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Indian Railway officials recently announced a small hike in fares for non-suburban travel. Aadhaar verification for Tatkal bookings is also going to be made mandatory soon.

If you’re planning to travel by Indian Railways soon, there are some key changes you need to be aware of. Officials recently announced plans to hike specific fares. Moreover, passengers need to know that Aadhaar-based OTP verification is set to become mandatory for Tatkal ticket bookings from July 1, 2025. Either or both of these developments may affect your travel plans for the future. But what exactly are the key takeaways you need to be informed about? Find out below.

More About Indian Railways Fare Hikes

As per Indian Railway officials, a 1 paisa/km hike in fares of non-AC class tickets in Mail/Express trains and a 2 paisa/km increase in fares of AC classes will reportedly come into effect from July 1, 2025. “As compared to the previous fare revisions in 2020 and 2013, the current increase will be the lowest,” one official said, as quoted by PTI.

If you wish to travel by suburban trains or with monthly season tickets, you need to worry. The increase in fare will not apply to these options. Additionally, ordinary second-class fare will not be increased for up to 500 km and for distances beyond that, ticket prices might increase by half a paisa/km.

Also Read: Travelling To Rishikesh From Bengaluru Just Got Easier, Thanks To Launch Of Special Train

Is Aadhaar Verification Compulsory For Train Ticket Booking?

Starting from July 1, 2025, only Aadhaar-authenticated users will be able to book Tatkal tickets through IRCTC’s official website and mobile app. Aadhaar-based OTP authentication will become mandatory for online Tatkal bookings from July 15 onwards. Tatkal tickets booked at computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and through authorised agents will also require OTP authentication. The aim of these changes is “to ensure fair and transparent access and remove middlemen from the booking process,” reported ANI.

Authorised ticketing agents of Indian Railways will not be allowed to book opening-day Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the booking window (10:00 am to 10:30 am for AC classes, and from 11:00 am to 11:30 am for non-AC classes). The objective of this move is to help prevent bulk bookings.

Also Read: Indian Railways Launches SwaRail App: 10 Key Facts To Know

How To Add Aadhaar Card Details For Train Booking

If your Aadhaar Card is already linked to your IRCTC Account, here’s how you can complete the authentication process:

1. Log in to your IRCTC account through the official website or app.

2. In the ‘My Account’ section, click on ‘Authenticate User’.

3. Provide your Aadhaar number, PAN number or Virtual ID.

4. Click on ‘Verify Details’.

5. Enter the OTP sent to the mobile number connected to your Aadhaar card. Click on the consent box and then hit ‘Submit’ to complete the process.

If your Aadhaar card is not yet linked to your IRCTC Account, here’s what you need to do:

1. Open the IRCTC website and log in with your credentials.

2. Go to the Profile tab and select ‘Link Aadhaar’.

3. Enter your full name and input your Aadhaar number. Ensure that your name is precisely as it is printed on your Aadhaar Card.

4. Click on the ‘Send OTP’ button.

5. You should get an OTP on your registered mobile number. Input the OTP and then click to verify it.

6. Once verified, the necessary personal details will be retrieved from Aadhaar. Hit ‘Update’ to finish the process. You should receive a confirmation message once Aadhaar linking and KYC verification are successfully completed.

In related news, the Indian Railways recently also announced that it is working to issue passenger reservation charts 24 hours before the departure time of a train. Click here to find out more about it.

The decision affects regions close to the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC), including Amritsar, Bathinda, Firozpur, and Jammu.

In a security move prompted by escalating tensions with Pakistan, Indian Railways has decided to halt night-time train operations in the border areas of Jammu and Punjab.

The decision affects regions close to the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC), including Amritsar, Bathinda, Firozpur, and Jammu.

According to official sources, trains that were earlier scheduled to pass through these areas at night will now be rescheduled to operate during daylight hours.

Additionally, certain short-distance trains operating in these sensitive zones will be cancelled until further notice.

