Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated Indian Railways' 1st HR Round Table Conference here today. Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A. K. Mital, Member Staff Shri Pradeep Kumar, other Railway Board Members and senior officials were also present on the occasion. On the occasion, Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that Railway is a large organisation & for every big organisation, it is necessary to revisit the basic issues, introspect them and bring a change to be competitive, versatile & efficient. People in the organisation has to take a decision of change. Organisational change can happen only if the shortcomings are realised. Railways is a complex organization. It has commercial role, social role and welfare role and has to meet expectations of people which are unique and conflicting. It also has to play a role of national transporter. Railways is the most important strategic asset of country. It is important for economic, social aspect which cannot be overlooked. Organisation must constantly revisit its objective and try to cater to the needs of people. For development of Railways, people in the organisation should be created to face the challenges. Railways need to clearly define the corporate goals, it should create the organised structure then it should place the right people in the organisation. The change should start from the top level so it should be discernible to the people. Railways as an organisation should cater to the larger corporate goals, corporate goals should cater to societal priorities. The action & attention should be at Divisional level, Railway Divisions as a business unit should be a focal point of the changes.Chairman Railway Board Shri AK Mital said that In all other organization the cost of employees is around 30% whereas in Indian Railways it is 60% of the operation cost. The need of the hour is to increase the earning so that the cost of employees will go down which will be possible only when efficiency & output of each & every employees will improve.
Background
Indian Railways is the biggest civilian employer in the country spanning the length and breadth of the sub-continent within strength of over 13 lakh employees. The employees are spread over 10 departments in 17 Zones, 6 Production Units and 68 Divisions. The service of the Indian Railways are 24X7 and the work content varies from high precision engineering to customer interface and train operations with many departments working in a coordinated manner. Improving the productivity of the human resources through inter-change of ideas with various stakeholders and HR practitioners and academics is the aim of the Conference. The Conference was organized around three themes i.e.
(i) Stakeholders Expectations from HR.
(ii) The Future of Work – HR Role
(iii) Creativity Within Constraints
Each theme was in form of a Roundtable discussion amongst HR experts and leaders of industry including:
1. Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO HSBC India
2. Mr. Dinesh K. Sarraf, CMD ONGC
3. Mr. A.K. Balyan, Ex. MD & CEO Petronet LNG Ltd.
4. Dr. Santrupt Misra, CEO Carbon Black Business & Director Group HR, Aditya Birla,
5. Mr. Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, PeopleStrong,
6. Mr. T.K. Srirang, Sr. GM, HR Head, ICICI Bank
7. Mr. S. Roy Choudhury, Director HR, Vodafone India Ltd.
8. Mr. Ayaskant Sarangi, Sr. Vice President, Human Resources, Wipro Technologies
9. Mr. Sunil Kumar Maheshwari, Professor, IIM, Ahmedabad
10. Dr. P. Dwarakanath, Advisor, HR Max India Ltd.
11. Mr. S. Roy, Director HR, NTPC
12. Mr. S.Y. Siddiqui, Chief Mentor, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
13. Mr. Yogi Sriram, HR Head, L&T.
The valedictory was conducted by Dr. Pritam Singh, well-known Management Guru who has set up IIM/Lucknow and was associated with MDI/Gurgaon amongst other organization.The participants came from all parts of the country including Ministry of Railways and its public sector organizations who actively participated in the Question Answer Sessions. The young probationary officers were also exposed to the above themes which will help them achieve more and contribute more in their future work as HR Manager on the Indian Railways.