi-Fi, tea-coffee vending machines, magazines, bio-toilets, hand dryers etc. The train has been specially designed by the India Railways to enhance the experience of the passengers and will be introduced on the Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Lucknow routes too.

According to railway ministry officials, the high-speed train will be available at 10-20% higher fare as compared to Shatabdi. The executive class fare in Tejas has been fixed at Rs2,740 with food and Rs2,585 without food, while for chair car the fare is Rs1,310 with catering and Rs1,185 without catering. The Shatabdi fares are Rs2,390 and Rs1,185 for executive class and chair car, respectively, including food on the same route.

The national carrier has also decided to introduce different price mechanism for the train as per the season during it inauguration. The train fares for monsoon and non-monsoon seasons will be different. The frequency of train will be five days a week during the non-monsoon season and three days a week during the monsoon season.

The passengers travelling through Tejas will have a choice to opt for on-board catering services at the time of booking and it won’t be compulsory like in Shatabdi. In case, passengers decide to opt for catering service after boarding the train an extra Rs50 will be charged for the services.

A senior railway ministry official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The fares for Tejas are substantially high and we are not sure if things are going to work out at such high prices. However, the railway minister is confident of success as he believes that passengers are ready to pay for facilities.”