Background

Indian Railways have decided to conduct a public competition on ‘How to raise money for Railways to provide better Services (Jan Bhagidari)’.

Indian Railways occupies a unique position in the socio-economic map of the country. Energy efficient, economical in land use and with a high degree of operating efficiency, the railways are considered a vehicle of growth contributing to rapid industrial and infrastructural development of the country. However, in the process, Railways tend to subsidize and nourish the economy by incurring a social cost, much beyond the normal call of any transport system. This constrains our ability to spend generously on enhancing the customer-experience and hence, we would like to invite the general public, industries, academia, research institutions, chambers of commerce, Zonal Railways/PUs and other units of Railways to come up with ideas on HOW TO RAISE MONEY FOR BETTER SERVICES.

Description

Indian Railways is on the cusp of a dramatic transformation and this is your opportunity to play a role in its advancement, and subsequently our nation’s economic growth. Sounds daunting? We promise it isn’t. Indian Railways invites your submissions on how to raise money for the Railways to provide better services. The goal is to encourage dialogue, refine ideas and put great strategies to work. You get to make your mark on history. Besides there are incredible cash prizes on the line.

The Challenge is designed as an online competition hosted at innovate.mygov.in providing submission of original innovative solutions for ‘How to raise money for Railways to provide better Services (Jan Bhagidari)’. The solution should include the idea, detail business plan, implementation strategies for raising of money. The participants may particularly look at opportunities of easy implementability in the current system of Indian Railways.

The Challenge aims to encourage creation of intuitive, easy to use Idea/Business plan and solution that can enable convenient implementation without impacting the current capability of Indian Railway.

Technical Requirements

1. Key Objective:

Development of an Idea, business plan and implementation strategy for ‘How to raise money for Railways to provide better Services (Jan Bhagidari)’

2. Boundary dimension:

• The solutions should restrict themselves to areas pertaining to transportation business – passengers, freight, parcels and Non-Fare sources etc.
• Solution for raising revenue should steer clear of suggesting expansion of infrastructure such as construction of new lines, stations, etc.
• Solutions for raising revenue should steer clear of suggesting substantial Public Investment.
• The solution should steer clear of changes in Organizational structure, generalizations.
• The solution should steer clear of suggesting ways and means of raising money from public lending agencies/private investors/stock exchanges.

3. Raising money in Indian Railway:

The provisional figures of revenue for 2016-17 and trends of revenue for 2017-18 are showing stagnation in Gross Revenue. It is evident from these figures that Revenues of Indian Railways are not growing commensurate with the increasing demand for transportation services. The main sources of Revenue for Railways are Freight, Passenger Services including Suburban and Kolkata Metro, Parcels etc. These sources are showing signs of stagnation. The challenge before the Railways is to increase its revenue to provide better services.

Normally, Revenue can be increased in one of the following ways:

• Increase the range / quantum of services
• Increase rate of recovery per unit of transportation
• Plug leakages of revenue

4. Broad Expectations from the Solution:

The Solution/ Idea may consider, among other things:

• Scalability to organisation level
• Financial and commercial feasibility
• Transparency
• Customer friendly
• Sustainability
• Scope for further improvement
• Compatibility with national economic requirements

Guidelines and Terms & Conditions

1. Mode of entry

• For posting the entries using the online application system, participants are advised to go to https://www.innovate.mygov.in and click on the "CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE" button. The participant will be directed to a landing page featuring the registration form with various fields.
• Participant will have to fill out the Participant Registration Form and Entry Submission Form. The submission must comply with the requirements as set out in the Guidelines mentioned on the online Entry Submission form.
• On successful submission, participant will receive a confirmation email.
• Should Indian Railways/ Organizers require additional information, they will contact the registered participant via email. Participants are advised to duly provide any additional information as instructed.
• Correspondence: Any correspondence from the Indian Railways /Organizers to participants shall be through email or SMS on mobile number provided by the participant at the time of registration. Organizers and Indian Railways are not liable in case of email delivery failures.

