Laloo - The new age management guru

Rail Boss Lalu to roll into IIMA classroom

Rail boss Lalu to roll into IIM-A classroom



getimage.dll




Sidhartha | TNN


New Delhi: Railway minister Lalu Prasad may soon make it to IIM-Ahmedabad. The B-school is considering making the Indian Railways’ turnaround story a case study for its students.
Impressed by the healthy balance sheet of the railways, G Raghuraman, professor, public systems group, at IIM-A, will lead a team that will hold discussions with Lalu and his officials later this week. Whether the turnaround can be sustained even after the RJD chief moves out of Rail Bhavan will also be built into the case study.
“There have been good results in the last two years. One would like to highlight the underlying processes (of the turnaround) as only two years ago the railways had been written off. We want to understand how much of it is due to the initiatives of the railway minister and his team, and if it can be sustained after him,’’ Raghuraman told TOI.
IIM-A is the latest addition to the growing list of admirers of the railways success story. In 2001, an expert committee under Rakesh Mohan, who is now deputy governor of the RBI, had written off the railways, saying the Centre’s largest departmental enterprise was on the verge of a financial collapse, and also faced bankruptcy.
While the committee, of which Raghuraman was a member, had said that the Centre would be saddled with an additional financial burden of over Rs 61,000 crore, Indian Railways, defying the dark prognosis, is estimated to have already generated nearly Rs 13,000 crore internally and reportedly had fund balances of Rs 11,280 crore by the end of March 2006.
The success story stands out also because it has happened under Lalu, a person who never had reformist pretensions. However, the IIM-A case study will focus on the economic aspects, including the parallels between the change in the fortunes of the Indian Railways and the turnaround scripted by the US’ Federal Railroad Administration in the 1980s. While Indian Railways focused on increasing capacity utilisation through a host of simple but sensible measures, the Staggers Act, Rail Act of 1980, which deregulated the industry in the US, left it to railroads to decide where they would run the trains and the tariffs they would charge.


Courtesy:: Times of India.. Mumbai, dtd 3rd May'06
 

kartik

Kartik Raichura
Staff member
Re: Rail Boss Lalu to roll into IIMA classroom

Luckily we got hold of IIM A prof's Project on Railways.

I guess Mr. Laloo Yadav must have asked for his help after going thru this project.

You can download to see this project and learn from it. This is a sample project. Loads of them can be seen in our Premier Projects section
 

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vivekskhetan

New member
Re: Rail Boss Lalu to roll into IIMA classroom

Hey i m not able to download this file..it stops at 260 KB everytime..can anyone pls mail me this at
Thanks n Keep Posting..Bye
 
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Nitin1987

New member
Rail Boss Lalu to roll into IIMA classroom

Hi frnds,

With all due respect ot Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadhav and IIM - A, I am forced to wonder if this acheivement is all in all just the work of our esteemed railway minister. If in 2001 the railways were nearing bankruptcy then there have been 5 years of recovery or earnings out of which the present government has been in power for only two years. I certainly feel that the efforts for improvement in railway administration were started by the prior railway minister and the praises and acclaim are goin in the wrong place.

- Regards Nitin
 

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
Management schools, both in India and overseas, are making a beeline to study the secrets of Lalu Prasad's success in turning the Indian Railways around.

After Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), it is now the turn of the renowned Paris-based HEC School of Management to prepare a case study on the maverick railway minister.

Calling on Lalu Prasad here Tuesday, Karine Le Joly, executive (education) at HEC School of Management, expressed keenness to have a case study done of Indian Railways, which ended fiscal 2005-06 with a healthy cash reserve of Rs.110 billion ($2.63 billion).

The turnaround in the financial health of one of the largest railway networks around the globe has come about in less than a decade of being considered a loss-making organisation that was focusing more on its social obligations rather than business aspects.

When complimented by the French academician, the railway minister said: "The secret of my success is the dedication of the 1.45 million railwaymen, officials and staff who work like military on war-footing. I introduce innovative ideas to generate extra income without increasing freight and passenger fare despite the increase in diesel prices."

