Business Briefing 12/12

Indian Railways’ overseas projects in Africa and Six Pixels of Separation

Corporatisation of Indian Railways eventually leading up to a giant public issue, possibly the biggest in the world, has been the stuff of enduring fantasy for B-school students and even investment bankers. After all, it has a turnover of close to Rs 95,000 crore and serves more than 20 million customers a year. While an IPO would require changes in the Constitution, even corporatisation has been an elusive dream, given its size, monopoly use of public resources (track network) and outrageous inefficiencies.  But that’s not worrying World Bank President Robert Zoellick. The lender is willing to give it as much as $2 billion for overseas expansion, specifically in Africa. Indian Railways does supply wagons to several African countries, and has built rail networks in places like Iraq, but executing mega projects overseas today would be putting the wagon before the engine. “It’s only in the last few years that our profitability has become respectable. Railway modernisation plans are way behind schedule. Global expansion need not be a priority now,” says a senior Indian Railways official.

If Facebook were a country, it would have the sixth-largest population in the world. This seems to be the premise of Mitch Joel’s book Six Pixels of Separation (Hachette, Rs 450). Joel offers entrepreneurs almost zero-expense ideas to integrate social media, personal branding and digital marketing into their strategy and completely eliminate reliance on the traditional mass media. This book could open your eyes to the power of new media.

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arindam