Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday travelled in a Mumbai local train and interacted with commuters while travelling from Ghatkopar to Kalyan. She also took pictures with them.

Sitharaman left commuters by surprise when she made her way inside their coaches. This morning, the commuters had an unusual co-passenger travelling with them. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the passengers.

Taking to X, Sitharaman’s office informed that the Finance Minister took a ride in a local from Ghatkopar to Kalyan. The office also shared pictures of Sitharaman taking selfies with the youngsters and office-goers.

Later in the day, Sitharaman also attended the inauguration ceremony of the BITS Pilani news campus in Kalyan, Maharashtra. Addressing the ceremony, she said that a growing India draws from its skilled youths who contributed to the nation’s development.

She further said that the impact of a well-rounded education is such that different services and different domains benefit from their presence, adding that, she said that most often the government is lectured by the Western top leader that India should have a culture of charity, to which she thoroughly disagreed with them by giving them the example of institution like BITS, which promotes good education, funds needy students and sets a good example of various other charitable work they have done, Sitharaman added.

Furthermore, Sitharaman said that the innovation from India to innovate for India was the principle with which her government has worked, so innovation gets all the support.

Speaking about the recent budget, She said that, the vote on the account budget, she had announced that there would be a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore given for the corpus for a special purpose vehicle which will be created by the government, which will be funding innovations and research and development activities, she asserted.

BITS Pilani, an institution which started just from being a ‘Paathshala’, is now an institution where people now long to study, she added. There have been 7,400 CEOs from BITS Pilani, many in Fortune 500 companies, she further added. Over 3,300 academicians, including Vice-Chancellors, Directors, and Heads of Departments in prestigious universities globally, are from BITS Pilani, she said at the inauguration of BITS.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Saturday reminded Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal of his promise of sending leaders of Congress Party to jail. This comes after the announcement of the AAP and Congress’ seat sharing deal for upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.

Using the metaphor chor chor mausere bhai which translates in English, birds of a feather flock together, Tiwari said, this is what it is happening between AAP and Congress. He alleged that AAP workers are disappointed with CM Kejriwal as the used to speak about putting Congress leaders in jail but now he is at their feet.

AAP was formed after Arvind Kejriwal launched anti-corruption protests in Delhi. At that time congress was in power in both Delhi and the Centre.

Later when the party was formed in 2012, Arvind Kejriwal said that he would put corrupt leaders in jail within six months of coming to power.

Tiwari said that Arvind Kejriwal and AAP had ousted Congress from Delhi and Punjab and now the Chief Minister is sharing the stage with Rahul Gandhi.

He also said BJP and Prime Minister Modi are in everyone’s heart and the people of Delhi will decide everything as it is clear now that the top leaders of AAP and Congress are the same.

Meanwhile, AAP leader Atishi said that CM Kejriwal can be arrested soon. She alleged that ever since the INDIA bloc seat sharing was nearly finalised, Kejriwal started getting threats from everwhere. She also mentioned that the party members were told if they didn’t exit the alliance, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would frame charges against Arvind Kejriwal to arrest him.

She claimed that the party had the information that the CBI would issue a notice on Monday and would arrest CM Kejriwal in a few days.

AAP and Congress announced an alliance in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Goa, and Chandigarh on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday unveiled world’s largest grain storage scheme in the history of the cooperative sector for farmers. He said that a Rs 1.25 lakh crore investment will be made over the next five years to develop a 700 lakh tonne storage capacity. Thousands of godowns and warehouses will be built across the country as part of the plan.

PM Modi also inaugrated the 11 godowns that were established by the 11 primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) in the 11 states on Saturday.

Additionally, he laid the foundation stone for 500 more PACS to have godowns and other agricultural infrastructure built. Further, he launched a nationwide project for computerisation of 18,000 PACS.

During the launch, PM modi also addressed the country and the audience gathered there. He said, they have introduced the largest storage program in the world for our farmers today. Thousands more godowns and warehouses would be built nationwide as a result of this, he said.

The Prime Minister slammed previous governments for failing to build the nation’s storage infrastructure, which caused farmers to incur enormous losses.

In his speech, the PM also said, this issue never received the proper attention from previous governments. But this issue is being addressed now with PACS. In the next five years, 700 lakh tonnes of storage capacity will be built as part of the largest food grain storage initiative in the world. More than Rs 1.25 lakh crore will be spent on this project, PM Modi said.

Farmers would now be allowed to store their produce in godowns and warehouses, obtain institutional credit against it, and sell their goods at market rates that are profitable, according to the prime minister.

The PM called on cooperative organizations to work on lowering food imports, particularly those of fertiliser and edible oils and pulses. He recommended that cooperatives compile a list of goods that India imports and devise a plan to manufacture or produce them there.