Indian Railways Case Study: (Laloo's Role, Privatization and Other Issues)
Profitability:
IR has a HUGE cost structure that could be trimmed. IR, in addition to the infrastructure if provides the employees, actually has almost a parallel economy running! They even have a complete phone network exclusively for IR. These are obviously completely free and extend across the country. This is just a small example BTW, of the costs... Privatization would see HUGE changes, but one can never really say about the complete effects without a complete study of the structure of IR as a whole.
Lalu:
For this, you need to look at what the organizational hierarchy of Railways is. Look at the Railway Board for example. Just what role does the Railways Minister play in the Board? Frankly? A very, very miniscule role...restricted mainly to just authorizing decisions made by the administrators (on the Board).
So, in terms of whether Lalu has been good, my opinion is that it really has made no difference who the Minister is. It's just that he has been very, very lucky with the people below him in the Civil Service among certain other environmental factors.
Modernization:
People are speaking of high-speed trains etc. But here, I must start by asking what the priorities are for IR!!! Is it purely profits? I don't think so. Unlike flight travel, IR's stated objectives as well as their REQUIRED objectives should include reach and accessible means of transport.
So, the primary focus needs to be on efficiency. It's all very well to have the reach (which IR now does have) and also to speak of high-tech trains, but what about the efficiency and the ground needs to run such a system? What IR really needs to do first up is focus on improving th ...