Benchmarking the Yearly Performances of the Indian Railways

This paper uses a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based analysis to benchmark performances of Indian Railways over a period 2002-03 to 2016-17. An output based model revealed that the performances have remained far from being efficient, though a steady improvement has been seen in the sector throughout the period over which the model was applied. The results indicate that inefficiencies may largely have been brought about due to excess staff, whose reduction over the years has led to improvement in efficiencies. Furthermore, the operations seem to achieve economies of scale in recent times. The results also indicate that there has been a huge notional loss of revenue due to the performances remaining muted and inefficient, and hence sector reforms to improve performances should remain an urgent and sought after agenda for the Indian government.