2. Last date of Submitting Entries

Entries duly completed and fully filled must be submitted using the online application system before 6pm IST on 19th May 2018.

3. Eligibility

• The Challenge is open to individuals and companies/ institutions.
• In case of companies, majority of team members/ shareholders are required to be Indian resident nationals.
• All participating individuals are required to be Indian resident nationals.
• Participants (Individual/ or in case of teams, the team leader) are required to be at least 18 years of age as on 20th March 2018.
• The following persons and their immediate relatives cannot participate in the Challenge:
  • An employee of Indian Railways directly involved in execution and evaluation of the Challenge.
  • Any member or employee of Knowledge cum execution partner / Organizer.
  • Any member of the Evaluation panel, Experts and Jury for the Challenge.

4. Awards: Total Four prizes

• First Prize: Rs. 10 Lacs ( Ten Lacs only ) Maximum
• Second Prize: Rs. 5 Lacs ( Five Lacs only ) Maximum
• Third Prize: Rs. 3 Lacs ( Three Lacs only ) Maximum
• Fourth Prize: Rs. 1 Lacs ( One Lac only ) Maximum

5. General Guidelines for the Entries:

• The write up should either be submitted in Hindi or English.
• In case submission is in any other language, it must be accompanied with translation in either Hindi or English.
• It could be an individual project or a team project. However, in case of team, the total team members, including the team leader, should not exceed six.
• No reference of the identity of the person(s) submitting should be made in the proposal. If done so, it shall lead to the entry getting rejected.
• It is strongly advised not to wait till the closure time for submission of entries. Railways shall not be responsible for late/ non receipt of entries on account of server errors/ traffic.
• The contestants may be asked to present/ elaborate their ideas before an appropriate jury.
• Railways may decide to associate with the proposer for further development of the proposed Concept/ Idea.
• The decision of the Evaluation Panel and Jury will be final. No communication will be entered into with any person in relation to any decision of the panel or process.
• Unsuccessful entries shall be intimated through email and Ministry of Railways shall not have any right over the same.

6. Evaluation System:

The evaluation of Entries shall be carried out in following three stages, as per the criteria mentioned in Annexure “A”.

Stage	Evaluation Results
First	All Entries to be evaluated to shortlist approximately 50 entries, through double blind review
Second	The 50 shortlisted entries to be further evaluated by an Expert panel for selecting 10 most promising ideas
Final	The 10 ideas selected in Stage II shall be presented to Competition Committee formed by Ministry for consideration of Awards