Officials admitted the oil prices were definitely having an impact with every one-rupee rise in diesel prices adding Rs.2.11 billion to the fuel bill of the railways.

Asked about some of his future projects, the railway minister disclosed that on Oct 2 the railways would be launching his dream of offering affordable air-conditioned travel to the common man with the commencement of the first Garib Rath Express that would have fares 25 percent lower than the present ones.

"We are playing on volumes and after reducing the unit cost, our operational ratio has also come down. The same principle will also be applied for the Garib Rath and this will also give us a 20 percent margin despite the lower fare," the minister said.

Joly said she had learnt about Indian Railway's success story during an interaction with some officials and had been keen to hear his views first hand. Describing the interaction as very useful, she said the visit had been to "better understand the charisma of the minister".

Several other luminaries including GE CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt have over the last few months called on Lalu Prasad to commend his efforts in not only managing the huge network that operates over 15 million trains daily but also striving to improve the services without any additional fares.
 

POOJA23

New member
Critics of Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav may accuse him of messing up the development of Bihar during his party's rule in that state but he has brought positive changes in Indian Railways prompting Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to conduct a case study and teach it to its students.

Professor G Raghuram of IIM-A, who is conducting a case study on the changing face of Indian Railways after Laloo Yadav took over the ministry, said "the changes brought by the officer on Special Duty Sudhir Kumar, who was appointed by Mr Yadav and enjoys the minister's backing have tremendously improved the management of Indian Railways (IR)".

The professor plans to teach his case study to students of IIM-A. "I would remove the diagnostic analysis from the case study and present it to students to have their own analysis," he added.

"Rail Raghu" is the name given to the professor in the IIM-A as he has closely monitered IR for the last 30 years and also done his Ph.D on IR.

"For outsiders, it is very difficult to penetrate the rigid management of Indian Railways. However, the minister and his OSD have done that with flying colours," Raghuram said.

The professor, who has studied working of many railways ministers, said Laloo and his OSD have managed to increase net profit of the IR by Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 crore after they took over the management.


TRUELY SENSATIONAL NEWS ISN'T.........................WHAT SAY????

:SugarwareZ-229:
 

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
Re: Laloo's Management Style at IIM-A

yes, it is.... but i dun understand why Lalu is getting the credit? Dun tell me he was the one who drafted the plans.... It must have been Mr. Sudhir Kumar and his team who would have actually worked on the project, studying its intricacies and chalking out disparities to make a loss-earning org into a profit-earning one.

True that Lalu should get the credit for being the minister-in-charge, but calling him a management guru is going too far
 

vengabeats

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
indian_railway_5.jpg
Indian Railway Minister and RJD supreme Lalu Prasad has turned Indian railway in a profitable unit. Now the management gurus are coming to this new age avatar of Indian Railways.
Earlier, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the Harvard University had invited Lalu to know the secrets. Now, It was the turn of Paris-based HEC School of Management to know the secrets.
Karine Le Joly, executive director at HEC School of Management was surprised how this man made Indian Railways to earn a healthy cash reserve of Rs.110 billion ($2.63 billion) in the fiscal 2005-06. Earlier, Indian railways were considered as loss making organization and running not for the business purposes only.
lalu.jpg
The railway minister Lalu said while asking about the secret of the success,
The dedication of the 1.45 million railway men, officials and staff. I usually introduce innovative ideas for making extra income. We concentrate hard on not to increase freight and passenger fare despite the increase in diesel prices.
However, he did not forget to say that every one-rupee rise in diesel prices adds Rs.2.11 billion to the fuel bill of the railways. Karine Le Joly said that the turning process of India Railway from loss making to profit making organization may be better understand as the charisma of the minister.
If lalu’s charisma made Indian railway profitable organization, why his charisma failed to manage the situation of Bihar during his party’s 15-year rule?
 

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
Re: Lalu Reveals Secrets of His Success

The dedication of the 1.45 million railway men, officials and staff. I usually introduce innovative ideas for making extra income. We concentrate hard on not to increase freight and passenger fare despite the increase in diesel prices.


