According to Ashwini Vaishnaw, this platform will provide businesses with a great opportunity to engage with railways.
Through the engagement of start-ups and other entities, Indian Railways has taken a significant step forward in the field of innovation. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology, announced “StartUps for Railways” on Monday, a policy aiming at bringing scale and efficiency to the field of operation, maintenance, and infrastructure building by enlisting the help of a big and untapped startup ecosystem.
The Railway Minister encouraged startups to take advantage of this opportunity and assured them of Indian Railways’ support in the form of a 50% capital grant, as well as a guaranteed market, scale, and ecosystem. According to the new policy, an innovator will be offered a grant of up to Rs. 1.5 crore on an equal share basis, with a payment schedule based on milestones. Railways will conduct prototype testing. On the basis of the prototypes’ success, further funds will be made available to scale up deployment. The entire process, from the formulation of the problem definition to prototype creation, is conducted online with a predetermined timeline to ensure transparency and objectivity. In addition, a transparent and fair approach will be used to select innovators, which will be handled through an online platform launched by the Minister of Railways.
Another characteristic of the new policy is that it will reward innovation, with developed intellectual property rights (IPR) remaining solely in the hands of the creator. Furthermore, such products will guarantee the development of railways. To reduce delays, the new strategy will promote decentralization of the entire product development process at the divisional level. Field units were asked to provide Problem Areas for the month of May. So far, roughly 160 problem statements have been received in response to it. To begin, 11 issue statements have been identified that will be addressed by the new Innovation Policy. Broken Rail Detection System, Rail Stress Monitoring System, Headway Improvement System for Suburban Section compatible with Indian Railways National ATP System, Automation of Track Inspection Activities, and others are among them. Superior Elastomeric Pad (EM Pad) Design for Heavy Haul Freight Wagons Development of an online condition monitoring system for 3-phase electric locomotive traction motors, as well as a lightweight wagon for hauling commodities such as salt. Development of analytic tool through the use of digital data for a better traveling experience.
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