This precautionary measure comes in the wake of increased military activity along the border.

The government has said that the Pakistan military has been mobilising troops into forward positions, raising concerns of further escalation. In response, Indian armed forces have heightened their operational readiness.

More than 15 trains are expected to be affected by the rescheduling, Railways officials said.

However, to mitigate passenger inconvenience, Indian Railways will operate special trains during the day to maintain connectivity in these regions. Daytime train services on existing schedules will continue without disruption.

The decision to halt night operations follows reports of blackout orders in border areas to prevent potential targeting of civilian infrastructure during the night. Intelligence inputs suggest that the risk of Pakistani drone activity and artillery shelling remains high.

At a Press briefing on India’s military preparedness under ‘Operation Sindoor’, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi of the Indian Army, said, “The Pakistan military has been observed moving its troops into forward areas, indicating an offensive intent to further escalate the situation. Indian armed forces remain in a high state of operational readiness. All hostile actions have been effectively countered and responded to appropriately.”

Wing Commander Singh also detailed recent hostilities along the LoC. She said, “Pakistan has attempted multiple airspace intrusions using drones and has conducted heavy shelling targeting civilian areas using high-calibre RT guns. This has resulted in casualties and damage to infrastructure. Intense exchanges of artillery and small arms fire have been ongoing in sectors including Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, and Akhnoor.”

Earlier scholars believed Queen Hatshepsut’s stepson Thutmose III unleashed a posthumous campaign of defilement against her out of revenge and hatred.

She was one of ancient Egypt’s most successful rulers, a rare female pharaoh who preceded Cleopatra by 1,500 years, but Queen Hatshepsut’s legacy was systematically erased by her stepson successor after her death.

The question of why her impressive reign was so methodically scrubbed has attracted significant debate, but in new research published Monday, University of Toronto scholar Jun Wong argues far too much emphasis has been placed on her gender. 

“It’s quite a romantic question: why was this pharaoh attacked after her death?” Wong told AFP, explaining his interest in a monarch who steered ancient Egypt through a period of extraordinary prosperity.

Earlier scholars believed Queen Hatshepsut’s stepson Thutmose III unleashed a posthumous campaign of defilement against her out of revenge and hatred, including because he wanted to purge any notion that a woman could successfully rule. 

“The way in which (Hatshepsut’s) reign has been understood has always been coloured by her gender,” Wong said, referencing beliefs that Thutmose III may have viewed her as “a kind of an evil stepmother.”

His research, which builds on other recent scholarship and is being published in the journal Antiquity, argues Thutmose III’s motivations were far more nuanced, casting further doubt on the theory of backlash against a woman in charge. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt roughly 3,500 years ago, taking over following the death of her husband Thutmose II. 

She first served as regent to her stepson, the king-in-waiting, but successfully consolidated power in her own right, establishing herself as a female pharaoh. 

Experts say she expanded trade routes and commissioned extraordinary structures, including an unparallelled mortuary in the Valley of the Kings on the Nile’s west bank. 

Wong reassessed a range of material from damaged statues uncovered during excavations from 1922 to 1928.

He said there is no doubt Thutmose III worked to eliminate evidence of Hatshepsut’s achievements, but his efforts were “perhaps driven by ritual necessity rather than outright antipathy,” Wong said. 

Thutmose III may have been trying to neutralize the power of his predecessor in a practical and common way, not out of malice.

He also found that some of the statues depicting Hatshepsut were likely damaged because later generations wanted to reuse them as building materials.

“For a long time, it has been assumed that Hatshepsut’s statuary sustained a vindictive attack,” Wong said, arguing that a fresh look at the archives suggests “this is not the case.”

Arjun Kapoor celebrated his 40th birthday on Thursday (June 26). The actor marked the milestone with a fresh tattoo on his hand. Arjun shared a video of the tattooing process on Instagram. He got a ‘Smile’ tattoo on his hand. 

