The Ministry of Railways saw the appointment of a fresh political leadership team in the much-awaited Union Government cabinet reshuffle yesterday.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Member of Rajya Sabha from Odisha, was appointed the Minister of Railways. In addition, Darshana Jardosh, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Surat in Gujarat and Raosaheb Patil Danve, Lok Sabha MP from Jalna in Maharashtra, were appointed as the Ministers of State in the Ministry of Railways.
The Minister of Railways will also manage the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Information Technology as part of his responsibilities. Both MoSRs have also been handed portfolios connected to other ministries. Darshana Jardosh will also be working with the former Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal at the Ministry of Textiles, where she also holds the portfolio of Minister of State in addition to Railways.
The new team took charge of the ministry today and posted tweets thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the responsibility.
Optimism and Relief
Serving and retired railway officials greeted the appointment of Ashwini Vaishnaw as Railway Minister with cautious optimism and even a hint of relief.
Railway officials, who asked not to be named, are optimistic. His public sector work experience on the ground and right at the top in the PMO as an IAS official could be of help, according to one official. “He will be more polite for sure,” remarked another senior official.
Sudhanshu Mani, the retired senior official who ran the Train-18 project, is positive. “Indian Railways are in serious doldrums as the Operating Ratio, on an apple-to-apple basis, is more than 125% and not the touted 97%. In such a scenario comes a man with a unique profile: a brilliant Engineering and Management student, IAS and hence the experience of government working, insight into dealing with IR from the other side of the table (Siemens and GETS), running his own companies and finally as an RS member. Achche Din for IR!,” he said.
Private sector players catering to the railways are preferring to take a wait-and-watch approach. “There are several issues plaguing the Indian Railways and the COVID-19 pandemic has made things worse. It remains to be seen if there will be a significant shift in policy, approach to infrastructure spending and organizational matters,” said a source working with an Indian Railways supplier.
The Wharton MBA Railway Minister
The newly inducted Minister of Railways brings valuable experience in the public and private sector to the table. After completing his M Tech from IIT Kanpur, the Jodhpur, Rajasthan born minister joined the Indian Administrative Services in the late 90s.
His work in Odisha over the next few years is said to have caught the eye of top officials, according to a report in The Print. This led to him serving a short stint in the Prime Minister’s Office during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee from August 2003 onwards.
When a new government took over after May 2004, Vaishnaw served as the private secretary to then former PM Vajpayee for almost two years. In 2006, he moved to the Mormugao Port Trust in Goa as Deputy Chairman for the next 20 months.
It is at this point that Vaishnaw left the civil services to study at the Wharton School in the United States. He returned to India after a two-year MBA and went on to work in the private sector.
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This is when he worked with GE Transportation (now acquired by Wabtec), where he served as Managing Director (Commercial) and Siemens, where he took over as a Vice President. Both companies supply locomotives, rolling stock and components to Indian Railways. Vaishnaw soon decided to get into business for himself. He has set up two automotive component manufacturing units in Gujarat in the past decade.
Ashwini Vaishnaw was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha in July 2019 and has served as an MP since.
Indian Railways is perhaps the biggest public sector undertaking with vast experience in almost all fields from all over the country. In fact it is a mini India.
Covid-19 and its after effects have broughtout some of the issues which need special attention, from futuristic considerations. As it is a National life line, let us hope that needed attention is given without any bias.