New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Indian Railways, the National transporter has taken an important initiative in the field of innovation through the participation of start-ups and other entities. Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw has launched “StartUps for Railways” in Rail Bhavan, New Delhi on June 13, 2022.
This policy will bring scale and efficiency in the field of operation, maintenance, and infrastructure creation through the participation of a very large and untapped startup ecosystem.
Objectives of the Policy
The objective is to leverage innovative technologies developed by Indian Startups/ MSMEs/ Innovators / Entrepreneurs to improve the operational efficiency and safety of the Indian Railways
Speaking at the event, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the long-going discussions over the integration of technology into Indian Railways have taken today the firm shape in form of this initiative launched today.
Expressing his happiness on the launch of this initiative the Minister said that through this platform start-ups will get a good opportunity to connect with Railways. Out of over 100 problem statements received from different divisions, field offices/zones of Railways, 11 problem statements like rail fracture, headway reduction etc. have been taken up for phase 1 of this program. These will be presented before the start-ups to find innovative solutions.
Railway Minister requested the startups to use this opportunity and ensured them of support from Indian Railways in form of a 50 percent capital grant, assured market, scale and ecosystem.
The salient feature of the Policy
Some of the salient features of the Indian Railway Innovation Policy are as under:-
In the month of May, field units were asked to provide Problem Areas. In response to it, around 160 problem statements have been received to date. To start with, 11 problem statements have been identified to deal with via new Innovation Policy and uploaded on the portal.
According to Railway, more problem statements have been collected from Railways, which are under scrutiny and shall be uploaded in a phased manner.