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“StartUps for Railways” launched to encourage young entrepreneurs
“StartUps for Railways” was launched by minister of railways, communications and electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi on Monday
The Indian Railways on Monday launched its innovation policy “StartUps for Railways” to encourage young entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas and their implementation.
The policy was launched by minister of railways, communications and electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi and viewed live at North central Railway (NCR) headquarters here at Prayagraj by the NCR general manager along with DRMs of Prayagraj, Jhansi and Agra divisions from their respective divisional offices.
“The idea is to popularise the scheme and encourage young entrepreneurs to come up with ideas and implement them. 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,” said chief public relation officer (CPRO) of NCR Shivam Sharma.
Expressing his happiness on launch of this initiative, the minister said through this platform startups will get a good opportunity to connect with railways.
“Out of over 100 problem statements received from different divisions, field offices/zones of railways, 11 like rail fracture, headway reduction etc. have been taken up for phase 1 of this programme. These will be presented before the start ups to find innovative solutions,” the minister said.
Sharma said the railway minister requested the startups to use this opportunity and ensured them of support from railways in form of 50% capital grant, assured market, scale and ecosystem.
IR’s innovation portal has been launched which is available on web address www.innovation.indianrailways.gov.in, the NCR CPRO said
Salient details of IR’s innovation policy:
Grant up to ₹1.5 crores to innovator on equal sharing basis with provision of milestone-wise payment.
Complete process from floating of problem statement to development of prototype is online.
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 through online portal.
Developed IPR will remain with innovator only and assure developmental order to innovator. De-centralization of complete product development process at divisional level to avoid delays.
PHOTO CAPTION: Live online telecast of the event being attended by officials (HT)
REPORTER: K Sandeep Kumar
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