The clip begins with Arjun entering the tattoo parlour and choosing the design of his smile tattoo. He sits on the chair and gets the smile word tattooed on his hand. Revealing the reason behind getting this specific design, Arjun says, “Because I don’t smile enough, apparently I am very..very khadoos. I am grumpy all the time. So, from being grumpy to being more smiley.”

In the caption, he wrote, “S M : ) E …… cos it’s my birthday! #Arjun2PointO.” 

Arjun Kapoor’s sister Anshula dropped a warm birthday post for the actor on Instagram.

Anshula wrote, “Happy birthday to the one person who’s been mine since before I even knew what “mine” meant @arjunkapoor – my constant, my chaos, my calm, my compass.”

She added, “You carry everyone around you, and somehow still manage to stay standing tall & with your heart first. Your courage is loud, your love is quiet, and your loyalty is unshakable. I hope this year brings you softness in all the places life has been hard, peace in all the spaces that ache, and joy that feels like home.” 

“Here’s to a year of breaking new ground, holding onto what matters, and maybe finally remembering to take more photos together that you approve. Love you bhai,” she concluded.

On the work front, Arjun Kapoor was last seen in Mere Husband Ki Biwi, alongside Bhumi Pednekar and Rakul Preet Singh. The actor will next be a part of No Entry 2. The film also features Varun Dhawan and Diljit Dosanjh in lead roles.

Sonakshi Sinha spilled the beans on her first meeting with Zaheer Iqbal and how Salman Khan had a role to play in it,

New Delhi:

Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal got married in 2024 after dating for 7 long years. But do you know that it was Sonakshi’s Dabangg co-star Salman Khan who indirectly played cupid to bring them together?

Sonakshi Sinha spilled the beans on her first meeting with Zaheer Iqbal. The actress, in a conversation with Pinkvilla, opened up about how Salman Khan played a “sutradhar (cupid)”, weaving the first threads for their happily ever after.

Recalling Salman Khan’s reaction to her marriage, Sonakshi Sinha said, “He was obviously very happy. He is very fond of Zaheer and me. It was obviously because of him that we met, so all due credit to where it belongs.”

When the host asked the Rowdy Rathore actress whether Salman Khan was the matchmaker between Zaheer and her, Sonakshi revealed, “Not really a matchmaker. We met at a party at his house, so kind of like a sutradhar.”

Jaipur:

It was a crypto currency trail that led intelligence agencies to upper division clerk Vikas Yadav in Nau Sena Bhavan, the naval wing of the Defence Ministry.

Mr Yadav was addicted to online gaming, sources said. A Pakistani woman identified as ‘Priya Sharma’ – clearly a fake name – befriended him on Facebook three years ago after seeing his addiction, and persuaded him into spying for Pakistan. Thereafter, she became her handler.

After that, he switched to communicating with her on WhatsApp and Telegram.

So, how exactly did intelligence operatives find out Mr Yadav, the upper division clerk in the Nau Sena Bhavan, was a spy?

The case goes back to another one linked to a spy, Ravi Prakash Meena, a Rajasthan resident who was arrested in 2022. Mr Meena was a Class 4 employee in the Defence Ministry’s Sena Bhawan. Investigators found that Mr Meena received money through a cryptocurrency channel in return for providing sensitive information like maps to his Pakistani handler.
When intelligence agencies put Mr Meena’s cryptocurrency channel under surveillance, they were led to two more people. One of them was Mr Yadav, the clerk in the Nau Sena Bhawan. They found that Mr Yadav had been getting money from the same cryptocurrency channel as Mr Meena.

Thereafter, intelligence operatives put Mr Yadav under surveillance for over two years before finally arresting him. A large sum of money was being transferred from this cryptocurrency channel to Mr Yadav, who in turn used the money to feed his online gaming addiction.

The intelligence agencies have got four-day custody of Mr Yadav. His mobile phone has been sent to a forensics laboratory.

The police suspect that Mr Yadav was scanning sensitive naval documents and sending them to his Pakistani handler, ‘Priya Sharma’.

