An Indecisive Indian

  On June 1, Indian Railways (IR) proudly added an 18th star to its official emblem to celebrate the birth of yet another railway zone, South Coast Railway at Visakhapatnam. At this rate, the logo may soon require a constellation chart rather than a graphic designer. One almost expected fireworks, commemorative stamps, and perhaps even a proclamation that the laws of railway economics had finally been repealed. Unfortunately, the new star signifies not operational progress but the continuing fragmentation of a national transporter into ever-smaller territorial fiefdoms. What is presented as decentralisation is, in reality, the steady Balkanisation of IR, driven less by operational necessity than by political considerations. I wrote about it in The Hindu BusinessLine on 2 June 2026 (link and image appened in the end) and here is a summary of that: IR was never meant to function like a collection of state fiefdoms. It was designed as a seamless national network moving passeng...