🚆 Roads, railways, ports. One plan.

Good morning.

Remember Tuesday’s RBI story? The rate hike happened yesterday, with the repo rate moving to 5.5%, its first increase since February 2023. More on that below.

But first, India is trying to fix a very different coordination problem: getting roads, railways, ports and airports to plan together.

Let’s get into it.

Seems like it can.

Shubham Kumar, a 19-year-old engineering student from Bihar, has reached level 22,222 in Candy Crush, earning himself a place in the International Book of Records.

Next time someone tells you to put the phone down, show them this.

Scroll to the end for the answer

The Cabinet has approved a new Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority, bringing roads, railways, aviation, ports, waterways and urban mobility under one planning framework.

The authority will review major transport projects worth more than ₹500 crore and use data from FASTag, GST e-way bills, Vahan, GPS and traffic systems to guide planning.

Why is this needed?
India’s transport systems have often been planned by different ministries, each focused on its own network.

That can mean a new highway, railway line or port is built without enough thought about how well it connects to everything around it.

What changes now?
The idea is to look at a journey as one whole system.

A shipment moving from factory to truck to railway to port, or a passenger switching between metro, bus and airport, should ideally be planned with those connections in mind. Read more →

Mahalaya falls on Saturday, October 10. Many Bengali families wake up before dawn that day to start the countdown. The main puja days run from about October 16 to 21.

Then the city changes. Open magazine counted around 5,000 pujas in Kolkata in 2021, and every neighbourhood club builds its own pandal and picks a new theme each year.

North Kolkata keeps the old family pujas. South and Central Kolkata are known for big themes.

People walk from pandal to pandal late into the night, and the Metro usually runs past midnight to help them.

In December 2021, UNESCO added Durga Puja in Kolkata to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It was the 14th entry from India.

The festival is big business too. Bengal's puja economy grew from about ₹42,000 crore in 2024 to an estimated ₹46,000 to ₹50,000 crore in 2025.

On the last morning, women take part in Sindoor Khela, and the idols go to the river. Then the city waits one full year to do it all again.

🏫 Education: CBSE schools are running a 30-minute module for all staff on supporting children with special needs.

🤖 Tech: India has called for global cooperation on AI safeguards, 6G and cyber fraud ahead of the India Mobile Congress.

🏦 RBI: The RBI raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5%, its first hike in nearly four years.

🪶 Wildlife: Captive-bred Great Indian Bustards released into the wild are taking their first steps under close monitoring.

🎬 Northeast: Assamese filmmaker Bidyut Kotoky’s Moi Eti Nixhasor has been selected for the Trujillo International Independent Film Festival in Peru, with another screening lined up in California. 

🏅 Sports: Paralympic champions Pramod Bhagat and Bhavina Patel will carry India's flag at the Asian Para Games opening on October 18.

🧵 Craft: Women in Mijwan, Uttar Pradesh, have helped turn traditional chikankari embroidery into couture seen on global runways, including work for Manish Malhotra.