Introduction
On Friday, October 31, we had an insightful session by Dr Bhooma Veeravalli, a senior HR professional and currently Additional Member HR, Railway Board, New Delhi. She spoke about transformation of government organizations with the digital transformation of Indian Railways as a case study.
About Dr. Bhooma Veeravalli
Dr. Bhooma Veeravalli is a dynamic Senior Manager with more than 35 years of experience in different government organisations. She graduated in Social Sciences from Lady Doak College Madurai and did her post-Graduation in Industrial Psychology and Organisational Behaviour from University of Madras and holds a graduate degree in Law.
Dr Veeravalli joined the Indian Railway Personnel Service after clearing the Civil Services Examination in 1987. Apart from Railways, she has worked in several organizations like Indian Space Research Organisation, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Central Institute of Classical Tamil etc., handling a variety of senior administrative roles. She has left her mark in each of these organizations bringing in innovations and system improvements like being the first to implement e-office in Indian Railways; elimination of unmanned level crossings; electrification at a record pace; evolving a promotion policy for IIT non-teaching employees, etc. Even during her training in the department of Customs and Central Excise, she made a significant contribution. She was part of the team that detected smuggling of 278 kg of gold off the Western Coast of India.
Dr Veeravalli has been awarded British Chevening Scholarship for ‘Women in Leadership and Management’ in 2003; Outstanding Woman Manager by Madras Management Association in 2006; Director-General’s Medal for best performance in Advanced Management Programme in 2008; Fulbright Nehru Award for International Education Administrators (FNIEAS), 2015 and more.
Dr Veeravalli pursues a variety of interests and hobbies including writing and translation of poetry from Tamil to English, writing travelogues, reviews and articles, trekking, conducting quiz shows, farming, playing Veena and listening to Classical Music.
Her book, Firelets – Glimpses of Bharati’s Poetry, a curated translation of select poems of Subramania Bharati in English has been recently published. Subsequently, her translation of verses of Bharati have been included in a coffee table book by International Institute of Tamil Studies. Her third book, Mani Maniyay, a translation of Manipuri short stories into Tamil published by the Sahitya Akademi, has also been critically acclaimed.
Awakening the Giant
Government projects are huge in scale and scope. The expenditure that the government has earmarked for infrastructure this year is Rs 11.2 lakh crores or about $130 billion. That is not a small amount.
Infosys alone is likely to generate Rs 10,000 crores plus revenue from just two departments of government in one year (Income Tax and GST). TCS is targeting about Rs 17,000 crores in terms of government projects alone.
The railways will be ordering something like 150 locos every year for the next 10 years and about 5,000 coaches every year. Most of these orders will go to the private sector because the government does not have the capacity to manage this expenditure.
For the private sector, it is not only a $130 billion business potential but also an opportunity to make India a developed country. India can be a beacon of growth and stability in a world marked by instability.
One big advantage we have is that we are starting afresh. So, we can embrace the latest technology right at the start. But the private sector would do well to remember these are long haul business deals. They must take a long-term view.
Case Study: Indian Railways
Consider a huge organization which is running 140,000 track kilometres and 88,000 route kilometres with some 7,000 stations. It is the second largest in the world in terms of number of passengers and net tonnage of goods carried, fourth largest in the world in terms of length and the third largest in terms of growth. We are talking about Indian Railways, a 175-year-old traditional organization with 16 zones, 8 production units, 273 primary administrative units and 7,000 unique locations.
The Indian Railways have 14.4 lakh employee positions, 12.5 lakh active employees, 15.2 lakh pensioners, 800 verticals, 3,100 designations and 4,600 promotional units. About 1.2 lakh persons are promoted every year on average. There are 1.0 lakh reservation counters and 10 lakh leave applications every year. About 50,000 people are recruited every year.
There is a range of stations from Ooty and Darjeeling on the hills to the high traffic Mumbai. The Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world. One in 1,000 people have some railway connection. The railways run hospitals, guesthouses, creches, schools and take care of everything from birth to cremation.
HR processes in the Railways were being handled manually by 300–400 officers and 10,000 staff till three years back. Now the operations are being digitized with zero error tolerance.
Transformation is challenging. Work must go on even when the transformation is happening. There are multiple stakeholders: railway board, employees, politicians and unions.
The digital transformation initiative started slowly, led by the internal organization, CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems). But once the Indian Railways moved into a partnership mode, the work accelerated. Fourteen out of eighteen modules have been implemented with zero error migration.
Today, 91 lakh travel authorities are issued every year and 12.11 lakh employee users operate in real time. Thousands of people, including 8th pass employees, have been trained. Rs 12,000 crores worth of pensions and Rs 6,000 crores of Provident Fund dues have been settled. Leave approvals are now fully online and accessible even on mobile phones.
