reading Indian Railways Growth, Sustenance and the Leap Forward A Case Study and wondering why the most modernize rail system of 100 years ago was so damn right now?
for more information in presentation here;
Abstract
Indian Railways (IR), which was declared to be heading towards bankruptcy as per the Expert Group on Indian Railways in 2001, is today the second largest profit making Public Sector Undertaking after ONGC. A case study on IR could focus on multiple facets – Detailed analysis of the turnaround, Critical Appraisal of these strategies, Sustenance of this growth, Role of organizational structure of IR etc. In this case study we look at only certain aspects of IR due to the constraints such as limited time. We first do a brief diagnosis of the strategies that were behind the turnaround of Indian Railways. This is a very well studies and documented area so we move on further to probe two particular questions pertaining to IR. First, we study the marketing strategy of the Indian railways among the masses so as to counter threats like Low Cost Airlines. Secondly, we focus on the major question of Privatization of IR which has been lingering around for quite a while now. We do a comparative case study with the privatization of British railways and then justify the model of privatization that is slowly being adopted now for IR.
Conclusion
In this case study we looked at the growth achieved by the Indian railways in the past few years and major strategies responsible for them. These include capacity enhancement, better utilization of the current
capacity and also schemes to increase the existing sources of revenue. Today, IR is facing serious threats from the low cost airlines which o®er a much quicker journey at comparable costs. Thus there is a need to
position the railways brand higher in the mind of the Indian passengers. We have done an income based market segmentation and analysed possible strategies that could be used to lure di®erent segments and
ultimately increase the volume of the passenger revenue. Another question that has been lingering around for quite a while now is regarding the privatization. We do a comparative study with the British railways
and come to a conclusion that complete break up into smaller enterprises will not prove to be good. Due to the critical role played by the railways in India, total control of IR should not be transferred into private
hands. Focus should be on commercialization rather than privatization where various smaller tasks are outsourced to private hands or are done in public-private partnerships. Steps are being taken to do such
a restructuring of the operations today. Quoting from: The turnaround over the past two years has demonstrated that IR is indeed a sunrise sector. With the
right moves, nothing can hold it back from being world class.
Note: all above was picked from that report.