Suresh Prabhu

Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu (born 11 July 1953) is an Indian politician and the current Railway Minister of India, under the Narendra Modi government. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Since 1996, Prabhu has been a repeatedly elected Member of Parliament from Rajapur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra as a member of the Shiv Sena (SS) political party. He quit Shiv Sena and joined BJP on 9 November 2014. He presently represents Haryana in Upper House of Indian Parliament.

Education

Suresh Prabhu completed his high school from Sharadashram Vidya Mandir, Dadar, Mumbai, followed by a Bachelor in Commerce with Honours from M.L. Dahanukar College, Vile Parle, Mumbai. He received a Bachelor in Law degree from the New Law College (Ruparel College campus), Mumbai. Prabhu is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He was All India 11th (eleventh) rank holder in CA exam. He is working on his Ph.D. in Climate Change from Frei University Berlin and Public Finance from Mumbai University.

Ministry of Railways

A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure. In countries that have railways, but no cabinet department specializing in overseeing them, this task will typically fall to a Ministry of Transport. The head of a Ministry of Railways is usually denoted Minister of Railways or Railway Minister.

Examples of Ministries of Railways include:

Indian Railways

Indian Railways (reporting mark IR) is an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,808 km (40,891 mi) and 7,112 stations. In 2014-15, IR carried 8.397 billion passengers annually or more than 23 million passengers a day (roughly half of whom were suburban passengers) and 1058.81 million tons of freight in the year. In 2014–2015 Indian Railways had revenues of ₹1634.50 billion (US$24 billion) which consists of ₹1069.27 billion (US$16 billion) from freight and ₹402.80 billion (US$5.9 billion) from passengers tickets.

Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Mumbai to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, the Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at several places in India and are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power and type of operation. Its operations cover twenty nine states and seven union territories and also provides limited international services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods, by way of wheeled vehicles running on rails.

It is also commonly referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Track usually consists of steel rails, installed on ties (sleepers) and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are also possible, such as slab track where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface.

Rolling stock in railway transport systems generally has lower frictional resistance when compared with highway vehicles and the passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power, usually by diesel engines. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is often less flexible and more capital-intensive than highway transport is, when lower traffic levels are considered.

Union Council of Ministers of India

The Union Council of Ministers exercises executive authority in the Republic of India. It consists of senior ministers, called "Cabinet Ministers", and junior ministers, called "Ministers of State". It is led by the Prime Minister. A smaller executive body, called the Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India. Only the Prime Minister and ministers of the rank of "Cabinet Minister" are members of the Cabinet. The most senior civil servant in India, called the Cabinet Secretary, leads the Cabinet Secretariat, and provides administrative assistance to the Council of Ministers. Ministers of State are tasked with assisting Cabinet Ministers in their work.

Regulations

As a collective, the Council of Ministers is responsible to the lower house of the Indian Parliament, called the House of the People. According to the Constitution of India, the total number of ministers in the Council of Ministers must not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the House of the People. Ministers must be members of parliament. Any minister who is not a member of either the lower or upper houses of parliament for six consecutive months is automatically stripped of his or her ministerial post.