Despite challenges such as data purity, cash constraints, turf loyalties, connectivity issues and union pressures, the system has been implemented in a record time of three years.
Dr Veeravalli believes this is only the first step. The vast data generated must now be analysed to generate actionable insights for recruitment, postings and other data-driven decisions.
Most importantly, employee satisfaction has increased. Transparency has improved along with operational efficiency, making the organization adaptable and scalable. The technology architecture designed can be offered to other government organizations as well.
Lessons from the Transformation
- Stakeholder and user acceptability is critical.
- Understand the problem first; technology comes later.
- Sound functional requirements and user specifications are essential.
- Comprehensive and flexible contracts and agile project management are key.
- Change management processes must be in place.
- Partner-mode functioning is more effective.
Takeaways for the Private Sector
- Play for the long haul and adopt a long-term perspective.
- Focus on solutions; technology comes later.
- Understand government processes and patience is essential.
- The government prioritises equity and accessibility over profit.
- Ensure data purity, accessibility, privacy and audit readiness.
- Design inclusive systems that cater to all users.
- Provide flexibility for policy changes.
Concluding Remarks
Government projects are challenging but deeply rewarding. Dr Veeravalli shared a poignant moment when an ICFAI student expressed a desire to improve the lives of people around him and seek a higher purpose in life beyond earning a salary. This, she felt, was the true reward of public service and meaningful leadership.
Q&A
There are 4 triggers:
- Public grievances: A good example is the digitalization drive during Covid.
- Administrative efficiency: The transformation may be driven by administrative needs. However, it is important to marry administrative needs with what the public wants.
- Political / organizational leadership initiative: For example, if the operating ratio, i.e. cost/returns, is increasing, then it must be dealt with.
- Competition: When competitors are moving ahead, it is necessary to respond.
We must also remember that transformation is not only about digitization and use of information technology. Good examples are promotion policies for non-teaching staff in IIT Madras, managing the travelling staff during Covid, redeploying people when the railways moved from steam to diesel engines and now from diesel to electric, new research policies in the Central Institute of Classical Tamil, dealing with land encroachment in ISRO, Sriharikota, setting up of new IITs in Tirupati and Palakkad, and closing unmanned level crossings to improve public safety.
Engineering, social and political challenges are often involved while driving change. Dr Veeravalli has embraced some foundational principles: Be open and transparent with both politicians and the general public. Provide data. Think of the other side. Be open and accessible.
When closing unmanned crossings, public protests are common. It is important to explain to the public with data that the measure is being taken to improve their safety and not to increase the speed of the train. Once there was a proposal to close a crossing. As a result, people would have to spend 30 min more to reach the burial ground. The Indian Railways did a rethink and did not go ahead with the closure.
The government has very good systems in place. The systems in the railways for example, have evolved over 178 years and are tried and tested. So, what we need to do is to build on the systems which are already in place and improve them. Thanks to the emphasis on audit, manual checks and balances are already in place. We just need to make them even more effective with technology.
We know the problems and what the public wants. We also have systems in place. We need to just match the two and find solutions.
People who have worked in government know what is to be done. But all along their hands have been tied. So, we need to empower them, and technology will enable us to get things going.
The Indian Railways are a huge recruiter. They employ about 50,000 people every year. As far as knowledge and skills are concerned, there is absolutely no question that the Indian Railways are attracting the best talent. There are few recruitment malpractices. In the engineering services exam, the toppers prefer railways knowing fully well that the perks offered by the railways are lower compared to other departments.
At lower levels, the railways receive 1000 applications for every post and at more senior levels, 500. The trainings are elaborate: one and a half to two years and across multiple departments and multiple roles. The Indian Railways also believe in holistic care of their employees.
Dr Veeravalli feels that the work environment needs to be improved. The responsibility of the railways is to build the culture and the orientation. Employees must be infused with the corporate purpose. In this context, it is interesting to note that the loyalty of railway employees is very high. They have been taught not to stop a train or to desert a post. Since 1974, there has been no strike in the railways.
In a fast-changing world, adaptability and ability to change are key. But this must happen without comprising the core values. Digital leadership is not just about tech savviness. It is also about steering the organization in a digital environment. Empathy is important. We must always think of the other side. The key is to strike a balance between core values and technology. We must protect the core values of the organization while embracing new ways of working.
Change initiatives in the Indian Railways are long drawn. So, there is time for employees to adapt. But in many corporates, the change is much faster. So, the fatigue also hits faster.
Change has several layers: core values, systems, processes. It is easier to manage fatigue if the core values (e.g. delivering value to customers) are consistent. If the core values remain the same, then systems and processes can be changed more easily.
We should also share the goals with all the stakeholders. Once we discuss the problem openly it becomes a shared problem. That is preferable to a top-down approach.