Indian Railways: The “Innovation Challenge” for Start-ups

In the last year budget, the Railway Ministry had promised to set an innovation council called “Kayakalp” which might come up with cost saving innovations in railway functioning. This council was later constituted with Ratan Tata as its head.

In the current budget, the Railway Minister has set aside Rs. 50 Crore for an innovation fund from which grants can be made to employees, start-ups and growth oriented small businesses and set up of innovation labs / production units.

The administration of this initiative is to be done by an “innovation committee” comprised of National Academy of Indian Railways, Railway Board and Kayakalp.

Further, to find out innovative solutions to the railways critical problems, the railways have decided to launch an annual “Innovation Challenge”. For 2016-17, the three areas of this Innovation Challenge are as follows:

• Accessibility to trains from low level platforms
• Increasing capacity of coaches
• Digital capabilities at stations.

This found would work like a start-up incubator run by private companies, in which they groom the talent to work on start-up. More details on the policy are expected to be released in near future.