Guwahati: Indian Railways has come up with an innovative policy to engage start-ups and other entities for innovative solutions to acquire operational efficiency and safety. An innovation policy- “Start-Ups for Railways", was launched on June 13 by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology.

The policy aims to bring scale and efficiency in the field of operation, maintenance, and infrastructure creation through the participation of the very large and untapped startup ecosystem.

Anshul Gupta, General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway, said that the integration of disruptive technology into Indian Railways has taken a firm shape in the form of this initiative. "Through this platform, startups, and youths will get a good opportunity to connect with the railways. Out of various problem statements received from different field offices and zones of Indian Railways, 11 problem statements like rail fracture, headway reduction, etc. have been taken up initially for this program. He said that these will be presented before the startups to find innovative solutions, "he said.

Startups have been urged to use the opportunity well.

Indian Railways is to ensure support in the form of a 50 percent capital grant, assured market, scale, and the ecosystem.

Under this program, an innovator can get a grant of up to Rs. 1.5 Crore on an equal sharing basis with provision of milestone-wise payment. The complete process from floating a problem statement to the development of a prototype is online with a defined timeline to make it transparent and objective.
Trials of prototypes will be done on Railways.

Enhanced funding will be provided to scale up deployment on the successful performance of prototypes. The developed Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) remains with the innovator. An assured development order will be provided to the innovator.

The General Manager said that the selection will be through an open, transparent, and fair process which will entail innovators to upload their concepts with necessary proof on the Indian Railway Innovation Portal- www.innovation.indianrailways.gov.in.

Ideas can be submitted from June 21, 2022.