Railway babus to get MBA-type training

The Indian railways are borrowing generously from the top-notch MBA courses around the world to device a training programme for their babus, reports Avishek G. Dastidar.

The railways are borrowing generously from the top-notch MBA courses around the world to device a training programme for their babus, who work in various supervisory roles in the ground level, so that there is some “corporate culture” in the ranks.

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Therefore, supervisors who have been working as inspectors and in such profiles commanding small teams of staff for years, will now go through a regular, five-day course called Management Development Programme.

Just like students in all reputed management schools across the country, these babus, working as store supervisors, traffic inspectors, etc., will now go through 'Theories of Management', 'Objectives of Management', the 'Four 'Ps' of Marketing', 'Human Behavior', 'Ethics of Management', 'Personnel Management', and many such modules usually found in the MBA curriculum.

“Apart from outside professionals, we have also asked officers who have done their MBA to pitch in as instructors,” said a senior railway officer. Sources said top Northern Railway officials, who are MBAs, have already enrolled to turn up as teachers.

To make sure that the course is akin to MBA programmes, the 'students' will be taken on field visits to various industrial units. “We have prepared audiovisual aids and interactive sessions to make it a complete package,” he said.

The railways have been conducting skill-development programmes for the staff on a regular basis, but this is the first time the curriculum will be based on management mantras akin to MBA courses. Northern Railway has 8,000 employees who are entitled to the course.

Along with nuggets on management, the course also topics like 'Courtesy and Customer Care' and 'Time Management', to highlight "the railways' latest priority areas". Not to lose out on anything, topics on Health, Family Welfare, and AIDS have also been inserted in the curriculum.