Digital India is also playing an important role in Indian

Railways. If so, how IT enabled passenger services are

of advantage to the common man?

In this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of

people in ways that was hard to imagine just a couple of
decades ago. Digital India is an enterprise for India's
transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in
human history.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1, 2015, the
Digital India initiative was started with a view to empower the
people of the country digitally. The initiative also aims to bridge
India's digital segment and bring big investments in the
technology sector.
The Digital India initiative seeks to lay emphasis on egovernance and transform India into a digitally empowered
society. The program is projected at Rs 1,13,000 crore which
will prepare the country for knowledge-based transformation.
The Department of Electronics and Information Technology
anticipates that this program will have a huge impact on the
Ministry of Communication and IT. It is to ensure that
government services are available to citizens electronically. It
will focus on providing high speed internet services to its
citizens and make services available in real time for both online
and mobile platform.
Digital India the dream project of the government and a
blessing for the citizens, could help in connecting the dots of
various projects, past and present, to bring India to a global
platform. It will help in moving with the universal trends of
digital innovation and create positive impact in the lives of
people - rural and urban, young and old. International players
like Microsoft , Google , Facebook pledging technology and
infrastructure support to this initiative gives it a very strong and

positive impetus. India has become a large market place for

retail, manufacturing, logistics, communication, travel & leisure
and healthcare. This growth has to be supported by a strong
logistics backbone and a 'digitally transformed' Indian Railways
can provide the much needed support to this endeavour.
Operation of railway services has progressed a lot since the
advent of the first locomotive. Railways is the most preferred
mode of transport for more than 70% of the population. With
changing times, railway operations and services have
developed with better orientation towards customers.
Management of railways, ticketing systems and availability of
services are now developed to be stronger catering to the need
of larger customers.
With production and manufacturing across the country being
encouraged and travel & leisure being on the rise, Indian
Railways will have a growing role to play in the entire dynamics.
With more than 7,000 freight trains with 239,000 freight
wagons, Indian Railways has a massive leverage over other
means of transportation of freight across the country.
Indian Railways should be taking steps to attract the foreign
and domestic tourists for leisure trips and business travellers
for superfast business travels between key business hubs, at an
affordable price. In the age of customer experience, Indian
Railways should be looking at options to connect to consumers
directly, take their feedback in designing services and at the
same time increasing passenger safety, providing improved
and well maintained passenger services. Both these services
need to transform themselves largely to support this vision for
the future.
Right use of pertinent technology is going to be the key to
success and both Indian Railways need to embrace digital
technologies like social media, mobile, predictive analytics,
cloud, machine to machine and Internet of Things.

Efficient operating models, agile data-driven decision making,

streamlined operations, pre-emptive risk identification and
mitigation have to be made the order of the day, powered by
the digital enablers. Efficient management of data (both master
and transactional) along with data coming from outside the
enterprise e.g. social media, public space, third party sources
or from devices is key in terms of digital transformation. Data
assets in these organisations needs to be given due emphasis
in terms of completeness, quality, governance and accuracy so
that they can be the backbone for the digital transformation.

Predictive analytics as such has the most potential in terms of

generating business value; e.g.:
Providing railways passengers with a facility to assess the
probability of confirmation of their wait listed tickets.
Being able to predict seasonal demand for seats based on
historical data to make proactive provisions to manage the
demand.
Real time big data analytics platform will help railway
services bring in more efficiency in their delivery network
by route optimisation and real time tracking of their
resources.
Use analytics to identify high-value revenue generating
freight customers to offer them value-added services to
increase their loyalty.
Analytics can be used to identify booking and
transportation issues and pinpoint the root cause or
bottlenecks to proactively resolve them for improved
customer service.
From a capability perspective Railways need to start dealing
with unstructured data e.g. data from GPS devices, control
devices, image captures, mobile devices, satellite images, GIS
information, social media, driver health information (e.g.
alcohol test results) etc. to be able to create holistic profiles of
people, products, services, equipment, shipped packages etc.

