Transforming the Indian Railways is the next big challenge undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a scenario of declining staff morale and plunging finances of the state-owned transporter, Modi has convened a three-day brainstorming session with rail employees to generate “innovative but practical” ideas to enable the transporter to emerge as a “world class organisation”. Five hundred “unique ideas” are expected to be generated at the workshop through a combination of “crowd-sourcing”, ideation meets and through consultation with experts and customers. In alliance with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Indian Railways have been working on plans to build India’s first high speed train corridor connecting Mumbai to Ahmedabad. One of the identified themes enlists plans to reduce the transporter’s operational costs by 10% in five years, while another aims to define “technology shifts” that the Indian Railways should make in the next decade for modernisation.

Source: Hindustan Times October 06, 2016 13:52 UTC