7. IPRs, Confidentiality and other Conditions:

• Indian Railways/ Organizers do not claim ownership over the applications submitted or any newly Developed IP, but by submitting an application, Participant grants Indian Railways and its affiliated units/ ministries a transferable, worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up license under all Participants intellectual property rights in the applications submitted, Participant Newly Developed IP and Participant Background IP:
  • To reproduce, publically perform and display, distribute and create derivative works of the applications and/or Participant Newly Developed IP and Participant Background IP;
  • To use, make, have made, import, offer to sell and sell, rent, lease, or lend the products/Ideas;
  • To disclose such applications to third parties;
  • To publish Participants name or alias in connection with this Challenge.
• While Indian Railways shall take all possible measures to ensure protection of intellectual property, participants should not include technical details to a level which might affect their capacity to protect and, at some future point, exploit their Intellectual Property through registered rights. Participants should also ensure they understand their rights in relation to Intellectual Property and the protection of those rights.
• Originality: If an idea has been patented by, or is the property of, a third party, the originator of the idea must agree through a legally enforceable instrument to the use of the idea by the applicant and must be expressly credited in the submission.
• Indian Railways/ Organizers assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of entries.
• Further, Participants represent, warrant and covenant that the submissions do not:
  • Infringe on any third party intellectual property rights and further do not violate any confidentiality obligations of the Participant;
  • Contain any software or programming code subject to any restrictions or third-party limitations without prior written notice to Organizers & Indian Railways ;
  • Contain any viruses, worms, spyware, other components or instructions that are malicious, deceptive or designed to limit or harm the functionality of a computer;
  • Include any Participant owned trade secrets or third party trade secrets and no such trade secrets will be required for Organizers or Indian Railways to enjoy the full benefits of the applications;
  • Contain material that may be considered as defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, threatening or harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
  • Violate any statutory provisions.
• Participant shall not assign any rights, obligations or privileges (by operation of law or otherwise) hereunder without the prior written consent of Organizers. Except as otherwise set forth herein, any attempt by Participant to assign any of the rights, duties or obligations hereunder without Organizers' prior written consent will be null and void. Subject to the foregoing, these terms and conditions shall be fully binding upon, inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the Parties and their respective successors and assigns.
• No liability: Indian Railways, Organizers, MyGov, members of Evaluation Panel, Selected Jurys, supporting organizations or any employee or agent of Indian Railways shall not be liable for:
  • Any costs incurred or loss or liability suffered by the participant in relation to the Challenge;
  • Any loss in expectation of profits by participant.
  • Any failure by participant to understand the rights in relation to Intellectual Property, or the rights of Organizers, IR, supporting organizations or any third party in relation to Intellectual Property; or
  • Any other benefit the participant may expect to gain by participating in the Challenge.
• Participant agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold Organizers, Indian Railways, members of Evaluation Panel, Selected Jury, supporting organizations harmless against any loss, cost, liability, and expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from any action or claim brought or threatened against Organizers, Indian Railways or members of Evaluation Panel, Selected Jury, supporting organizations or its customers alleging that any of the applications submitted, short listed and or selected, infringe any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of any third party, and or if Organizers, Indian Railways or members of Evaluation Panel, Selected Jury, supporting organizations suffers any injury, loss or damages by breach of the warranties above. Organizers or Indian Railways agrees to provide Participant(s) with:
  • Prompt written notice of such claim or action.
  • The opportunity to participate in the defense or settlement of such claim or action, provided, however, that Participant(s) will not without Indian Railways prior written consent settle or compromise any claim in a manner that does not unconditionally release Indian Railways and that may adversely affect Indian Railways rights under this terms & Conditions; and
  • Reasonable information and assistance in the defense and/or settlement any such claim or action. Indian Railways shall have the right to participate in any of the disputes or actions referenced above at its own expense. Participant(s) will not be responsible for any costs, expenses or compromise incurred or made without Participant(s) prior written consent.
• Reasonable Efforts shall be made by Indian Railways/ Organizers to ensure confidentiality. Members of the Evaluation Panel, Experts and Jury will be appointed on the basis that they are prohibited from disclosing or using any details of the participants, or Ideas or any other information submitted in connection with the Challenge, except in accordance with the terms of the Confidentiality Agreement, and in their capacity as member of Evaluation Panel/Jury.
  • Indian Railways, Organizers, Ministry of Railways or any of supporting organizations cannot accept any responsibility for the actions of any evaluation panel member or Experts or member of the Jury for their obligations in respect of confidentiality and will not sign any Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with participants. While every effort will be made to preserve the confidentiality of each submission, it is suggested that highly sensitive material be excluded from the entry if a team is concerned about the confidentiality of such material. Note, however, that finalist teams will be making brief presentations to a Jury and an audience. All reasonable measures to ensure the protection of intellectual property received for the Challenge will be taken. Protection of such rights is however, ultimately the responsibility of each participant.
  • All the information received during this Challenge including but not limited to scores, business plan summaries etc. shall remain confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person or entity by any party thereto and cannot be disclosed outside the Program organizers, supporting organizations of Indian Railways.
• Indian Railways/ Organizers may change the Terms and Conditions of participation at any time without prior notice. The amended Terms and Conditions will be effective immediately upon being posted on the website. It is participant's sole responsibility to regularly visit the website to read any changes to the Terms and Conditions of the Challenge.
• Organizers and Indian Railways or any of the supporting organizations will not incur any costs for participants participating in the Challenge nor entertain any claims for the same except specified above.

