...Indian Railways – A monopoly Abstract In economics, monopoly (from Greek monos (alone or single) + polein (to sell)) exists when delivery of a particular product or service is completely controlled by an individual or an enterprise. This is in contrast to monopsony where there is only one buyer of a particular product or service; however there can be more than one provider. It is also different from cartel (a form of oligopoly) wherein several providers establish an institution and coordinate their actions and services. Indian Railways is the state-owned railway company of India having more than 64000 Kilometers of track and 6909 stations. It has the world’s 4th largest railway network after that of United States, Russia and China. It carries over 20 million passengers and 2 million tons of freight daily. It is one of the world’s largest commercial employers with more than 1.6 million employees. It owns over 200000 freight wagons, 50000 coaches and 8000 locomotives. Indian railways hold monopoly in rail transport in India. Source of their market power can be attributed to following factors 1. Capital Intensive venture, which can be understood from the fact that Indian railways has a separate budget each year 2. Economies of scale, as Indian railways operate all over India and thus have sufficient operating domain to achieve economies of scale which a new entrant cannot easily replicate 3. Government rules and regulations Indian railways has a position, which is not possible...
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...Indian Railways – A monopoly Abstract In economics, monopoly (from Greek monos (alone or single) + polein (to sell)) exists when delivery of a particular product or service is completely controlled by an individual or an enterprise. This is in contrast to monopsony where there is only one buyer of a particular product or service; however there can be more than one provider. It is also different from cartel (a form of oligopoly) wherein several providers establish an institution and coordinate their actions and services. Indian Railways is the state-owned railway company of India having more than 64000 Kilometers of track and 6909 stations. It has the world’s 4th largest railway network after that of United States, Russia and China. It carries over 20 million passengers and 2 million tons of freight daily. It is one of the world’s largest commercial employers with more than 1.6 million employees. It owns over 200000 freight wagons, 50000 coaches and 8000 locomotives. Indian railways hold monopoly in rail transport in India. Source of their market power can be attributed to following factors 1. Capital Intensive venture, which can be understood from the fact that Indian railways has a separate budget each year 2. Economies of scale, as Indian railways operate all over India and thus have sufficient operating domain to achieve economies of scale which a new entrant cannot easily replicate 3. Government rules and regulations Indian railways has a position, which is...
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... and Railways play a key role in not only meeting the transport needs of the country, but also in binding together dispersed areas and promoting national integration. Indian Railways have emerged as the sinews of the Indian economy, and have reached out to bring together the great Indian family. Indian railway is a Central Government owned Railway Company of India, which owns and operates most of the country’s rail transport. Indian Railways has more than 64,215 kms of the track and 7,083 stations. It has the World’s fourth world’s largest network after those of the US, Russia and China. It carries 30 million passengers & .2.8 million tons of freight daily. Indian Railways, therefore, rightly occupy pride of place in the growth and development of the nation. Apart from normal trains connecting almost all part of the country, the Indian Railways also runs special luxury trains like the Palace on Wheels, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Fairy Queen, etc. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Railways play a crucial role in the modern economy. This project is done to identify and analyze the level of satisfaction of the consumers and their problems faced in the railways. It is one among the high preferable means of transport by the people of India. But there are various problems faced by them in different aspects in journey. OBJECTIVES To know the consumers awareness about the services provided by the railways. To study the consumer preferences towards railways. To...
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...India should privatise railways for better efficiency India’s booming economy which is considered one of the fastest growing in the world demands better performance in transportation, especially when it comes to the case of gigantic sloth of Indian Railways (IR)! The behemoth public sector enterprise runs more than 18,000 trains daily and is comfortably one of the biggest rail networks in the world. However, it is yet to economise on the concept of modernisation and automation. In order to make the system more efficient, most of the nations across the world have privatised their mass transportation system. Undoubtedly, a better experience of travelling and transport can only be achieved by private participation and eventually it will also enhance the bottomline that has been looming at $48 billion as of 2009. IR currently suffers from dearth of resources. Sadly, the infrastructure and manufacturing capacity available to IR is never enough to meet the increasing demand of locomotives and wagons! Nor does India stand a chance to meet the international safety standards, efficiencies and finesse of the railway services of Europe and North America! The service efficiency post-privatisation in aviation sector should be replicated by IR for better management. The main chasm between the promise and the delivery is created by the monopoly of IR. Undeniably, competition in Europe has enhanced railway services there in abound. In India, it is astonishing to note that even manufacturing...
