Richard Branson to run India's railways?

Richard Branson is currently in Mumbai to launch the new Virgin Airways flights from here to London. That is obviously good news for all of us Londoners currently living in Mumbai - although there aren't that many of us- the expat community here (around 10,000-20,000) is tiny compared to somewhere like Hong Kong (450,000) or Singapore.(800,000).

In an interview for Mint, a leading financial newspaper, he was asked if he was considering doing business in India in areas other than airlines. He said "if Indian Railways is privatised,we'd love to evaluate the opportunities". Not an unreasonable answer and of course what amazing things he could do for railways in India. The railways are slowly falling apart, suffering from huge over-crowding and lack of investment. When the previous railways minister recently tried to increase fares for the first time in years - and pretty reasonable in a country suffering from 9% inflation - he was promptly sacked for doing so. Therefore, Richard Branson's idea of getting involved would be brilliant. However, the interviewer quickly moved on. The reason? That privatisation of Indian Railways is so unthinkable, that just to mention it seems hugely out of touch with Indian politics. The furore surrounding the recent changes in Foreign Direct Investment rules shows that. Huge swathes of the Indian economy are still in state hands, with few signs of much change. Manmohan Singh, the economist turned Prime Minister, has only gone so far as to sell off some stakes in public listed companies which is a start, but is a long way from rail privatisation. And if by some miracle, it entered into public debate, and in 10 years time it actually happened, the idea that a foreigner would be allowed anywhere near it, is totally unthinkable. Depressing, but sadly true.