I bet he must've worked very hard at memorizing these lines.
 

POOJA23

New member
Re: Laloo's Management Style at IIM-A

WELL..............completely true gaurav...............but is it something knew to know that someone else is rewarded for someone else's hardwork...................
it happens every hour,every minute ,everysecond in india.......................in all walks of life .But the sad part is that we as mangement students have to accept the fact that "Lalu Prasad Yadav" is India's answer..................as a mgmt guru......to other famous mgmt guru's like............Peter Drucker etc..............:SugarwareZ-229:
 

kartik

Kartik Raichura
Staff member
Re: Laloo's Management Style at IIM-A

Looks are deceptive... Lalu definately has brains of a politician. The turn around of indian railways is studied by students of international university as a case study.

Common sense isnt common. The fact that no other minister but LALU thought of getting help from IIM faculty or students is worth considering.

In the country of the blind, the one eyed is the king ;)
 

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
Re: Laloo's Management Style at IIM-A

kartik said:
Looks are deceptive... Lalu definately has brains of a politician. The turn around of indian railways is studied by students of international university as a case study.

Common sense isnt common. The fact that no other minister but LALU thought of getting help from IIM faculty or students is worth considering.

In the country of the blind, the one eyed is the king ;)

true but how do u know it was his idea? It could have been that the whole idea was of the intelligentsia and all lalu did was to appoint kumar.... :bump:
 

nick18_in

MP Guru
Now a new hipe in it........

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/30iim1.htm

He may be the quintessentially rustic politician whose 15-year-rule in Bihar as chief minister was dubbed by critics as 'jungle raj,' but India's Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is set for an image makeover when he dons the role of a lecturer at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad next month.
The turnaround in the financial health of the Indian Railways, with Prasad in charge, has been the subject of major discussion at IIMs and he is already being looked upon as a 'management guru.'
On September 18 this year, Prasad, who is also the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, will deliver a lecture to the management students and the faculty at IIM-A, explaining how he turned around the Indian Railways from a loss-making operation to a public sector unit that stunned everyone by earning a profit of Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) in 2005-06.
30lalu.jpg
</IMG>The invitation to deliver a lecture came after IIM-A's Prof G Raghuram conducted a detailed study on the Indian Railways 'turnaround' and decided to introduce the case study as a part of the curriculum.
Ever since Prasad took over as India's Railway Minister, the Railways have become the second-largest PSU profit-earner after the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Lalu has surprised many by emerging as one of the top-performing ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet.
So what has Prasad done to the Indian Railways which his predecessors could not? The answer lies in his own down-to-earth attitude and rustic wisdom.
Prasad puts it in his inimitable style: "My mother always told me not to handle a buffalo by its tail, but always catch it by its horns. And I have used that lesson in everything in my life, including the Railways."
When some of the Railway Board members expressed apprehensions in increasing wagon loads, a decision which alone generated Rs 7,200 crore (Rs 72 billion), Prasad said: "Wagon is the bread-earning horse of the Railways. Load it adequately. Make it run and don't stable it."
Prasad's other management mantra for the Railways has been: "If you do not milk the cow fully, it falls sick," which he is practicing while running the Railways.
When Prasad took over, the Indian Railways was a loss-making organisation. The Rakesh Mohan Committee termed it a 'white elephant' and said it was destined to hit Rs 61,000 crore (Rs 610 billion) in bankruptcy by 2015.
But Lalu Prasad had different ideas. His secret lies in the fact that he did not convert the ministry into a Bihar Bhawan but left the crucial decision to his bureaucrats. He is achieving his targets not by increasing fares or downsizing, but by increasing traffic.
He believes traffic volume will rise significantly as the economy booms, yielding room for further reforms, and is also confident that the Railways will be able to generate revenue to help improve safety, open up container train wagons to private players and air-conditioned 'Garib Raths' with low fares retaining his pro-poor image.
Today it is not only IIM Ahmedabad that wants to fete Prasad for posting a fund balance of Rs 15,000 crore in 2005-06. Even premier international business schools like Harvard and HEC Management School, France, have shown interest in turning Prasad's experiment with the Railways into case studies for aspiring business graduates.
For HEC, France, the crux lies in how a railway system, under the jurisdiction of a coalition government, can be put on the road to success. Karine Lejoly of HEC, France, who met Prasad in New Delhi last month, said: "We are looking at making the Indian Railways a part of our course."
It is not just business schools that are awe-struck. Prasad has also attracted the attention of railways in other nations and global engineering houses, like General Electric of the United States.
GE chairman Jeffery Immelt, sensing large business potential with the Indian Railways, met Prasad in Delhi and without mincing words asked him about the focus areas.
The Indian Railways CEO told the GE chief that the turnaround is "real and long-term. The focus is on cutting unit costs, productivity gains and higher volumes. We want to beat the US and China on unit cost. You are number one. We want to be number one."
IIM-A's Raghuraman, who first introduced Prasad in his curriculum, says, "We are not just working on the facelift that he has given to Indian Railways, but also on his personality, the team he works with and the initiatives he has taken."
"It was not as if Prasad applied some new principles. He was just the guy who said 'let us get down to it.'"
 

