Indian Railways has embarked upon an Innovation journey through the launch of “Startups for Railways” initiative on 13.06.2022. So far, 768 entities are registered on the Indian Railway innovation portal to participate in innovation challenges floated by Railways.
Till now, 13 innovation challenges have been uploaded against which good response in the form of 311 offers have been received. All the offers are being evaluated through a two-stage process and one innovation challenge has already been finalized.
Total 311 offers have been received against 13 problems statements uploaded so far on Innovation portal. Break up of participants are as under:
Startups- 123
Individual Innovators- 60
MSMEs- 81
R&D organizations/Institutes- 18
Stage-1 evaluation has been completed for 09 Challenges. Stage-2 presentations have been held for 07 Challenges. Stage-2 evaluation for “Design of superior Elastomeric Pad (EM Pad) for Heavy Haul freight Wagons” concluded on 20.10.22. LOA shall be issued after sanction of Railway’s portion of grant.
01 more problem statement on ‘Development of a Phased Array Rail/Weld Tester or any other improved technology for detection of Rail/Weld flaws has been uploaded.
As part of this initiative Indian Railways Innovation Portal has also gone live at https://innovation.indianrailways.gov.in/.
To spread awareness, a total 131 workshops/meetings on Indian Railway Innovation Policy have been organized by Zonal Railways/PUs/RB in which approximately 1560 Startups/Innovators participated. More than 10 site visits, VC with NSRCEL of IIM Bangalore & meeting with Dipanjan Bag, Principal-Startup, CII was also organized.
In continuation of this process of inspiring Indian railways Officers, Vinod Dham, eminent engineer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who is also known as ‘Father of the Pentium Chip’ for his contribution to the development of Pentium micro-processor, delivered a talk in rail Bhawan today. He appreciated the initiatives and efforts being made by the Ministry of Railways under ‘Indian Railway Innovation Policy’ and launch of “Startups for Railways“. Shri Dham said that technology has become the biggest enabler and power-tool in the world and India is becoming more technology driven in every part of life. By giving examples of various countries in technology innovation which made them power giants in their respective fields, he underlined the key role of government initiative in technology innovation. Addressing the senior officials of Ministry of railways, many of whom joined through VC from across the country, he underlined the passion and problem-solving mindset as a success mantra.
Vinod Dham said that India is among top 3 Startup countries and has the potential to lead the world. The Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative by the Prime Minister has created a more favorable environment for the Startups as well, he added.
