Mahashivratri 2026: Celebrities including Akshay Kumar and Chiranjeevi shared heartfelt wishes with fans on social media. Mahashivratri 2026: Mahashivratri, one of the most sacred Hindu festivals dedicated to Lord Shiva, will be observed on February 15, 2026
Viral video: A video showing a phone case that transforms into a selfie stick is going viral on X, drawing attention from social media users and gadget lovers alike. Viral video: A video showing a phone case that transforms into a selfie stick is going viral on X
![Munich [Germany], February 15 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a series of high-level engagements on the second day of the Munich Security](http://newsorbit360.com/files/news/en/imgs/jaishankar-holds-key-bilateral-meetings-on-day-2-of-msc-2026.webp?height=154)
Munich [Germany], February 15 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a series of high-level engagements on the second day of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), reviewing bilateral ties and exchanging views on pressing global developments. In a post on X on Sunday
In the last decade, kitchen appliances have gone beyond basic functions to offer comfort, efficiency, and modern design. Built-in hobs with safety sensors, quiet chimneys, precise ovens, and water-efficient dishwashers are increasingly common thanks to an industry that has been reinventing itself
Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal on Saturday said there was no proposal for his outfit to merge with the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Sharad Pawar, reported The Indian Express. After NCP president and Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died in a plane
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced central projects worth Rs 55,000 crore have been sanctioned in the past year. Several new infrastructure projects are planned, including a ropeway, an elevated corridor in Guwahati, and highway upgrades. A significant Rs 18
Nothing on Saturday (February 14, 2026) opened its flagship retail store in India, starting with Bengaluru. Nothing’s CEO Carl Pei and co-founder and India President, Akis Evangelidis inaugurated this store in Indiranagar. The London-based consumer technology company will sell Nothing and CMF
Real Madrid decisively defeated Real Sociedad 4-1 on Saturday, moving provisionally to the top of La Liga, as Vinicius Junior won and converted two penalties. An impressive performance from Trent Alexander-Arnold on his first start in two-and-a-half months also helped Los Blancos move two points
Why India’s electric bus push is leading to fatal crashes
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
India’s big cities are learning that electric buses need trained drivers to handle them.
Public electric buses in Bengaluru caused 18 accidents, six of them fatal, over 15 months ending August 2025, while two crashes in Mumbai between December 2024 and January 2025 killed a dozen people. The accidents have also stretched beyond major metros, with a speeding electric bus killing four in Gujarat in April 2025 and another crushing a stationary auto in Odisha in January, killing two.
Insufficient driver training, not faulty technology, is the leading cause, according to municipal corporations and civil advocates. Vehicular issues have been ruled out in most incidents, with driver error accounting for about 60% of accidents involving both electric and conventional buses, according to Pawan Mulukutla, executive program director for Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen at World Resources Institute India.
More than 10,000 electric buses already operate across 50 Indian cities, with 20,000 more in procurement, according to the World Resources Institute. The rapid expansion is outpacing efforts to train drivers on distinct challenges like sudden acceleration and hard braking, and experts say systemic reforms will be needed to resolve the deepening labour crisis.
“It is easy to blame the technology always, but it is difficult for me to believe that six or seven manufacturers do not know how a bus is to be designed,” Ravi Gadepalli, founder of Transit Intelligence, an advisory and analytics firm supporting the e-bus transition in Indian cities, told Rest of World.
These buses are tested and certified by the Indian government, Gadepalli said, adding that manufacturers like Olectra, PMI, and Solaris operate buses in countries like China and Poland without incident.
There’s a clear experience gap between drivers of diesel or CNG buses and those operating electric buses, said Amegh Gopinath, head of mobility and climate action at New Delhi-based Innpact Solutions. He documented this in an 18-month study for the German Agency for International Cooperation in 2020-’21, interviewing officials, drivers, and other ground staff of several state road transport corporations.
“With electric buses, there’s not a lot of exposure to the technology, exposure to the drivetrain,” Gopinath told Rest of World.
Private contractors conduct brief interviews and check for a heavy-duty vehicle license, and hire drivers with minimal electric bus-specific onboarding, Gopinath found. This contrasts sharply with the European and US markets, where drivers undergo rigorous initial training, attend refresher courses, and have their driving behavior monitored via simulators and real-world tracking.
“There’s a lot of push for defensive driving [abroad] as well – that you don’t accelerate at junctions, intersections, and at crossings,” Gopinath said. “But these things are not given a lot of importance in India at this point.”