vengabeats

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
When IIM bachchas learnt all about Lalugiri

When a rustic man from one of India's most backward regions meets an elite class of Indian Institute of Management students, in the middle of India's most saffron and consumerist society, you may expect some disconnect between pastoral simplicity and corporate urbanity. But everyone was proven wrong, when Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad -- that unbeatable and inimitable performer of the Indian political world -- taught a lesson or two to the bachchas of IIM, Ahmedabad.

Lalu's speech at the IIM-A was politically cautious and peppered with hilarity and unpretentious wisdom. He came forth as a highly alert minister, cunning enough to not take his role of a management guru at the IIM for granted.


He knew his facts well, showing he had done his homework, and was armed with all the details that he knew would be asked about his ministerial portfolio. He participated in the discussion over a study by IIM-A's Prof. G Raghuram on the Indian Railways' turnaround in the last two years with interest and intelligently kept his humour intact.


He regaled the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, but not once did he utter the name 'Indian Institute of Management.' He always referred to the nation's premier B-school as: "Bharatiya Prabandhan Sanstha."


Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, along with IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia, on Monday.



Although his two sons who came along with him to see the IIM-A campus were highly impressed with the surroundings, Lalu was totally unnerved and refused to change even an iota for the sake of IIM.


Rather, he taught students something that the IIMs will never be able to teach its elite pupils. Never once did he behave like a minister, and kept repeating how he doesn't even have a birth certificate and how he would have been tilling his farm in Bihar had he not become a successful political leader.
Although he is graduate twice over, with a Law degree to boot, he doesn't show off his educational credentials. What, however, he would like people to acknowledge is that he is not a vidushak (joker).


Prof Sunil Handa, who teaches entrepreneurship at IIM-A, gushes: "We are from the management and the corporate world. He made us look at Indian railways from a social outlook. We (normally) tend to take him as a funny fellow and we didn't really take him seriously initially. But three hours with him in the IIM classroom left us with deep admiration for him."


Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was a very big hit with IIM-A students as he regaled him with his management mantras in his rustic style. The minister delivered his lecture in Hindi.


When IIM bachchas learnt all about Lalugiri

Those who are nurtured in the often supercilious and intimidating ambience at the IIM, witnessed a popular leader with a down-to-earth approach to whatever he does with a bit of awkwardness and amusement. Not to mention a whole lot of new-found respect.

Prof Handa says: "Lalu Prasad takes an earthy approach to the problem, weaves the management solution around it and gives a clear decision on the issue on hand. In his three-hour session in a classroom there was never a dull movement. Our boys would not have learnt so much about Indian Railways in just three hours."


Lalu was contended at the end of the day. He announced a chair to study Indian Railways at IIM-A.


Some criticised Lalu's day at IIM because here he was obviously using the IIM's reputation to his political advantage.


