It was not surprising therefore to receive from the Rail Bhawan yet another invitation on Lalu's meeting with a delegation from a Singapore-based top international business school- INSEAD.

The meeting with the INSEAD delegation earned Lalu a much-coveted invitation to the Singapore campus of the 50-year-old school and a commitment by its dean for a case study on his favourite theme, the historic turnaround of the Indian Railways. The delegation was given a detailed presentation on the much-sung theme. Frank Brown, dean of INSEAD (Asia campus), told mediapersons here that it was wonderful to be in India to "experience first hand the terrific story of the turnaround of the Indian Railways.

"It is something that the Indian Railways should be proud of and the minister should be proud of. We would like to have the minister come to the campus and talk to MBAs."

Interestingly, the Railways has entered into an agreement with INSEAD to train its 150 to 180 executives every year over a period of five years. The first programme of the series is to be held in Singapore from December 10.

The expenditure involved in this customised training programme introduced a couple of months back may be huge but INSEAD calls the Executive Education Programme for the Railways an investment.