India, Feb. 27 -- Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw yesterday announced the launch of a dedicated tech policy to rope in startups for promoting innovation in Indian Railways.

Modelled after the defence ministry's innovations for defence excellence (iDEX) initiative, the Rail Tech policy aims to engage innovators, startups and other institutions to build solutions for the ministry.

As part of this, Vaishnaw launched a new "Rail Tech portal", where startups can propose solutions directly to the Railways. The platform also introduces a single-stage, detailed submission process for proposals instead of complex, multi-tier methods.

Under the initiative, the ministry will offer up to 50% of the funding once the project is approved. Post the...