8. Termination and Disputes

• Indian Railways/ Organizers may, at any time:
  • Disqualify a participant from the Challenge for breach of any terms & conditions of the Challenge; or
  • Discontinue the Challenge by posting a notice to that effect on the Website.
• Disputes, if any, are subject to the jurisdiction in the courts of Vadodara only.

Brief description of the challenge

Sub: Public Competition on ‘How to raise money for Railways to provide better services’ (Jan Bhagidari)

Indian Railway has a network of 67,368 KMs. (Y.B. 2016-17). IR is the lifeline of the nation. It runs 13,329 passenger services daily catering to 22.24 million passengers. Similarly, it runs 9,221 freight trains daily transporting 3.04 MT freight.

IThe Gross Revenue of Railways for the year 2016-17 was Rs 1,65,292 crores. Working Expenses for the year was Rs 1, 59,029 Crores. It has been observed that the Revenue of Indian Railways has been almost stagnant since last 4 years, whereas the working expenses have been increasing steadily. This has resulted in reduction in investible surplus of Railways, affecting quality of services.

As a national common carrier transporting passenger and goods over its vast network, Indian Railways has always played a key role in India’s social and economic development. It is a cheap and affordable means of transportation for millions of passengers. As a carrier of bulk freight viz. ores and minerals, iron and steel, cement, mineral oils, food grains and fertilizers, containerized cargo etc., the importance of Indian Railways for agriculture, industry and the common man is well recognized.

The main sources of Revenue for Railways are Freight, Passenger Services including Suburban and Kolkata Metro, Parcels etc. These sources are showing signs of stagnation. The challenge before the Railways is to increase its revenue to provide better services.

Normally, Revenue can be increased in one of the following ways:

• Increase the range / quantum of services
• Increase rate of recovery per unit of transportation
• Plug leakages of revenue

In recent past, there has been a thrust on generation of revenue from Non- Fare revenue sources. The Indian Railways have already taken various steps to raise the revenue like surge pricing, station redevelopment, creation of Non-Fare Revenue Directorate, etc. Non-Fare Revenue Directorate is already working on following areas to raise the revenue:

• Advertisement at stations;
• Commercial exploitation of vacant land and space rights over station buildings including station re-development;
• Advertisements on coaches (both inside / outside) and on locos;
• Sponsorship of uniforms for railway personnel, wherever in vogue;
• Advertisements through hoardings on land alongside tracks and on land near railway stations;
• Commercial farming alongside railway tracks;
• Monetization of soft assets, including generation of revenue from websites through advertisements and web links;
• Sidings and way-leave charges;
• Operation / licensing of Multi Functional Complexes;
• Parking of vehicles in railway land other than at stations;
• Advertisements on wagons, FOBs, ROBs, RUBs, Railway buildings, Loco Sheds, Production Units, Structures on railway premises (like water tanks, microwave towers, OHE masts etc);
• On board (trains) and off-board (stations) entertainments, magazines on trains, displays at railway premises including stations (LED screens, video walls, translides etc.);
• Sponsorships of activities and events at stations, branding etc;
• Operation of Pay and Use toilets in land outside railway stations (circulating area, approach roads, near LC gates etc.);
• Radio, Video, Internet, Wifi, Mobile Apps, Interactive services (like video games etc.) in railway premises including stations;
• Tourism.

As a national common carrier, with the ability to provide economic, clean transportation services, Indian Railways is striving to improve its Revenue to provide better services to its customers. For the purpose under Janbhagidari, concrete ideas /schemes / proposals are invited from Public to ‘Raise money for Railways to provide better services.’

CURRENT SCENARIO

Final figures for Earnings and Expenses of Railway are as under:

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Gross Revenue	126180	143214	161017	164333	165292
Working Expenses	112565	131465	144179	147836	159030
Net	13615	11749	16839	16497	6262

The provisional figures for 2016-17 and trends for 2017-18 are showing stagnation in Gross Revenue. It is evident from these figures that Revenues of Indian Railways are not growing matching the potential, considering the increasing demand for transportation services due to Economic Growth.