State transport authorities contract private operators to run electric buses but do little to enforce training and safety standards. Oversight is largely manual and inconsistent, according to Gadepalli, who helped the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation set up a digital contract management system in 2025.
“At the end of the day, the authority cannot write a contract and forget about it,” he said. “They need to still have staff monitoring the operations in a lot of detail.”
Aggressive bidding to win contracts created a race to the bottom on pay. BMTC-hired drivers earn Rs 30,000 monthly on average, while private operators pay around Rs 22,000, Gadepalli said. Low salaries and poor working conditions have led to high attrition, with drivers opting for ride-hailing services like Uber and Ola instead, Shivanand Swamy, executive director at Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport, told Rest of World.
“In recent years, there have been instances where accidents were reported due to extended duty hours and driver fatigue,” Mulukutla said. “It is crucial to have clear regulations around duty hours and to ensure periodic training.”
Still, Swamy, who is facilitating technology adoption, operations, financing, and capacity building for the transition to electric public mobility, remains optimistic that these growing pains will subside. India’s road transport and highways ministry updated guidelines for EV driver training in January 2025 to be more rigorous and stringent
“This is a transition phase right now. Options are limited in terms of drivers’ availability,” Swamy said. “It will settle down very soon, I’m sure.”
In the aftermath of the fatal incidents, the Mumbai and Bengaluru governments have said they will mandate licence reviews as well as training and refresher courses even for privately hired drivers.
Some experts argue that a philosophical shift is also needed, viewing public transport as a public service rather than a revenue-generating model. The pressure on institutions to generate revenue adds stress to ground staff, Gopinath said.
“The focus has been about how much are you generating in terms of revenue, how many kilometres have we operated, what are our fuel savings,” Gopinath said. “If that shift happens, I think a lot of stress is taken off from these ground staff, especially the drivers.”
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
Source: Scroll
Related Posts: Canadian Tourists’ Sleeper-Class Train Ride In India Turns Into ‘Core Memory’ India has doubled climate spending to 5 India 'very successful' emerging economy A look at leading STEM summer programmes in India and abroad Mukesh Ambani hits JACKPOT ahead of India-Pakistan match Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang won't attend AI Impact Summit in India Meet Border 2 actress whose father fought 1971 India-Pak war and lost his foot India vs Pakistan FREE Live Streaming T20 World Cup 2026 Online bus bookings grew 25% in 2025 India plans AI
The minister also indicated that the government is working on a policy framework to support development in around 700–750 slum settlements in and around the National Capital Territory (NCT). New Delhi: Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said the government
1 minutes ago
iPhone 17e Big Update: Good news for iPhone lovers as Apple is expected to launch its budget flagship smartphone – iPhone 17e not next month or next year but next week. Rumour mills have also hinted at a late February launch date, however, a recent report suggested that the iPhone 17e could be
1 minutes ago
Russia's senior aide Maxim Oreshkin will lead a delegation to the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The summit, from February 16-20, will focus on AI collaboration between India and Russia. Discussions will cover secure, trusted, and sovereign AI
1 minutes ago
Online education is one of the biggest finds of the last decade, Kadhambari S. Viswanathan, assistant vice-president, Vellore Institute of Technology, said on Friday (February 13, 2026) at The Hindu Tech Summit 2026. She was speaking at a session
1 minutes ago
O'Romeo vs Tu Yaa Main Box Office: Shahid Kapoor’s gangster drama and Shanaya Kapoor’s survival thriller made their big-screen debut, going head-to-head. O'Romeo Vs Tu Yaa Main box office day 2: The Valentine’s Day weekend turned into a box office face-off as O'Romeo and Tu Yaa Main arrived
1 minutes ago
Have you ever been to Punjab University? If not, what do you imagine you would see the most on campus? Bicycles, book-laden students rushing to class or perhaps wide roads and green surroundings? Well, think again. A recent viral video suggests that if there is one thing you are guaranteed to spot
1 minutes ago
Moves to close the gender pay gap won't be successful until 2056 if progress remains at its current rate, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The disparity between average wages for men and women is 12.8%, or £2,548 per year, according to TUC analysis of official pay data
1 minutes ago
Britain's youth unemployment has risen significantly. Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann believes this is linked to substantial increases in minimum wages for younger workers. The rates for 21-22 year olds and 18-20 year olds have seen considerable hikes
1 minutes ago
Google Android 17 Beta 1 Update: Google is also changing how new updates reach developers, replacing the old Developer Preview with a continuous Canary channel. Google Android 17 Beta 1 Update: Google has released the Android 17 Beta 1 update for Pixel devices
