An Indecisive Indian

We have been hearing of the plans of central government to corporatize some state-owned & state-managed organizations in recent years and one of the areas is the Production Units (PUs) of Indian Railways IR); the factories in which IR manufactures its locomotives and trains and some capital spares. There are seven major units and involve some 40000 employees; three units, ICF/Chennai, RCF/Kapurthala and MCF/Rae Bareli, which manufacture coaches, three units, CLW/Chittaranjan,   DLW/Varanasi and DLMW/Patiala, which manufacture locomotives and RWF/Bangalore, which manufactures railway wheels. The idea of disuniting these seven PUs from Indian Railways in as much as the latter is a government organization and transforming them into independent corporations as Public Sector Units (PSUs), albeit within the ambit of the Ministry of Railways, has been mooted from time to time. In 2019, however, after this government came to power again, the idea to hive off these PUs and bring th...

Train 18/Vande Bharat express is in news once again. No, perhaps not the train so much, but the creators of the train, albeit for the wrong reasons. Not much news can be expected in respect of the train as the much-promised third rake is nowhere in sight. Yes, it has been put back in operation after Lockdown and a big news was created about it but was that really newsworthy? The two trains ran for more than a year without any hitch or glitch, without a single cancellation of service. Or, are the announcements for more and more Train 18 rakes newsworthy any more? It is as if mere promises of 100 rakes, or even 44 rakes, matter more than actual delivery. As for the creators, much hullabaloo about them being spared by the CVC is so misplaced. It is like you give a dog a bad name, move ahead to hang him and ceremoniously spare him the noose after the dog has already suffered silently and mre importantly, ignominiously. And not all have been spared, as you would definitely know. Some have a...