Lalu Prasad - the RJD supremo and railway minister will soon give a lecture, that too in the portals of IIM, Ahmedabad on management skills which enabled him to turn loss-making railways into a profit-making unit. His lecture at Ahmedabad will be followed by one to those selected for the central services.

Prasad has also been invited by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie to speak on the subject. Not just that, he has also been invited to an international conference on railway administra-tion being held at Indore on November 8. Before that, he will be addressing CEOs of the corporate world in Delhi.

Some academics from Harvard had met the railway minister. So did Karine Le Joly, executive director of the Paris-based HEC School of Management, was surprised to learn how Prasad managed to get the railways have a healthy cash reserve of Rs 110 billion in 2005-06.

Until 2001-02, the balance was Rs 240 crore. By 2005-06, it had jumped to Rs 13,000 crore. Inspired by such an unprecedented success, the railways have now set their target at Rs 20,000 crore.