* It was reported that after implementation of 7th par commission, about 20-25% of the total revenues goes into paying pension to its retired employees & 40-50% of total revenues go into salary/perks of working employees. It is very difficult to survive for any organisation with so high staff costs.
* With interest rates on deposits in market falling from about 12-15% (2 decades ago) to about 7-10% today, it is very difficult for any organisation to earn more as interest on pension funds and pay handsome pension. Hence NPS was brought.
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If Unions have their way, they will insist for more and more recruitments to wield more and more bargaining power but the staff cost shall bloat further making safe operation of trains very difficult.
* If Employees want earlier pension then they should support the use of latest technology & automation to make the system safer, more reliable as well as lesser manpower intensive. This may result in fewer job opportunities in Indian Rlys in future, but improved traffic/ financial health of railways, huge reduction in logistics cost for the country, and resultant benefits in indian economy can generate a large number of jobs to compensate the loss of railway jobs.
* Ever expanding network of 4/6 lane highways, New models of buses/cars, electric road vehicles, expanding network of airports, falling airfares, improvements being done in port infrastructure, emphasis to more efficient waterways etc are the external factors which may prove fatal to railways in India in future. IR has no option to become efficient, stop unnecessary losses