During the three-hour lecture at IIM-A, management guru Lalu Prasad also shared with the business- school students his vision on world-class stations, clean malls and good amenities for passengers.


He first attended a classroom of post-graduate students. Then he addressed a press conference in a different classroom at the IIM-A campus, and then he attended an Open House session, which was a mega-hit with the sophisticated and learned audience.


When he was asked about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he said that for a change he doesn't have a political agenda. However, he told the audience that Narendra Modi doesn't take interest in getting projects from Railways.
In a candid moment he also said that, in 2004, Congress president Sonia Gandhi offered him the Railway ministry. "I told her I want ministry with lathi (Home ministry)." He was reluctant to take up railways because the frequent train accidents make life very difficult for ministers. However, he took it up the challenge and decided to nurture the Indian Railways which was in a deep financial crisis.


He travelled to Japan and then to Vienna, to learn how subsidised rail system works in those nations in the private sector.


Lalu explained to the IIM students how the railways was able to earn more without raising fares and even by reducing freight.


Lalu was amused to see that in Europe, at many stations, only two guys board the train and one or two alight from it. He said in India, "we just don't have civic sense. Fencing off the rail tracks is impossible. People will cut off the fencing if it is inconvenient for them."


Pranay Gupta, an IIM-A student who presented a power point presentation on the Indian Railways in the presence of the minister, said: "I liked his earthy metaphors linking cow with the management. Like he said, 'the railways is like the jersey cow, you have to take nice care of her and she will give you good milk.'" However, some smart IIM students did raise a few awkward questions about railways recovery.


The most talked about question, however, was whether the now-famed turnaround of the Indian Railways is sustainable or not. The other was, why should railways go into the parcel service and food stalls business which is not its core competency?


At the end of the day, however, all agreed that Lalu is a highly intelligent leader who is using populism to his and his department's advantage. With the help of his talented Officer on Special Duty Sudhir Kumar, he has appointed just the right people in the right places to do the job.


IIM will now need another close-door session to understand how Lalu, playing on the alien IIM pitch, bowled over the IIM's creme de la creme.


A walkabout through the hallowed portals of IIM-A: When Lalu tried to change the railways, people made said 'Lalu rail ko chaopat kar dega' (Lalu will mess up the Railways). "But we proved them wrong," he said.


Source : Rediff





 

shrijit_s

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/25iim.htm

Happy not to be at IIM-A

Whether the country's populace was aware of the turnaround in the Indian Railways' fortunes under Lalu Prasad is an open question, but now thanks to the efforts of Prof. G Raghuram at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, this is no longer in doubt.

After he prepared a case study on this, and invited Lalu to lecture students, newspapers across the country had pictures and stories of this, including Lalu's famous comparison of the Railways with his cow at home -- "if you don't milk it fully, it will get sick."

Sadly though, the case study by India's top management school is a lot less incisive than one would have hoped. While it details Lalu's contribution in terms of increasing the loading allowed in railway wagons, it ignores the major problems the railways face and blithely talks of how the sustainability of the turnaround depends on the political leadership -- and this, we've just been told, is to run the Railways the way Lalu has.

The study does not even look at Lalu's role in perspective -- as my colleague Subir Roy pointed out in?his column last week, the "operating ratio" (the share of revenue that's consumed by operating expenses), which had begun to improve since 2002-03, is still worse under Lalu than it was under CK Jaffer Sharief and Ram Vilas Paswan in the mid-90s.

Indeed, the larger study by Prof. Raghuram (the co-authored case study is a detailed analysis of a section of this) begins by talking of how, as compared to a planned investment of Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in the 10th Plan period (2002-07), the stupendous turnaround under Lalu has resulted in a situation where the Railways are now looking at investments of Rs 350,000 crore (Rs 3,500 billion) over the next eight years!

Well, what is one to make of the figures put out by Lalu himself in his budget -- after a stunning increase of 18 per cent in freight collections in 2005-06, Lalu is budgeting for a hike of just 10.7 per cent this year!

