My passing thoughts about another committee to improve railway!

I was fortunate to work with Shri Prakash Narain as CRB, when I used to be Secretary ,Central Board of Railway Research . Yes Madhav Rao Scindia was truly a different Minister, and even as mere young Joint Director , I was made comfortable for direct presentations to Minister in the presence of all Board members and DG RDSO. Well, on the spot orders MR gave for Rs 100 cr test track for High Speed testing and fatigue testing loops as presented by me ---imagine that was in those years! Even Restructuring RDSO report made by me was accepted and RDSO became a Scientific Institution with enhance powers for DG. Sri Prakash Narain took tremendous interest to listen to youngster like me and with MR like Scindia , it was truly a transforming period. 

But Railway is not lucky. Mostly our own officers are scary to exercise powers! Fact is most of our officers want to have old cushy life with club privileges and hold staff responsible by making such rules of working. 

Technology and research requires higher order of thinking and cannot be delegated to less qualified staff. But that is what the service officers do.

Be as it may, I feel railways never had the rare combination of good progressive Minister and excellent Board at the same time. Sri Prakash Narain and Madhav Rao Scindia was one such beautiful short lived period.

I personally believe we railways have the best system.Railway Board is truly highly empowered body The way we delegate powers to GM really makes GM to function practically independent in day to affairs. But at the same time real time information exchange between Board and the GMs optimises resources.

The staff are committed and can keep the system working even when communication links break down. Really we are the best organised. Nothing wrong in being proud of ourselves.

But without prejudice, we too must upgrade ourselves. Lack of persons like Sri Praksh Narain and Madhav Rao at helm do impact the technology upgradation.

What is a system without having high quality persons to man?

 Attitudes, character and private agendas of political class , short sighted egoistic political bosses whose stupidity was taken advantage by highly placed bureaucrats too joining their ilk , brought our golden system in to current shameful mess, where every Tom, Dick and Harry selling soaps want to advise! Non merit based incentives &  considerations other than performance for getting rewarded in work,  but politically unavoidable bound to affect quality of output.No one wants to talk about it.But digitaisation transferring knowledge base and response practically independent of quality of lower level staff talents, can be a way out. I tried. 

Mind you, I as MD of Konkan Railway enjoyed total freedom to create operating structure for Railway totally based on digital technology taking over control functions in real time and integrating entire gamut of railway working in to one seamless wide area networked knowledge embedded system Three levels of decision making got inbuilt. It is there working for last 15 years 24/7 , unique in the world. Praised internationally. But what prevents replication a totally indigenous proven technology entirely to railway codes and practices, developed by dedicated group of railway officers? The officers who worked under me later even retired as CRB or GMs etc. But so shy to admit that a tiny railway did what they did. 

True I had to fight most of the time but it was worth the effort. Entropy of larger system must be taking its toll on KR too, over these years.

Improvements certainly can be done. The day extremely intelligent railway officers put nation first subjugating own ego , railway will see improvements by leaps and bounds. 

If we decide , all tools are available. Only leaders are missing. 

I really feel sorry for Sri Bibek Debroy, a very unenvious job. 

Hare Krishna!

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