1 minutes ago
Bengaluru is infamous for its traffic. India’s IT hub has emerged as one of the world’s most congested cities in the world, as per a new survey. Recently, a female digital creator highlighted a brief encounter she had with a traffic police official while she was stuck in a traffic jam
1 minutes ago
Iran is ready to consider compromises to reach a nuclear deal with the United States if Washington is willing to discuss lifting sanctions, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC in an interview published on Sunday (February 15, 2026)
1 minutes ago
8th Pay Commission Update: Removing the confusion over the applicability of the revised pension under the 8th Pay Commission for those who retired on December 31, 2025, the government said that the pension revisions do not automatically arise from the Finance Bill, 2025
1 minutes ago
The Kedarnath Temple opening date was announced on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivaratri. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday unveiled the opening date of the shrine depends on Hindu calendar and changes every year. Pushkar Singh Dhami on 15 February said that the state
1 minutes ago
Indian car brands: Indian car brands include Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Force Motors, Hindustan Motors, and Chinkara Motors. A few of these are not active or operational. Indian car brands: Indian is one of the world’s largest automobile markets
1 minutes ago
New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson will depart the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 on Sunday to return home for personal reasons. New Zealand's fast-bowling spearhead Lockie Ferguson is set to fly home from the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026
1 minutes ago
Royal Enfield Continental GT 650: One of the biggest reasons buyers consider the Continental GT 650 is its powerful 648cc parallel-twin engine, but it lacks traction control and a TFT display. Royal Enfield Continental GT 650: The Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 is one of the most talked-about
1 minutes ago
The new Vande Bharat Express, connecting Asarwa (Ahmedabad) in Gujarat and Udaipur City in Rajasthan, is set for inauguration on February 16, with regular service starting on February 18. This will be Gujarat’s sixth Vande Bharat train, strengthening regional connectivity and boosting passenger
1 minutes ago
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping clinical workflows, patient outcomes, and career trajectories in hospitals and students entering healthcare will be the first generation to practise alongside these systems. Therefore, understanding what AI can and cannot do in the clinical environment is
1 minutes ago
In a world where data are extracted from individuals with or without informed consent, data and AI experts have called for building awareness and underscored the importance of extracting only relevant data at The Hindu Tech Summit 2026, hosted by The Hindu, presented by VIT
1 minutes ago
A 22-year-old student from Karnataka who went missing six days ago in San Francisco in the United States has been found dead, the Indian Consulate General in the city said on Sunday. Saketh Sreenivasaiah, who had been pursuing a Master of Science (Product Development Programme) degree at University
1 minutes ago
Pakistani Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir reportedly faced a highly embarrassing protocol snub in Munich, where he has been invited for an international security conference. Field Marshal Asim Munir’s purported run-in with the security apparatus at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has now
1 minutes ago
India’s foreign exchange reserves dipped USD 6.711 billion in the week that ended February 6 to USD 717.064 billion, after having reached a new all-time high in the prior week, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest data. Foreign exchange reserves dipped substantially in the latest
1 minutes ago
India began their tour of Australia with a commanding victory. They secured a 21-run win against Australia in the first Women's T20 International. Arundhati Reddy starred with the ball, taking four wickets. India were ahead on the DLS method when rain interrupted play
1 minutes ago
Uber plans to roll out its delivery business into seven new European countries this year, as tech groups ramp up their efforts in the multibillion-euro food-delivery market, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.The US-based company will launch services in markets including
1 minutes ago
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 begins February 16 in New Delhi, bringing together global leaders across research, enterprise and public policy under the Government of India’s IndiaAI Mission. Among the many distinguished participants are Dr. Bonnie Kruft, Managing Director
1 minutes ago
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (February 15, 2026) accused the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi of spreading "lies" and misleading farmers over India's trade pacts with the U.S., U.K. and the EU, asserting the government has fully safeguarded the country's agriculture and dairy sectors
1 minutes ago
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will co-chair the 6th India-France Annual Defence Dialogue with France's Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, Catherine Vautrin, in Bengaluru. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will co-chair the 6th India-France Annual Defence Dialogue with France's
1 minutes ago
