Indian Railways and India!

Indian Railways suffer from one basic deficiency. Insecure ministers and more insecure bureaucracy formed by technical branches and non-technical personnel, with technical ones acting more bureaucratically and non-technical persons acting to be more technical on technical issues, each branch acting in self-interest not related to Indian Railways as a whole, and doing their best to pull each other down.

This show is watched with amusement by the rest of the Ministries in Delhi manned masters of all they see in India who also control the cadre of Indian Railway higher management through the Establishment Officer processing the case for Appointments Committee. There is scant respect for us over there. The stubbornness typical of insecure child is what is commented upon.

The Planning Commission's attitude to railways is typically summarised in comments of Montek Singh, who said if there is one ministry he dare not advise, it happened to be railways. They are simply stubborn, is their view. For a more than 4 decades since independence railways were not even included as infrastructure like roads and airports for making financial policy papers for support, in terms of relief of duties and concessions.

SO much engrosssed in internal squabbles, Railways never had any continuing committed plan to which every successive Railway Board worked with a passion to achieve strategic objective.

Every new incumbent invariably condemned the predecessor's approach and so the benefit of a cumulative experience and wisdom of one of the oldest organisations in the country never reflected in making a planned modernisation as Indian Railways, remained a distant dream. Short lived drives to create a tiny island of efficiency in a department, by a particular department is all the Members of Board could achieve.

So the joke goes that Railways could be a century plus old, but experience is only less than two years which is reflected in their decision making in policy matters. That is the tenure of a Member generally.

Longer tenure is not the answer for the organisational commitment to strategic goals.

The Ministers further add to the mess with their personal agendas.

Just keeping the trains moving is all that railmen try hard to achieve, and that truly tires them out, given the daily deteriorating general atmosphere of non-performance all around.

Justifiably railway men look with disdain the file pushing babus of other Ministries whose performance is nothing much to write home about.

So the Members continue to do their individual best -- they are good men and do feel sorry for the way things do not happen in Board. But finally to get out with some honour in tact, is all one railwayman looks forward after all his distinguished service to the country, a 24x 7 responsibility unlike other bureaucrats.

If Government of India lacks vision for the country, so be it, Railways also fall in line.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just another day of Brahma we collide with another galaxy !!

Image
  Just in another day of Brahma our Galaxy collides with Andromeda : Earth continues but sky views change and Sun orbit affected !!  Image From Atlantic : reproduced .  In Hindu philosophy, a **Brahma day** (also known as a **Kalpa**) is a vast cosmic period that represents one full day in the life of Brahma, the creator god. This period is equivalent to **4.32 billion years** in human terms⁴. A Brahma day consists of **1,000 Mahayugas** (great ages), and each Mahayuga is made up of four Yugas (ages): Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga². After the completion of a Brahma day, there is an equally long Brahma night, during which the universe undergoes dissolution before the cycle of creation begins anew². This concept highlights the immense scale of time in Hindu cosmology and reflects the cycles of creation and dissolution that are central to the universe's rhythm. Is there a specific aspect of this concept you're curious about? Source: Conversat...
Read more

Are we experiencing life in a world already extinct millions of years ago?

Image
It’s not rare that my mind feels we are actually living in a world that might have been extinct millions of years ago!     As per Vishnu Sahasra Namam, part of Mahabharata authored by Sri Vedavyasa, Brahma praises his own father Sri Vishnu as Sahasra Yuga Dharane namaha . That if we take as life time for Brahama from his own birth before start of creation and own liberation annihilating the entire creation to join that realm which has no cycles of birth and death. —-ever present abode of Sri Narayana as per Brahmasutra and described in Sri Bhagavad Gita too. That is 1000x10^7x4.32 m or 4.32x 10^16 solar years.        The time scale of Sri Vishnu who is said to create and maintain this universe merely by a wish within less than a second of His time . This translates as the equivalent to 10^16 solar years is my submission. This is  followed by equal time period of yoga Nidra or entire universe transformed back in to suspended particles. So the process of...
Read more

For dummies like me, understanding Hilbert space and play of energy beams around my Atma ! : Using my Buddy Co-Pilot

Image
For dummies what is the Hilbert space and how does it help us? Hilbert space is a concept from mathematics and quantum mechanics that may sound complex, but let's break it down in a simple way: **Hilbert Space Basics:** - **Definition**: Think of it as an infinite-dimensional space, much like how we think of 3-dimensional space, but with potentially endless dimensions. - **Vectors**: In this space, you have vectors (like arrows) that can represent different states or points. - **Inner Product**: It has a special way to measure angles and distances between these vectors, called the inner product. This helps in defining concepts like orthogonality (perpendicularity) and length. **How it Helps Us:** - **Quantum Mechanics**: Hilbert spaces are fundamental in quantum mechanics. They provide the framework for describing quantum states and their evolution. - **Wave Functions**: Quantum states are represented as wave functions, which are essentially vectors in a Hilbert space. This helps i...
Read more