Fixing the fiefdom

MUKUL ASHER states that the main function of the Indian Railways was to provide rail transport related services with the least economic resource costs to the society and that they had to rely on multiple options including internal projects, contracts and PPP to deliver on the revenue target of 3% of the GDP. In an opinion piece in DNA, "For PPPs to work, Railways must change mindset", he concludes that the push towards PPP was doomed to fail in the absence of multiple enabling measures including accrual-based accounting, modern budgeting and management information systems, competition, revamped incentive structures and absorption of new technologies.