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...Financial turnaround of the Indian Railways: Good Luck or Good Management? Abstract We analyse the factors that led to the turnaround of the Indian Railways from a low performing organisation to a high performing one. Literature on public sector turnaround provides the theoretical underpinnings. Enterprise turnaround is often ascribed to managerial leadership; we found that environmental factors (good luck) contributed in a substantial way to the success of Indian Railways. The implication of our study is that an organisation’s turnaround success needs to be put in a wider context. D. Gupta & M. Sathye Financial Turnaround of the Indian Railways ASARC WP 2007/13 3 On 15 April 2006, the Washington Times carried a lead story on the turnaround of the Indian Railways (IR) — a departmental organisation run by the Government of India (GOI). It stated ‘…few now doubt that Mr. Yadav (Minister for Railways) has presided over an impressive business turnaround ….more importantly, he’s taken the world’s largest employer — a government giant of 1.5 million employees — and boosted revenues by 15.5 percent without raising fares’ (Nelson, 2006:1). Pai Panandiker states ‘Indian Railways has turned around and made an estimated profit of $2.5 billion in 2005-2006. What is important, however, is that, unlike previous ministers, Mr. Yadav has looked upon Railways as a commercial enterprise and not a social welfare institution. [He] is a hard taskmaster and will ensure his subordinates ...
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...Note: Attempt Any Four Case Studies Case I THE STRATEGIC ASPIRATIONS OF THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is India's central bank or 'the bank of the bankers'. It was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The Central Office of the RBI, initially set up at Kolkata, is at Mumbai. The RBI is fully owned by the Government of India. The history of the RBI is closely aligned with the economic and financial history of India. Most central banks around the world were established around the beginning of the twentieth century. The Bank was established on the basis of the Hilton Young Commission. It began its operations by taking over from the Government the functions so far being performed by the Controller of Currency and from the Imperial Bank of India, the management of Government accounts and public debt. After independence, RBI gradually strengthened its institution-building capabilities and evolved in terms of functions from central banking to that of development. There have been several attempts at reorganisation, restructuring and creation of specialised institutions to cater to emerging needs. The Preamble of the RBI describes its basic functions like this: '...to regulate the issue of Bank Notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage.' The vision states...
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...Turn Around of Indian Railways Micro Economics Assignment Contents Railways 3 Indian Railways 3 Causes for decline in performance 3 Diagnostics, Recommendations and Initiatives taken by Indian Railways 4 Outcome 5 Domain Analysis 7 Passengers Domain 7 Freight Domain 7 Other Domains 10 Parcel and Catering Services 10 Monopoly of Indian Railways – A welfare maximization firm 13 Revenue Maximization 14 Freight 14 Passenger 14 Others 14 Price Discrimination 15 First Level Price Discrimination 15 Second Level Price Discrimination 15 Third Level Price Discrimination 15 Auctions Applied in IR 16 Sealed first-price auction in Parcel Service: 16 Reverse Auction in Catering Service: 16 Railways Railways is a rising industry not just in India but in many parts of the world. Railways went out of business in the West from the 1960s to 1990s due to its inability to respond to competition from road and air traffic systems. Since railways are large entities serving vast and expansive areas it is often believed that they are unable to adapt to changes in the environment. For decades the only news about rail systems was about their decline. This decline has been halted and reversed in many parts of the world. Railways are resurging based on new ideas (e.g. high speed trains), environmental friendliness, new customer oriented services and new attitudes all over the world. Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is the largest railway network in the...
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...Sayantan means the person who was born in the evening. P2: So, you must have been born in evening!!! Me: Yes Sir. 8:30 evening. (I lied :P, I was actually born at 8:30 morning) P2: OK. You are from Kolkata. Which part of Kolkata? Me: Alipore, mam. P2: Umm. Alipore. You must be rich. (I smiled) P2: OK Sayantan, tell me something about Kolkata which you think most of the Kolkatans don’t know. (I answered the question very well, focusing on the fact that everybody knows that Job Chernock was the founder of Kolkata, which is actually not not true according a 2003 Kolkata High Court Verdict, and Kolkata doesn’t have any founder) (The 1st panellist was going through my CV, and suddenly started) P1: Sayantan, you have written Geography and Indian...