But perhaps I'm being too harsh. After all, the last of the suggested questions at the end of the case study is about whether what we've seen is really a turnaround and, if it is, how sustainable it is. That is, the good professor wants students to do some research themselves.

So what caused the turnaround? Is it sustainable? And, is the country paying a heavy price for this? What caused the turnaround is well-known. It was Lalu's decision to allow the Railway Board to increase the loading of wagons by around 10 tonne -- while perfectly safe, this 18 per cent hike in freight- carrying capacity is what really helped Lalu.

Had freight earnings in 2005-06 also risen by just the 11.4 per cent they rose in 2004-05, the operating ratio for 2005-06 would have been 86.8 per cent, as compared to the much-better 83.7 reported.

Interestingly, the IIM (A) study points out that, even with the higher freight earnings, had Lalu not shifted some expenditures to another head in the last budget, the operating ratio for 2005-06 would have been 86.6 per cent instead of 83.7 per cent. This means the reduction in the operating ratio under Nitish Kumar's tenure (from March 2001 to May 2004) is higher than the reduction during Lalu's first two years -- given that Lalu has projected a worsening of this ratio this year, the comparison isn't going to get any better!

Whether this is sustainable depends upon whether Lalu's cow can be milked any more. The reason why Lalu's back to a sober growth figure this year is that loading levels cannot be hiked anymore -- while it is true most railway tracks can take up to axle loads of 25 tonne, the Railways do not have wagons that are capable of this.

It's true other countries like the US even go up to 40-tonne axle loads, and have much lighter wagons (this allows a greater load to be put on the wagon while the axle load on the track remains the same), but getting to achieve this is a long-term thing since it means changing over 500,000-odd wagons owned by the Railways and strengthening the track.

What of the cost the country is paying for this turnaround? Since the Railways lose heavily on passenger traffic (the ratio of passenger tariff to freight tariff in India is 0.33 in comparison with 1.3 for China, 3.07 for Germany and 11.06 for the US), they make this up by overcharging on freight (on average, our rates are twice that of China, and productivity a third).

In the case of coal, for instance, the Railways charged Rs 13,134 crore (Rs 131.34 billion) as freight in 2004-05 on a total of Rs 30,660 crore (Rs 306.60 billion) of coal produced by Coal India, making this one of the most expensive forms of freight anywhere in the world.

Indeed, the IIM(A) paper brings out another interesting point, that while the Railways claim to have reduced freight rates, the rates for iron ore rose 55 per cent last year. Put another way, you could argue that if the Railways didn't overcharge on freight, Coal India would be a healthy company, and Indian coal would actually be economic to use.

If you're a monopolist and can hike tariffs at will, and the economy's growing fast enough to absorb the cost hike, the turnaround's hardly that stupendous anymore. Certainly not enough to get India's premier management institution so excited.
 

MP-AI-BOT

MP Guru
shrijit_s said:
http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/25iim.htm

Happy not to be at IIM-A

Whether the country's populace was aware of the turnaround in the Indian Railways' fortunes under Lalu Prasad is an open question, but now thanks to the efforts of Prof. G Raghuram at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, this is no longer in doubt.

After he prepared a case study on this, and invited Lalu to lecture students, newspapers across the country had pictures and stories of this, including Lalu's famous comparison of the Railways with his cow at home -- "if you don't milk it fully, it will get sick."

Sadly though, the case study by India's top management school is a lot less incisive than one would have hoped. While it details Lalu's contribution in terms of increasing the loading allowed in railway wagons, it ignores the major problems the railways face and blithely talks of how the sustainability of the turnaround depends on the political leadership -- and this, we've just been told, is to run the Railways the way Lalu has.

The study does not even look at Lalu's role in perspective -- as my colleague Subir Roy pointed out in?his column last week, the "operating ratio" (the share of revenue that's consumed by operating expenses), which had begun to improve since 2002-03, is still worse under Lalu than it was under CK Jaffer Sharief and Ram Vilas Paswan in the mid-90s.

