DNA Money Edit: Off flowers, gifts, Railways chugs on

Indian Railways, the most bloated state-owned organisation in the country, has now embarked on a mission to curtail costs with a vengeance.

Beginning 2018, there was no Happy New Year greetings card sent out to any well-wisher, bureaucrat or any politician and no flower bouquet was given to anybody, nor even any minister or any chief guest of any of the events where the Railways had to bear the costs.

There were clear instructions issued by the Railways Board just before the close of the year not to spend money on buying greetings cards or flower bouquets and it can be safely assumed that such instructions have been followed considering that no official of the department would dare to clear such bills.

Though intentions are noble, one can debate whether such small measures would really add up in any meaningful way to help reduce costs of running Railways once described as "imperium in imperio," an empire within an empire.

To harvest ideas for transforming the department, Indian Railways have been inviting eminent personalities to share their ideas which include people like former Sebi chief M Damodaran to motivational speaker Shiv Khera. Ideas of innovations from every hierarchy of employees are being encouraged and disseminated by posting on Youtube.

Years of underinvestment has led to severe constraints in the capacities, and congestion on the network resulting in the inability to accommodate more trains and increase speed.

Safety is also being compromised as many level crossings remain unmanned.

We hope the gestures above are the harbinger of some great things to come for a behemoth lead by a dynamic minister Piyush Goyal.