All aboard, it's much more than a Mumbai-Ahmedabad train ride Indian industry hopes this project would open new opportunities for its own development and offer new business in such areas as construction, supply and manufacture of parts, materials and so on. The launch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail (MAHSR) project by the prime ministers of India and Japan has been met by the usual carping criticism. It brings to mind the criticism that Indira Gandhi faced when she allowed a public sector company to tie up with Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, that Rajiv Gandhi faced when he spoke of computerisation of public services delivery, that PV Narasimha Rao faced when he ended the licence permit raj, and that Manmohan Singh faced when he sought to strike a civil nuclear deal with the US. Each of those initiatives started a new phase in India's industrial and technological development. So, too, could the MAHSR project. The MAHSR project is not just about a railway li...