The foray of the Indian Railways into Sri Lanka where it would construct a 160 km rail network between Colombo and Matara is a big step forward for the Indian government-owned organisation. For the past 16 years, since India started integrating with the rest of the world’s economy, India Inc. companies have ventured much beyond the boundaries to test the unknown waters. But the Indian PSUs, except for ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), have failed miserably to mark a footprint abroad. Indian Railways’ endeavour might just be the step in the right direction. The Indian Railways, Department of Posts or PSUs like BHEL, NTPC, and SAIL have the right kind of expertise and experience that often becomes the very platform for a global expedition. The Indian Railways has been managing one of the largest networks in the world for many decades, ferries nearly 6 billion passengers, and around 750 million tonne freights per year and runs more than 14,000 trains per day. Yet, it had never thought to encash this know-how for bigger feats. And on goes the same story for many of the other PSUs as well.
So far so good. But it should neither stop with Sri Lanka nor be the exclusivity of Indian Railway. Most PSUs have the ability to make it global in the same manner, in which, Ranbaxy, Reliance or Tatas have made it. All they need is to think beyond!! Anybody listening??