Wednesday Post

Some interesting news items which I would like to share with you

1 Indian Railway is thinking of inviting private firms to run trains on some routes- govt is seriously exploring a scheme to hire private operators to run passengers trains on low congestion and tourist routes and is in the process of inviting offers.

To start with Railways will take trials by offering two trains to its tourism and ticketing arm, IRCTC for operation. The ticketing and other on board services will be provided by IRCTC and the Railways will receive Lump sum amount in return. These trains will run on routes which have low congestion and connect important tourist destinations.. The custody of rakes will be transferred to IRCTC, who will pay lease rent to IRFC, Railways financing arm.

Subsequently, Railways will float the expression of interest documents to identify operators willing to take part in bidding process for rights to run passenger day/night trains connecting important cities. Railways will consult trade unions while finalising the contours of inviting private players to run passenger trains on select routes.

Railway will also launch a big ad campaign, requesting people to give up subsidy while booking/buying  tickets. This proposed campaign will be  on the lines of Ujjwala campaign where people were  urged to forgo subsidy for LPG cylinders.. According to railways, they recover only 53% of the cost incurred on passenger transport business.

In 2015, it was suggested by  a panel who was looking into Railway reforms, that Railways should encourage private players to run trains, scrapping Railway budget and other things. Govt has already done with railway budget, but giving private parties to run the trains is coming now. Among other reforms Railway is thinking of corporatize the manufacturing coaches and other rolling stock. There are seven production units which will come under new entity ‘Indian Railways Rolling Stock Company’. The Railway is planning to start consultations with unions, and at least one production unit to begin with, to run under one Chief Executive Officer, like any private entity. CEO will be responsible for the complete unit including its profit/loss.

In my opinion it is a well thought process, to make Railway more efficient and consumer friendly.

2 Cricket World Cup- half the matches are over in the tournament and rain threat is always there for all the matches. Uptil now  4 matches have been totally washed out and few matches were delayed by by rain, and in some matches reduced  overs were played as per DLS system. Looks like this world Cup is going to be a rain affected one. At half the stage it   looks like the top 4 teams will England, Australia, New Zealand and India. At present England have  played 5 (Won 4, Lost 1, Points -8) Australia-played 5 (Won 4, Lost 1 Point 8), New Zealand-played 4 (Won 3, No Result 1, Points 7), India-played 4 (Won 3, No Result-1, Points 7). The other 2 teams who were also in the race for top 4 positions when the tournament began, Pakistan and South Africa have just won one match each and one match each with No result, after they have played  5 matches. Both are having 3 points and their chances of finishing in top 4 are minimal.

India is having a big advantage as they have already played with Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan, and they have to play just one more tough team that is England, where as India can definitely win against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and West Indies. So as per the present form India is definitely qualifying for the semi finals. But as you no cricket is game of uncertainty, so let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Waiting for your feed backs/views/comment on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

19^th Jun 2019