An Indecisive Indian

  Let me begin by repeating what I must have stated a thousand times: A team of engineers from Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai of Indian Railways (IR)and even more importantly, the allied rail rolling stock industry came together with great synergy to conceptualize, design,   engineer and deliver Train 18/Vande Bharat Express in 2018. It was a near world-class train, made entirely in India in just 18 months at a fraction of what it would take, both in terms of time and cost, anywhere across the globe. The train caught the imagination of the countrymen, helped a great deal by the frequent declaration by the Prime Minister Modi himself calling the train a symbol of resurgent and aspirational India. It paved the way for a whole new ballgame in rail transportation, not a mere organic continuation of what IR had been used to producing in respect of trains, transformational leapfrog into the future of rail transport in India.   For four years the narrative, including mine, revolved