The main sources of Revenue for Railways are Freight, Passenger Services including Suburban and Kolkata Metro, Parcels etc. These sources are showing signs of stagnation mainly due to saturation of existing network, and the work to expand the network is in progress. However, expansion of network is a time consuming process. As and when this expanded network becomes available, the Railways will have to apply innovative ideas to fully utilize this expanded network. So, the challenge before the Railways is to increase its revenue in short to medium term from Non- Fare sources and other sources which are network independent and in the long term generate revenues from conventional sources which aim at utilization of expanded network. There is also a huge scope for raising revenue from Non- Fare revenue sources.

Normally, Revenue can be increased in one of the following ways:

• Increase the number / quantum of services
• Increase rate of recovery per unit of transportation
• Plug leakages of revenue

As a national common carrier, with the ability to provide economic, clean transportation services, Indian Railways is striving to improve its Revenue to provide better services to its customers. For the purpose under Janbhagidari, concrete ideas / schemes / proposals are invited from Public to ‘Raise money for Railways to provide better services.’

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

• The solutions should restrict themselves to areas pertaining to transportation business – passengers, freight, parcels and Non-Fare sources etc.
• Solution for raising revenue should steer clear of suggesting expansion of infrastructure such as construction of new lines, stations, etc.
• Solutions for raising revenue should steer clear of suggesting substantial Public Investment.
• The solution should steer clear of changes in Organizational structure, generalizations.
• The solution should steer clear of suggesting ways and means of raising money from public lending agencies/private investors/stock exchanges.

BROAD EXPECTATIONS FROM THE PROPOSED IDEA

• Scalability to organisation level
• Financial and commercial feasibility
• Transparency
• Customer friendly
• Sustainability
• Scope for further improvement
• Compatibility with national economic requirements

ENTRY SUBMISSION FIELDS

The participants shall be required to submit their entries in the fields provided in the Entry Submission forms limited to the number of characters prescribed for the fields as under:

• Abstract of the Proposed Competition, in about 500 characters.
• Idea for the Proposed Competition should be limited to 2000 characters. Any attachment should not exceed 8 MB in size.
• Value proposition to customers and relevance of the concept/design in enhancing the customer experience, in about 300 characters.
• Compliance to the boundary conditions stipulated in the Competition/Challenge in about 500 characters.
• Explain the originality of the Proposed idea in about 300 characters.
• Cost effectiveness of proposed idea in about 400 characters.
• Possible constraints in implementation, to be explained in about 300 characters.

EVALUATION CRITERION

SN	Evaluation Criterion	Weights
1	Feasibility/Viability  of Implementation	30
2	Revenue Potential	20
3	Customer Convenience	10
4	Scalability	10
5	Cost Effectiveness	10
6.	Compliance of Boundary Conditions	10
7	Detail Orientation	5
8	Quality of Presentation	5
		100

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q.1      What is Competition challenge?

The Competition challenge is an effort to motivate Indian Citizens to think and contribute in the development and value addition efforts of the country's main rail transport service provider. The competition encourages out of the box thinking and solutions for the current aspirations of the stakeholders.

Q.2      What are the evaluation criteria for Competition challenges?

Evaluation criteria for the challenge have been framed to account for the main requirements of the challenge for the purpose of ensuring that the suggested idea is effective. They have also been published in advance to enable the participants to understand the importance of different parameters and submit their ideas/ write-ups accordingly.

Q.3      What type of Royalty or Benefits may I get, if I am individual and my idea is selected?

The winners shall get awards as detailed in the awards section of the competition. Any tax liability on award money shall have to be borne by the winners themselves. There is no additional royalty or benefit proposed to accrue to the winners, other than the awards. The participants are strongly advised to go through the Terms and Conditions laid out in the challenge.

Q.4      What is the feasibility of implementation of the proposed ideas for Competition?

Feasibility of implementation is one of the criteria for judging the idea, given the prevalent environment conditions and existing legacy systems and skill levels of Railways.

