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Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has got Tata group’s Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata to head Indian Railways’ innovation council, ‘Kayakalp’. The council, announced by Prabhu in the Rail Budget presented last month, would suggest how to turn around the ailing network.
“The purpose of the council is to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of Indian Railways,” the ministry stated, adding the council would be a standing body, interacting with all the stakeholders.
“Every dynamic and thriving organisation needs to innovate and re-invent its practices... we intend to set up an innovation council for the purpose of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in the railways,” Prabhu had said in his Budget speech.
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A senior ministry official said the terms of reference for the council would be notified in a few days. “After setting up a customer complaints portal and the announcement of securing Rs 1.5 lakh crore funding from Life Insurance Corporation, this is the third Budget announcement being implemented within 20 days of the presentation,” he said.
Thursday’s announcement follows Tata’s meeting with Prabhu last Friday. The innovation council will have at least two members from the railways’ labour unions. Other members of the Council would be announced soon. The minister had in December invited Vinod Rai, the former Union comptroller and auditor general, to advise on transparency. He had also set up a single-member committee under E Sreedharan, former managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, to improve transparency in systems, including tendering for award of works.