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...Railways sector in India Indian railways started its 53km journey between Mumbai and Thane on April 16, 1853 and is today one of the largest railways in the world. Indian railway is spread over 109,221km covering 6906 stations. Operating three gauges, trains in India carry over 481 billion ton kilometers and 695 billion passenger kilometers of goods and traffic respectively. Indian railway carries 40% of freight traffic and 20% of the passenger traffic in country. IR is one of the premier infrastructural wings of the economy combining all major functions of a conventional Railway system. It builds and maintains infrastructure assets like Track, Electric traction, Signaling Systems, Telecom network, Stations / Terminals etc. Apart from operating goods and passenger trains, it operates suburban trains in various metros. It manufactures locomotives, coaching stock, wagon and components of rolling stock like Wheel & Axle. It runs workshops to maintain its rolling stock & is also involved in ancillary activities like catering, tourism etc. All the above activities are managed through a strong work force of 1.41 million. Indian Railway’s operations are characterized by mixed traffic –both passenger and Freight trains share the same track and infrastructure. Passenger trains constitute nearly 70% of the trains run but contribute to less than 35% of the revenue earned, while freight trains constituting only 30% of the trains, make up 65% of the revenue. Like most of the...
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...6/22/12 India Rail Info - Print PNR Status and Train Details - India Rail Info - A Busy Junction for Travellers & … http://indiarailinfo.com Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:16PM IST Ticket PNR Status Inquiry - PNR: 870-3398942 Status Last Updated on: Today (3:15PM) IST Date of Journey: Fri Jun 22, 2012 Passenger 1: Confirmed (Booking Passenger 2: Confirmed (Booking Passenger 3: Confirmed (Booking Chart NOT Prepared C lass: Sleeper - SL Status: S7,3,C K) Status: S7,6,C K) Status: S7,8,C K) Dadar Chennai Egmore SF Express/12163 Travel Time: 20h 20m Type: SuperFast Zone: CR/Central 19 halts Distance: 1133 km Avg Speed: 55 km/hr Departs @ 20:30 Platform# 7 S M T W T F S Arrives @ 16:50 +1 night Platform# 2 S M T W T F S Mumbai Dadar Central/DR Renigunta Junction/RU 19 halts. 158 intermediate Stations between Mumbai Dadar Central and Renigunta Junction Show ALL intermediate Stations # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Code Station Name ¶ Arrives Departs Halt PF Day# Km 20:30 7 1 0 DR» Mumbai Dadar Central» KYN LNL SUR GR SDB YG Kalyan Junction Lonavala Solapur Gulbarga Shahabad Yadgir Narayanpet Road Raichur Manthralayam Road Adoni Guntakal Junction Gooty Junction Tadipatri Yerraguntla C uddapah Razampeta Koduru 21:10 22:48 00:05 ¶ 03:55 06:08 06:33 07:15 07:50 08:08 08:48 09:20 09:58 11:05 ¶ 11:46 12:23 13:23 14:08 15:08 15:38 ¶ 16:50 18:03 18:53 19:45 21:15 22:50 00:10 04:05 06:10 06:35 07:20 07:52 08:10 08:50 09:22 10:00 11:15 11:48 12:25 13:25 14:10 15:10 15:40...
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...INDIA The Railtel Corporation of India was established in September 2000 as a public sector undertaking (PSU) and a 100 per cent subsidiary under the Ministry of Railways. It has been set up primarily to commercially utilize IR’s communication assets, which often have idle capacity. Vision: is to become the preferred telecom solutions and services provider for knowledge economy. Mission: To attain leadership in providing premier telecom infrastructure service by offering the cost-effective state of the art communication solutions. 5.1 Objectives RailTel To facilitate Railways in expeditious modernizing of their operation and safety systems and network providing by state of art communication infrastructure. To plan, build, develop, operate and maintain a nationwide broadband telecom and multimedia network to supplement national telecom infrastructure to spur growth of telecom, broadband and IT enabled value added services in all parts of country specially rural, remote and backward areas. To generate revenue through commercial exploitation of its telecom network. Investments/Developments Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into railway related components from April 2000 to September 2015 were US$ 652.2 million. Following are some of the major investments and developments in India’s railways sector: * Japan has offered to provide loan at less than one per cent interest rate for India’s first bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad costing US$ 15...