The method used by the Pakistani handlers is clear. They looked for clerical staff in the Defence Ministry and either lured them with honeytrap or offered money to give sensitive information.

Intelligence agencies also suspect Mr Yadav gave sensitive information during Operation Sindoor.

New Delhi:

Information from the black boxes recovered from the June 12 Air India plane crash has been successfully downloaded and is being analysed, the government said Thursday afternoon.

The black boxes – a flight data recorder, or FDR, and a cockpit voice recorder, or CVR – were damaged in the crash and there were questions over the recovery of usable data. Last week sources told NDTV the government may send the FDR and CVR to the United States for forensic extraction of data.

However, in a big breakthrough, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has succeeded in safely extracting the Crash Protection Module, or CPM, and the memory module, and downloaded the data.

The government said both boxes – one found on the rooftop of the hostel into which the plane crashed and the other from the debris – were securely transported to the AAIB lab in Delhi on Tuesday.

New Delhi:

Iran will never surrender to the US and any future aggression would come at a great cost, its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today in his first remarks after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. The ceasefire followed the US’ targeting of three nuclear sites in Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strike at a US base in Qatar.

“The American president indicated in one of his statements that Iran must surrender. Surrender! It is no longer a question of enrichment, nor the nuclear industry, but of the surrender of Iran,” Khamenei said in a televised speech. “Such an event (surrender) will never happen. It will never happen.”
Referring to Iran’s airstrikes on US’s Al Udeid air base in Qatar, Khamenei said, “The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter. Such an action can be repeated in the future too. Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price.” The remarks were posted on X, too. 
“Iran’s enemies use excuses like missiles or our nuclear programme, but they are actually looking for our surrender. Trump has unveiled the truth that the US will only be satisfied with Iran’s surrender. But surrender will never happen, our nation is powerful,” he said. 
Iran, he said, “delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face”. “It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region,” he said.  

New Delhi:

Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said he is excited about the scientific tasks that he and the crew will perform for the next 14 days in the International Space Station (ISS). He said he is feeling a bit “lightheaded” but “that is nothing compared to the excitement”.

It was the first time the entire team spoke together since Group Captain Shukla and three other astronauts successfully docked their Dragon spacecraft with the ISS this evening. Visuals beamed from the ISS showed the four astronauts who had just arrived enjoying a healthy drink and laughing.

“I am feeling lightheaded,” the IAF pilot-turned-astronaut said. “But that is not much of an issue compared to the things we will do here for the next 14 days. It is a very proud and exciting moment, a big step in our space journey,” Group Captain Shukla said, flanked by the ISS crew and the three astronauts who came with him – Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, and Dr Peggy Whitson of the US.

He reiterated what he said earlier about the tricolour (national flag). “I wear the tricolour on my shoulders with pride.”

Group Captain Shukla’s family along with friends and relatives gathered at the school in Lucknow where he studied and watched the live telecast of the space capsule Dragon’s successful docking at the ISS.

The capsule which is part of the Axiom 4 mission is the fifth and final Dragon in Elon Musk-owned company SpaceX fleet. It was christened “Grace” after reaching orbit.

New Delhi:

Air Force pilot Shubhanshu Shukla wrote a historic new chapter in the country’s space exploration story Thursday after becoming the first Indian to float into the International Space Station.

Live visuals from the ISS showed Shukla, and the other three astronauts on the Crew Dragon capsule, being helped through the vestibule connecting the spacecraft and the ISS. Each had big grins on their face and were welcomed with bear hugs by the seven astronauts already on the ISS.

The four then lined up for a photo op drinking liquids from a foil packet.

The capsule that carried the astronauts – part of Axiom-4, a private mission – docked this evening, completing a 28-hour flight from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre to a point 424km over the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Docking is the procedure by which a spacecraft connects to the space station.

But before that docking can even begin the spacecraft must first rendezvous with the space station, meaning they must both be in the same orbital plane and be positioned close to each other.