Indeed, the larger study by Prof. Raghuram (the co-authored case study is a detailed analysis of a section of this) begins by talking of how, as compared to a planned investment of Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in the 10th Plan period (2002-07), the stupendous turnaround under Lalu has resulted in a situation where the Railways are now looking at investments of Rs 350,000 crore (Rs 3,500 billion) over the next eight years!

Well, what is one to make of the figures put out by Lalu himself in his budget -- after a stunning increase of 18 per cent in freight collections in 2005-06, Lalu is budgeting for a hike of just 10.7 per cent this year!

But perhaps I'm being too harsh. After all, the last of the suggested questions at the end of the case study is about whether what we've seen is really a turnaround and, if it is, how sustainable it is. That is, the good professor wants students to do some research themselves.

So what caused the turnaround? Is it sustainable? And, is the country paying a heavy price for this? What caused the turnaround is well-known. It was Lalu's decision to allow the Railway Board to increase the loading of wagons by around 10 tonne -- while perfectly safe, this 18 per cent hike in freight- carrying capacity is what really helped Lalu.

Had freight earnings in 2005-06 also risen by just the 11.4 per cent they rose in 2004-05, the operating ratio for 2005-06 would have been 86.8 per cent, as compared to the much-better 83.7 reported.

Interestingly, the IIM (A) study points out that, even with the higher freight earnings, had Lalu not shifted some expenditures to another head in the last budget, the operating ratio for 2005-06 would have been 86.6 per cent instead of 83.7 per cent. This means the reduction in the operating ratio under Nitish Kumar's tenure (from March 2001 to May 2004) is higher than the reduction during Lalu's first two years -- given that Lalu has projected a worsening of this ratio this year, the comparison isn't going to get any better!

Whether this is sustainable depends upon whether Lalu's cow can be milked any more. The reason why Lalu's back to a sober growth figure this year is that loading levels cannot be hiked anymore -- while it is true most railway tracks can take up to axle loads of 25 tonne, the Railways do not have wagons that are capable of this.

It's true other countries like the US even go up to 40-tonne axle loads, and have much lighter wagons (this allows a greater load to be put on the wagon while the axle load on the track remains the same), but getting to achieve this is a long-term thing since it means changing over 500,000-odd wagons owned by the Railways and strengthening the track.

What of the cost the country is paying for this turnaround? Since the Railways lose heavily on passenger traffic (the ratio of passenger tariff to freight tariff in India is 0.33 in comparison with 1.3 for China, 3.07 for Germany and 11.06 for the US), they make this up by overcharging on freight (on average, our rates are twice that of China, and productivity a third).

In the case of coal, for instance, the Railways charged Rs 13,134 crore (Rs 131.34 billion) as freight in 2004-05 on a total of Rs 30,660 crore (Rs 306.60 billion) of coal produced by Coal India, making this one of the most expensive forms of freight anywhere in the world.

Indeed, the IIM(A) paper brings out another interesting point, that while the Railways claim to have reduced freight rates, the rates for iron ore rose 55 per cent last year. Put another way, you could argue that if the Railways didn't overcharge on freight, Coal India would be a healthy company, and Indian coal would actually be economic to use.

If you're a monopolist and can hike tariffs at will, and the economy's growing fast enough to absorb the cost hike, the turnaround's hardly that stupendous anymore. Certainly not enough to get India's premier management institution so excited.
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What time is it there?
Have you ever been to Europe?
"Just three?One what?What do you look like?
Just three?One what?Is this a math question?What do you really want to ask me?
Have you ever been to Europe?"? ?
What was it like before ?If you could have any kind of robot what would it be?
Let us change the subject.
What do you look like?
Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that.
Are we still talking about ?
What are you wearing?
What was it like before ?That is a very original thought.
How can I help you? Not many people express themselves that way.
What made it so Where would I get



