HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, June 16: Indian Railways has taken an important initiative in the field of innovation through participation of start-ups and other entities. Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, recently launched an innovation policy – :StartUps for Railways’ on June 13, 2022 in Rail Bhavan, New Delhi. In line with Indian Railways initiatives towards innovative solutions to acquire operational efficiency and safety, Anshul Gupta, general manager of Northeast Frontier Railway held a press conference at Guwahati on Wednesday.
The general manager informed that the policy aims to bring scale and efficiency in the field of operation, maintenance and infrastructure creation through participation of the very large and untapped startup ecosystem. Anshul Gupta said that the integration of disruptive technology into Indian Railways has taken a firm shape in the form of this initiative.
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The general manager said that through this platform startups youth will get a good opportunity to connect with railways. Out of various problem statements received from different field offices/zones of railways, 11 problem statements like rail fracture, headway reduction, etc., have been taken up initially for this program. These will be presented before the startups to find innovative solutions. The general manager urged the startups to use this opportunity and assured them of support from Indian Railways in form of 50 percent capital grant, assured market, scale and ecosystem.
Under this programme, innovators can get a grant up to Rs 1.5 crore on equal sharing basis with provision of milestone-wise payment. Complete process from floating of the problem statement to development of the prototype is online with a defined time line to make it transparent and objective. Trials of prototypes will be done in railways. Enhanced funding will be provided to scale up deployment on successful performance of prototypes. Developed Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) will remain with innovators only. Assured development orders will be provided to innovators.
The general manager said that the selection will be through open, transparent and fair process which will entail innovators uploading their concepts with necessary proof on a dedicated portal can be done at the Indian Railway Innovation Portal on web address www.innovation.indianrailways.gov.in. The portal will start accepting ideas from June 21, 2022.
