Railways to unveil start up roadmap after boarding 10 ventures
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 11: The Ministry of Railways will announce a mega start up incubation plan after boarding 10 such entities in the near future in a major push to enlist the new-age entrepreneurs for transformative changes in the national transporter. Zonal Railways have so far approved proposals of seven startups, and the plan is afoot in the Railway Board to put in place a mechanism for partnership with young technopreneurs.
“Once we reach the milestone of having enlisted 10 startups, the Railway Board will announce a detailed roadmap to handhold such entities as part of the collaborative exercise to take the help of the new initiatives by the youngsters. The blueprint will be aligned with the National Innovation Policy as unveiled by the Ministry of Commerce,” said a senior Railway Board official.
The Railway Board has delegated the task of enlisting the startups to the Zonal Railways, which are mandated for the operational work of the national transporter. Hundreds of proposals have been received at the levels of zonal railways, added the official
The railways is keen that the startups should offer solutions to the national transporter in areas which are challenging such as technology incubation for accident free network, monetizing the rail resources, telecommunication, internet of things, artificial intelligence, ticketing, station makeovers, passenger amenities, crowd management at stations, etc. It may be noted that the Ministry of Railways since the time of Suresh Prabhu as the minister has been focusing on branding, which led to the launch of curated services such as Vande Bharat, Tejas, Hamsafar and other trains running on popular routes.
The Ministry of Railways is likely to follow the model of the Ministry of Petroleum in handholding the startups. The Ministry of Petroleum through its PSUs has created a Rs 100 crore corpus for handholding the startups, added the official.
There are over 86,000 startups in the country, with more than 110 being unicorns, which are valued at $100 billion or more. India has seen a major startup success in the defence and space sector in the recent years, which have sprouted from several technical institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), etc.
The government is keen that the startups should also bring technology in the PSUs. India is also hard selling its startup success to the G20 countries, as seen during recent deliberations on several themes held across the country.
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