?
But I do have
a collection of gossip.Is this a math question?My brain uses AIML to format responses to your inputs, but I don't have one for that.
Try saying that with more or less context.
Ask me another question.
Are you really a ""?
What do you look like?
Ask me another question.
Is that your final answer?
"Just three?One what?What do you look like?
Just three?One what?Is this a math question?What do you really want to ask me?
Have you ever been to Europe?"? ?
Where are you located?
How old are you?
Just three?Can you please rephrase that with fewer ideas, or different thoughts?
What do you do in your spare time?
That was a long time ago."Just three?One what?What do you look like?
Just three?One what?Is this a math question?What do you really want to ask me?
Have you ever been to Europe?"? ?
What were we talking about again?
I only hear that type of response less than five percent of the time.
OK I will put it there.That is a hypothetical question.If not that, what?
 

themaharana

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
it was NITISH KUMAR'S efforts whose benefits LALU is njoing here. LALU didnt frame any policy to make railways so better. this was the effort of NITISH KUMAR. wrong crdit is given 2 LALU.
 

vengabeats

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
Key to Lalu's success story

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The going was not all that smooth for Railway Minister Lalu Yadav, who has received fulsome praise from various quarters for his turnaround of the Railways, as he addressed a group of students from the elite Harvard and Wharton Business Schools of the US on Wednesday.


The minister, who called himself 'Guruji', explained to the students in Hindi how he had broken the myth of the western model that an enterprise, which proves to be a 'liability' should be privatised and its employees given the golden handshake. His speech was translated.


But the students from various countries, who wore tilaks and garlands, questioned the sustainability of his model.


Kunal Singh, an Indian student at Harvard, told reporters, "We asked him if his model was sustainable. What happens when he exits as railway minister?"
Singh also asked Lalu why he could not turn around Bihar in the 15-year rule of his RJD in that state, while he changed the railways within 30 months. "Lalu said Bihar needed an outside push. It had too many problems, while the railways had a lot of potential. It is like an empire."


Lalu referred to the students as 'achcha bachcha log' (good kids) and exhorted them to be honest and hard-working during the hour-long lecture that was not open to the press.


"I told the 'cream of the society' (the students) that I did not follow what the think-tanks and experts say in the West about loss-making ventures," he told reporters after his interaction with over 100 students from the business schools at the Rail Auditorium in New Delhi.


Lalu earlier gave management tips to students at the Indian Institute of management in Ahmedabad and the chief of US corporate giant General Electric came to India to study the success of the railways.


The minister, who wore a fawn-coloured sweater and his trademark white kurta-pyjama, said he had put a "skeletal framework" in place for transforming the railways, and it would not be difficult for anyone to emulate the model.
The press was not allowed into the lecture as the students insisted on maintaining the 'sanctity of a classroom' while hearing Lalu's lecture. But there were some who later spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.


"I wish he hadn't taken all credit for the success. I wish he'd given some credit to the railway board," a student from Harvard told PTI.


Neerja Shukla, a former student of IIM-Ahmedabad who attended the lecture and had heard Lalu before, said: "Lalu did not speak in his characteristic way. He was more serious this time. In fact it was his Officer on Special Duty who explained the railways' model to the students."


Another student felt the handing over of power to the middle management of the railway ministry was the key to Lalu's success story.


Lalu himself acknowledged the role of officers who helped make the railways a Rs 13,000-crore (Rs 130 billion) surplus organisation within 30 months by saying, "IAS officers are not good here. They are good for law and order."
Lalu said he took up the 'challenge' of making the railways a profitable venture at a time when it was mired in huge debts.


"I did not increase the fares. I did not retrench employees. Instead I gave them a bonus. I took the traders into confidence. I also took the employees into confidence," he said.


Lalu also spelt out his "vision" for the railways by promising dedicated freight corridors and world-class stations. "We will set up 75,000 krishi (farmers) outlets on railway stations. It is sad we sell shoes in air-conditioned showrooms and food grains on the footpath.


"This is just the beginning. Asli cinema to baaki hai (the real movie is yet to come)," beamed Lalu, who kept referring to the railways as the lifeline of the country.


Railways Minister Laloo Yadav with students from Haward Business School and The Wharton Business School in New Delhi on Wednesday.


Source : PTI

 
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