Accrual accounting & the landing of a pilot

The Indian Railways' recent decision to switch from cash-based to accrual-based accounting brings to fruition a vision that found mention in the Railway Minister's Budget Speech for 2003-04

Bad news about IR (Indian Railways) usually grabs headlines, not good news. Therefore, every newspaper or site worth the name has carried news about the tea vendor who served tea/coffee with water taken from the toilet. I haven’t seen too many reports about the recent decision to switch from cash-based to accrual-based accounting. Every organisation, public or private, needs to fix HR and accounts. Everything else follows and without these, nothing follows. Accounting reforms in IR has been talked about a lot. Typically, it has been talk and no more. Accounting reforms means several things: (1) a switch to accrual-based