In news– Minister of Railways has launched “StartUps for Railways” recently.
Salient Features of Indian Railway Innovation Policy are:
- Grant up to Rs. 1.5 Crore to innovator on equal sharing basis with provision of milestone-wise payment.
- Complete process from floating of the problem statement to development of prototype is online with 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.
- Selection of Innovator/s will be done by a transparent and fair system which will be dealt through online portal inaugurated today by Minister of Railways.
- Developed Intellectual property rights (IPR) will remain with innovator only.
- Assured developmental order to innovator.
- De-centralization of complete product development process at divisional level to avoid delays.
- This policy will bring scale and efficiency in the field of operation, maintenance and infrastructure creation through participation of very large and untapped startup ecosystem.
- Prior to framingthis policy field units were asked to provide Problem Areas. In response to it, around 160 problem statements have been received till date. To start with, 11 problems statements have been identified to deal via new.
- Policy aims to leverage innovative technologies developed by Indian Startups, MSMEs, Innovators and Entrepreneurs to improve operational efficiency and Safety of Indian Railways.
Source: PIB
