New Delhi, June 14 (KNN) Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics and IT has launched an innovation policy “StartUps for Railways” to motivate young entrepreneurs and their ideas.

The policy launch took place on Monday in New Delhi and NCR general manager along with DRMs of Prayagraj, Jhansi and Agra divisions from their respective divisional offices viewed it live at North central Railway (NCR) headquarters.

The Minister said that this initiative presents a good opportunity to startups 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,” he added.

Grant up to Rs 1.5 crore to innovator on equal sharing basis with provision of milestone-wise payment.

Trials of prototypes will be done in Railways and complete process from floating of problem statement to development of prototype is online.

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.

IR’s innovation portal has been launched which is available on web address https://innovation.indianrailways.gov.in.

(KNN Bureau)