Lalu's train chugs into IIM books

New Delhi: They may travel in two different directions, but India's premier business school, the Indian Institute of Management, and India’s most colourful politician and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad have begun looking at the complete turnaround of the Indian Railways with a reverential awe.

And if the proposed ideas get materialised, the Indian Railways may well be headed into the textbooks that teach India's future managers.

Lalu and his newfound economic sense have already been made a part of the IIM study material.

A faculty member of IIM-Ahmedabad was in the Capital to meet the minister and his team and find out how Lalu's ministry is chugging on the right track.

"We had a meeting with the IIM professors. The entire Railway Board was there," Lalu said.

The delegates were led by IIM-A Professor G Raghuram and were keen on ascertaining the sustainability of the current Railways model which they feel could be a lesson for other large government enterprises.

"This entire thing can take on commercial purposes. This can also serve as a model for other sectors like ports, roads etc," Raghuram said.

But despite the brilliant performance of the Indian Railways over the past few years, there are certain concerns that remain.

According to the IIM team, the Railways, despite their success akin to corporate business houses, still depend on a politician for leadership - something that a technocrat would do much better.

"The political leadership comes not necessarily through managerial leadership of being able to manage the Railways. It comes from a variety of other reasons that could be a hindrance," Raghuram says.

But Lalu the politician, who has also proved himself a capable manager by steering the Railways to profit, politely declined ideas from the academicians on how to run his ministry.

"Ministers will come and go, but systems are in place. Better people would come and the rules won't change," Lalu says.

Though the Railway Minister is being applauded for saving the ministry from the brink of bankruptcy, but he now needs to ensure the work he's begun continues for the Railways to remain a role model in corporate management.

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