Q.5      What are the possible constraints anticipated in development of the proposed Competition challenges?

Implementation of new ideas comes with its own sets of risks and hurdles. In certain cases, the participants are advised to comment on the potential hurdles anticipated and how the Competition proposes to overcome or sidestep them. While there can be no exhaustive list of constraints, participants should thoroughly analyze the difficulties in implementation during the life cycle of the product.

Q.6      What are the maintainability criteria of the proposed Competition challenge?

The proposed idea should take into account the difficulties that may arise in applicability and maintainability of the proposal. The difficulties may pertain to various factors and had to be anticipated. The participants should consider these issues in the proposal and elaborate how they strive to account for these issues in the proposal.

Q.7      What is Age limit for participants?

Participants (Individual/or in case of teams, the team leader) are required to be at least 18 years of age on the date of launch of the competition.

Q.8      In case of team project, what will be the size of team?

In case of team, total team members, including the team leader, should not exceed six.

Q.9      What are the Nationality criteria in Eligibility?

The challenge is open only to Indian resident nationals. In case of companies, majority of team members/shareholders are required to be Indian resident nationals.

Q.10    Who can't participate in the challenge?

The following persons and their immediate relatives cannot participate in the Challenge:

• An employee of Indian Railways directly involved in execution and evaluation of the Challenge.
• A member or employee of Knowledge cum execution partner/Organizer.
• A member of the Evaluation panel, Experts and Jury for the Challenge.

Q.11    What will be the mode of entry?

The competition is designed as an online challenge. The following method applies:

• For posting the entries using the online application system, participants are advised to go to https://innovate.mygov.inand click on the "CLICK TO PARTICIPATE" button. The participant will be taken to a landing page featuring the registration form with various fields.
• Participant will have to fill out the Participant Registration form and Entry Submission Form. The submission must comply with the requirements as set out in the Guidelines mentioned on the online Entry Submission Form.
• On successful submission, participant will receive a confirmation email.

Q.12    What will be the Entry Submission Fields and Size of file?

The participants shall be required to submit their entries in the fields provided in the Entry Submission Forms limited to the number of characters prescribed as per templates. Drawings, if necessary, can be attached as PDF, but should not exceed 8 MB in size.

Q.13    What will be the preferred Language for submitting the write up?

The write up should either be submitted in Hindi or English. In case submission is in any other language, it must be accompanied with translations in either Hindi or English.

Q.14   What is Gross Revenue?

Gross Revenue of Indian Railways is entire receipts of the Indian Railways.

Q.15   What are components of Gross Revenue?

Gross Revenue Receipts of Railways consists of earnings from Passenger Services, Freight services, Other Coaching e.g. Parcel, Luggage etc., and Other Miscellaneous Sundry Earnings.

Q.16   What are the components of Passenger Business?

Passenger Business of Railways consists of all classes of Passenger Traffic carried by Indian Railways and includes Suburban as well as Kolkata Metro Network.

Q.17   What are the components of Freight Business?

Freight Business of Railways consists of Goods Traffic carried by freight Trains over Indian Railway Network and includes Container traffic. It also includes Wharfage and Demurrage charges collected on account of delay over permissible time in removing goods from Railway Premises or wagons respectively.

Q.18 What is Other Coaching Business?

Other Coaching Business consists of transportation of goods etc., other than passengers by Passenger Trains in Parcel/ Luggage Vans.

Q.19 What is Non-Fare revenue?

Non- Fare Revenue of Railways consists of miscellaneous earnings from sources other than transportation services. Thus revenues from Advertising, leasing and licensing of land and buildings for various purposes, auction of produce from Railway Land, earnings from Retiring rooms etc. are examples of Non- Fare Revenue.

Correspondence

• Any correspondence with the participant will be done through an email provided by the participant at the time of filling the application form. Organizers are not liable in case of email delivery failures.
• For any queries, please send mail to: ps07@nair.railnet.gov.in

Registration Form for Jan Bhagidari Competition

Submission Closed