Management Guru..

Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, earlier famous for his Jungle Raj among critics, has now become a 'management guru'. Now a days he is busy in giving lectures to management students from Harvard and Wharton management school. He has completely turned around Indian railways and set examples for other departments too. He has surprised many by emerging as one of the top-performing ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet.

During initial one year Lalu did not have time to spare for the ministry as he was busy with Assembly election in Bihar. In his absence Railways started performing better. Directly or indirectly he got some credit of it. After loosing election in Bihar Lalu started taking interest in the department. By now Railways had shown some good performance.

We can't ignore Lalu's contribution which really expedites the performance of the department. Prasad's management mantra has been 'If you do not milk the cow fully, it falls sick', which he is practicing while running railways. He achieved this not by downsizing or by increasing fares, but by increasing traffic volume. Goods trains’ journey period was cut short. More goods per wagon in goods trains also improved the efficiency. Freight concessions on the empty return journeys of the goods trains also did their bit. Privatization of some particular operations of the Railways was a further good step. Public-private partnership in several Railways projects has been yet another good step in the right direction.

Management institutes are taking this success story very seriously and adding it as a case study in their curriculum. Lalu refers railways a lifeline of the country. Question arises here on the sustainability of this success.

Even after complete turnaround of Railways people can not forget downfall of Bihar from mineral rich state to the poorest state of our country. Let's hope for the best and hope this growth sustains for long.