In April 2021, during the second wave of Covid-19, Indian Railways began to carry liquid medical oxygen. Road tankers were loaded onto flat wagons and run across the country as Oxygen Express trains. The first train with filled tankers reached Nashik in Maharashtra on April 24.
By June 8, 392 Oxygen Expresses had completed their journeys, the Press Information Bureau reported. They had carried 1,603 tankers and delivered “nearly 27600 MT of LMO.”
Sevottam means service excellence. It is the name of a framework of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances for public service delivery. Its three modules are the Citizen’s Charter, grievance redress and capability building.
Its requirements are set out in a standard of the Bureau of Indian Standards, IS 15700:2005, on service quality by public service organizations. A certificate is valid for three years. By March 2013, according to a Lok Sabha document, 72 central ministries and departments had “uploaded their sevottam compliant Citizen Charters on their websites.”
On February 1, 2025, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested ten people, among them seven members of an inspection team of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. NAAC grades India’s colleges and universities. The CBI alleged that the team was paid to give an A++ grade to the Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation in Andhra Pradesh. Searches found “Rs 37 lakh in cash.”
NAAC barred the university from accreditation for five years and banned the seven members permanently. It also announced a move toward a pass or fail system.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, the government’s flagship skills scheme, 1.10 crore people were certified from 2015 to 2022. In December 2025 the Comptroller and Auditor General reported on the scheme. Of 56 lakh candidates certified in short-term training and special projects, about 41 percent were placed in jobs.
The audit found “repeated photographic evidence across states.” The same photo served as proof for a batch in Gaya, Bihar, and for another in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh. In two phases of the scheme, the bank account fields were blank or null for 94.53 percent of participants.
On September 15, 2026, the Karnataka government issued an order allowing engineers to use the prefix “Er.” before their names. It came with a decision to make Engineers’ Day, September 15, an official state event from 2027. The day marks the birthday of the engineer M. Visvesvaraya.
The prefix followed a similar one for teachers, “Tr.”
In July 2024 reports said that Karnataka was considering an amendment to its Shops and Commercial Establishments Act. Working hours in IT companies were to rise to 14 a day, including overtime. The labour minister, Santosh Lad, said: “Obviously, since the pressure is from the industry, the bill has come to us.”
The IT employees’ union KITU protested in Bengaluru. In 2025 a revised draft proposed 10-hour days and more overtime. The union called it an “inhuman attempt to impose modern-day slavery.” In July 2025 Deccan Chronicle reported that the government had dropped the proposal.
In 2018 Supriya Sule, a member of the Lok Sabha, introduced the Right to Disconnect Bill. It was to give every employee the right “to disconnect from work related telephone calls and emails beyond work hours.” She introduced it again in 2019 and in December 2025.
The 2025 version would let employees ignore work messages after hours and would require overtime pay when they respond. It is a private member’s bill, and it has not been passed.
“10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes,” the quick-commerce app Blinkit promised. Zepto and Swiggy Instamart made similar promises. Gig-worker unions called a nationwide strike on New Year’s Eve 2025. One of their demands was an end to 10-minute delivery.
The labour minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, met the companies. On January 13, 2026, Blinkit changed its line to “30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep.” Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Flipkart Minutes also dropped the 10-minute branding, PTI reported.
Shiva jnane jiva seva. Serve living beings, knowing them to be Shiva. The teaching comes from Sri Ramakrishna, and his disciple Swami Vivekananda built a mission on it.
On May 1, 1897, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission at the house of Balaram Basu in north Kolkata. Its motto is Atmano mokshartham jagad hitaya cha: for one’s own liberation and for the welfare of the world.
Dak seva, jan seva. Postal service is public service. A page of the Prime Minister’s website says that India Post “continues to uphold its trusted public-service role in the spirit of ‘Dak Seva, Jan Seva.'” According to a departmental circular of July 2024, as reproduced by a postal study site, the line was added to the logo of the Department of Posts.