When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke..a real bad one!! But then, rediff.com, NDTV, CNN-IBN and Google news don't pull off an April fool in the middle of September!!! So, guess it was true! Mr.Laloo Prasad Yadav would be teaching management fundas to the esteemed mortals in the hallowed interiors of IIM-A. That should be interesting, I thought with a sly grin. Just what could a dhoti clad, rustic old man teach the abnormally smart kids out there. But then, this could not be happening without a reason. Hmm... high time I took another hard look at the railway budget for these two years before writing him off completely.
I did hear the railway budget buzz just before the financial budgets were announced and all the journalists commending ( and secretly wondering!!! ) Mr.Yadav for managing to make Indian railways a profit producing unit in a surprisingly short span of two years. At this point, let me add that Mr.Nitish Kumar laid the foundation for this turnaround. But, it took the added impetus of Mr.Yadav for the results to finally start showing. 1-2 dedicated prime time news discussions later, the talks would again turn to the financial budget and what was cooking at the Finance Ministry Office! But, this recent move by the management of IIM-A to invite Mr.Laloo Prasad Yadav to deliver a special lecture, really made everyone sit back and take the man and his strategies more seriously than ever before!
Well, Google surprised me with the statistics it had to offer about the Indian railways over the past two years. The numbers and the tremendous turnover of this gigantic public sector definitely made for an interesting business school case study. This increase in profits without any increase in passenger fares and freight charges was another commendable feat. Loads of strategizing , planning and stream lining must be going into bringing forth this favourable change. Mr.Yadav sure must be busy doing sme awesome strategizing back there (Forgive me for my biased opinion, but I would like to believe that he surely must have kept away from the day-to-day management for it to function properly!) to bring about this turnaround.
Well, the arguments might be many. Some may say that this is just another vote bank politics gimmick of Mr.Yadav as he has a point to prove given the fact that he faced such a huge and embarassing defeat in the last year's state elections, while some say that Indian railways had to come of age without much choice, given the fast declining airfares and reducing number of passengers. Whatver the reason, this positive change is a good sign for the Indian economy and a great news for the Indian Railways passenger. At the end of it all, the man having the last laugh is Mr.Laloo Prasad Yadav, no doubts about that one Sir !!!!
I did hear the railway budget buzz just before the financial budgets were announced and all the journalists commending ( and secretly wondering!!! ) Mr.Yadav for managing to make Indian railways a profit producing unit in a surprisingly short span of two years. At this point, let me add that Mr.Nitish Kumar laid the foundation for this turnaround. But, it took the added impetus of Mr.Yadav for the results to finally start showing. 1-2 dedicated prime time news discussions later, the talks would again turn to the financial budget and what was cooking at the Finance Ministry Office! But, this recent move by the management of IIM-A to invite Mr.Laloo Prasad Yadav to deliver a special lecture, really made everyone sit back and take the man and his strategies more seriously than ever before!
Well, Google surprised me with the statistics it had to offer about the Indian railways over the past two years. The numbers and the tremendous turnover of this gigantic public sector definitely made for an interesting business school case study. This increase in profits without any increase in passenger fares and freight charges was another commendable feat. Loads of strategizing , planning and stream lining must be going into bringing forth this favourable change. Mr.Yadav sure must be busy doing sme awesome strategizing back there (Forgive me for my biased opinion, but I would like to believe that he surely must have kept away from the day-to-day management for it to function properly!) to bring about this turnaround.
Well, the arguments might be many. Some may say that this is just another vote bank politics gimmick of Mr.Yadav as he has a point to prove given the fact that he faced such a huge and embarassing defeat in the last year's state elections, while some say that Indian railways had to come of age without much choice, given the fast declining airfares and reducing number of passengers. Whatver the reason, this positive change is a good sign for the Indian economy and a great news for the Indian Railways passenger. At the end of it all, the man having the last laugh is Mr.Laloo Prasad Yadav, no doubts about that one Sir !!!!
3 comments:
Nice blog...
I read about Prof. Yadav only after he had delievered the lecture... When I read his lecture review in the Ecomomic Times, I was Awed... The Lallu was not really a Lallu after all... He did conduct himself very well in the sessions there...
As far as the Railways go, well many times Ignorance is a Bliss.. Consider this, a level headed person that laloo is might have instructed his bureaucrats that I need this to be achieved... I dont know how u do it... You have all my support!! This solves lots of problems... Whatever hats off for now to Prof. Yadav!!!!
well.. u know i wonder why ppl do such things... i mean sincerely... without any sarcsasm or criticism..
abt laluji... even i was surprised to c the recovery of the railways.. actually he did one very smart thing.. earlier the wagons were being loaded more than the officially permitted weight... no prizes for guessing where the extra money went...
it seems lalu made this practice official... thereby ruling out any chances of corruption in this area.. of course ppl wil find some way.. but this particular income was gone for them... i was very surprised when i read this.. maybe ther is stll some gud left in him...may god stoke that ember !!
there might b some differences in my view and urs.. but i appreciate ur fluency in english...
all the best 2 u .. carry on blogging...
A lil late reply 2 the comments on this one, but better late than never..so here it goes.. :)
@Amrut: Well, wotever the means 2 achieve this phenomenonal turnaround, am glad that its happening! After u mentioning it, I read the piece on Laloo in ET n sure did like it! So, thanx 4 that! :)
@Anonymous: U sure have done ur homework on Laloo! Well, guess we don't need 2 wonder much about why Laloo is doing wot he is doing as long as it is good 4 the economy I guess! Thanx 4 ur comments on my blog! Effort appreciated! would help if u leave behind ur name next time! :)
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