[To improve the railway, Mr. Prabhu has
created yet another committee, which is headed by the industrialist Ratan Tata,
who had once lamented the work culture of managers in two British firms that he
had planned to acquire. “Friday, from 3:30 p.m. ,” he said, “you can’t find anybody in their
office.” It would be amusing to know his views of the managers of Indian
Railways who can often be found in their offices at 3:30 p.m. on Fridays, but are widely believed to be
underworked, inefficient and corrupt. “The golden wisdom in the railway,”
according to a retired official who did not wish to be named, “is never take a
decision.” It is too risky.]
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| Picture credit : Google |
DATELINE — On Sunday, when Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu performed yoga
with scores of other people, he lay in the corpse pose, which is an imitation
of death. He dozed off. When someone poked him, he sprang up and began rotating
his head. It was a joy for metaphor-hunters, because Mr. Prabhu heads an organization
that once appeared to be dead but is now, he says, “emerging out of a deep
slumber.”
Over
the decades, India has tried to make its gigantic railway
system competent, which has led to several committees that have in turn
submitted hundreds of pages of reports. Tired of it all, Narendra
Modi, before he became prime minister last year, said if he had the
power he would “privatize” the railway.
But as prime minister and a practical man,
Mr. Modi has abandoned the plan, fearing a revolt by the overstaffed agency’s
employees. There is a subdued acceptance now in his government that it is not
wise to expect a radical transformation of the railway and that any change will
be slow, and far from dramatic.
To
improve the railway, Mr. Prabhu has created yet another committee, which is
headed by the industrialist Ratan Tata, who had once lamented the work culture
of managers in two British firms that he had planned to acquire. “Friday, from 3:30 p.m. ,” he said, “you can’t find anybody in their
office.” It would be amusing to know his views of the managers of Indian
Railways who can often be found in their offices at 3:30 p.m. on Fridays, but are widely believed to be
underworked, inefficient and corrupt. “The golden wisdom in the railway,”
according to a retired official who did not wish to be named, “is never take a
decision.” It is too risky.
 |
| Picture credit : Google |
Last
September, another committee was formed, which was headed by the economist
Bibek Debroy, who turned in his report this month. The report takes care to
note that it does not recommend the privatization of the railways, but it does
recommend that private companies be allowed to take over some of the operations
and services. That was still offensive to the railway’s unions, and they plan
to protest on Tuesday. On that day they may probably work less than usual.
Indian Railways is primarily a form of
employment that also runs trains. It employs more than 1.3 million people, and
in the last fiscal year earned about 1.6 trillion rupees, or $25.2 billion, or
less than 14 percent of the revenue of Apple. The railway spends almost as much
as it earns. Often it turns in a small profit, but that is a result of legally
sanctioned accounting wizardry. For instance, the way it calculates
depreciation on its assets is not how companies conduct the same exercise.
Also, it does not spend as much as it should on upgrading its trains, research
or on safety.
The
Debroy committee has recommended that Indian Railways adopt respectable
accounting practices, so that the organization and its probable private
partners can fully evaluate the economics of running trains.
Mr. Prabhu’s overarching solution for
rescuing the railway system is to procure more investment from sources that
include private corporations. The Debroy committee says that unless the
accounting practices of the railway change, it will struggle to lure money from
organizations that the Indian government cannot influence.
Indian
Railways operates more than 19,000 trains and carries 23 million passengers
every day. India India
Apart
from trains, the railway also runs over a hundred hospitals, over 150 schools
and one college. It has its own police force. The Debroy committee has
recommended that the railway, to a degree, give up control over these
activities. Indian Railways, the committee suggests, is primarily in the business
of running trains.
Follow
Manu Joseph, author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People,” on
Twitter at @manujosephsan.