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...1. INTRODUCTION Railways were first introduced to India in 1853. By 1947, the year of India's independence, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalized as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. Indian Railways operates both long distance and suburban rail systems. [pic][pic] Fig: Shows the top railways network in world Indian railway is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting 17 million passengers and more than 2 million tons of goods daily. IR is the world's largest commercial, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country; the routes cover a total length of more than 63,327 km (39,500 miles). As of 2008, IR owned about 225,000 wagons, 45,000 coaches and 8,300 engines and ran more than 18,000 trains daily, including about 8,984 passenger trains and 9,387 goods trains. Annually it carries some 4.83 billion passengers and 492 million tons of goods. Of the 11 million passengers who climb aboard one of 8,984 trains each day, about 550,000 have reserved accommodations. Their journeys can start in any part of India and end in any other part, with travel times as long as 48 hours and distances up to several thousand kilometers. The challenge is to provide a reservation system that can support such a huge scale of operations — regardless of whether it's measured by kilometers, passenger numbers, routing complexity...
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...For the exclusive use of C. Calina, 2015. Journal of Information Technology (2007) 22, 432–439 & 2007 JIT Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. All rights reserved 0268-3962/07 JIT016 palgrave-journals.com/jit Teaching case Modernization of passenger reservation system: Indian Railways’ dilemma Shirish C Srivastava1, Sharat S Mathur2, Thompson SH Teo1 1 School of Business, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; Centre for Railway Information Systems, Indian Railways, New Delhi, India 2 Correspondence: SC Srivastava, School of Business, National University of Singapore, 1 Business Link, Singapore, Singapore 117592, Singapore. Tel: þ 65 6516 3038; Fax: þ 65 6779 2621; E-mail: shirish@nus.edu.sg Abstract This teaching case discusses the challenges being faced by the technology managers at Indian Railways (IR) in the current scenario of a resurgent national economy coupled with increasing customer expectations. In the face of growing competition from road and low-cost airlines, to retain its customers, IR has responded by changing its business rules. The Railway Ministry expects a rapid response from Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) to incorporate all these changes in the passenger reservation system (PRS). The old PRS, which is time-tested and reliable, and has been serving the customers’ needs for nearly two decades, is now proving to be relatively inflexible to match the rapidly changing business requirements. Although...
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...Luxury Housing in India The total value of luxury homes, launched in 182 luxury residential apartments, offering a total of 25,570 units across the top seven cities of NCR-Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata in 2008-2012 was around USD 30 billion. The annual sales of luxury houses currently stood at around US$ 4.3 Billion in 2010, and are expected to grow at a CAGR of over 30% during the forecast period (2009-2013). 1) Bangalore is at the top of the chart as more than 50% of total luxury units launched in 2012. 2) Pune has a contribution of nearly 8%," 3) Hyderabad has also seen an upward trend Cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, and the NCR have witnessed a decrease in the total luxury units launched in 2012 in comparison to 2011. % of luxury housing amongst total housing Bangalore 7% Mumbai 5% Hyderabad 5% Expansion rate in prominent areas Goregaon East in Mumbai 44% Gurgaon in the NCR 42% Western Hyderabad 13% Hebbal in Bangalore 21% Online Real Estate market: Real estate video tours offer the prospective customer the benefit of viewing the entire showcased property from the comfort of his/her home. A video footage of the agent, complete with narration and graphics, is indispensable from the perspective of establishing brand identity. Magicbricks.com claims to be India’s leading property portal in terms of traffic, and provided propertyportalwatch.com with comScore figures to support this claim. These figures, covering December...
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...Haulage hike: The war rages on The initial decision of the Indian Railways (IR) to hike haulage charges, effective from December 5, 2014 had sent the Container Train Operators (CTOs) operating in India in a state of frenzy, wherein they are unable to comprehend the reasons behind the steep increase by 27 per cent. Apart from imposing the charges for using railway tracks, signals and telecommunications infrastructure, railways has also demanded a 10 per cent congestion charge on base freight rate for goods that originate at ports. The surcharge, effective since November 24, 2014, is part of a feeble attempt by the government to curtail imports. The Railway Ministry’s decision to implement the haulage hike in two spheres and postponing the execution of the entire hike till March 1, 2015 came after the Association of Container Train Operators (ACTO) submitting a memorandum requesting the Indian Railways seeking respite from the steep rise in haulage prices. Expressing disapproval of the fact that moving goods by rail is set to get costlier after the enactment of the haulage hike, the ACTO members informed that they would have lost a large chunk to road transportation had the government not come out with the partial roll-back. Termed as the ninth round of rate increase in Railways Haulage Charges (RHC) since this sector was deregulated in 2006, the rates for Twenty feet Equivalent Units (TEUs) for 20 feet containers have increased by 31 per cent for containers weighing between...
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