Richness of information in conjunction with statistical modelling

of the data would lead to improved analytical insights for
business.
Indian Railways have had a healthy tradition of utilizing
Information Technology in their day to day operations in the last
40 years. Railways is presently carrying over a billion tonnes of
freight and over 8 billion of passengers annually. This
corresponds to around 27 lakh trucks a day and 22 million
passengers a day. IT is helpful in serving rail users of this scale
effectively and efficiently. IT enabled passenger and freight
information services have made it possible for the rail user to
access the services increasingly from his desk top or lap top or
even his mobile phone. Internally also, Railways have utilized
computerization extensively to provide quick and efficient
processing of data. The system is now moving from paper to
paper-less delivery of services.
Security is paramount in railway operations; on it depends the
lives of millions of commuters. There are examples of many
tragic accidents of trains where thousands lost their lives, some
of which happened because of communication lapse and
technical glitches in the system. A secure network, aided by
excellent communication systems, is indispensable to
guarantee security in railway transportation. Utilization of high
capacity digital technology with comprehensive set of
functionalities has now become the heart of modern rail
operations. New technologies such as high bandwidth systems
and IP based networks are being developed for strengthening
safety and security features in railways. Voice data and train
control messages are critical for strong security. IP and Ethernet
technologies are bringing in new aspects of secured railway
networks.
These systems are the backbone of alarm systems, Video
surveillance, and remote access monitoring and equipment
telemetry. Advancement of ICT has developed the overall
operations within railway management. Railway systems based

on IP and MPLS Networks enables delivery of diverse modes of

communication and traffic. Such system facilitates developed
mode of operations within the system for better performance of
railway traffic. The system can be integrated to improve various
aspects such as site access control, Video surveillance, remote
access monitoring and equipment telemetry and so on.
Corporate LAN networks integrated with public address
systems can be created using advanced ICT. RFID based freight
consignment tracking can be implemented improving railway
freight services.
One of the most important contributions of ICT in railways is in
the domain of customer service and access to information.
Railway systems are integrated with efficient and real-time
frontend IT platforms for improvised customer services. Modern
railway systems have to deal with massive commuters and an
increasing transportation of goods. Moreover, the need of
better services has increased with the requirement of more
pervasive railway services. Real time information system is a
crucial aspect of customer service. Passenger inquiry about
availability of trains, arrival and departure schedules at stations
and status of booked tickets are some of the aspects that
serves as parameters of customer satisfaction of railway
services. In fact, they are the most important facets for access
to railway service. For a huge and complicated railway network
system such as India, efficient use of ICT can certainly make a
difference. Passenger ticketing and inquiry systems are being
developed to be highly service oriented to provide an ease of
access to customers. In present times, railway information
systems are being integrated to mobile services. Adding to this,
many web applications are being developed through which
railway services can be accessed via mobile devices.
Indian Railways have adopted Information Technology since
1960s and the results are there for all of us to see. They have
extended the benefits of computerization to the common man
by making it easy for him to buy train tickets at his
convenience. They have enabled freight customers to pay for

their transactions through a computerized payment gateway.

Railways are providing information to the customers about train
running, accommodation status, reservation status etc., which
has been possible by computerization and use of Information
Technology.
Starting from pay roll to passenger ticketing and reservation,
Indian Railways has used IT to facilitate a wider clientele of
freight, container and parcel transport users. Freight Operation
Information System (FOIS) is helping Railways in getting on line
real time information about trains and reduce the time spent on
collecting and collating information. In the ticketing field Indian
Railways have progressed in e-ticketing where now about 50%
tickets are sold on the internet. The aim of IT is to act as an
information highway where and when required for both internal
and external customer and also to act as a personal
productivity tool. With the result, life has become much easier
for passengers for booking their tickets and getting information
for their journey.
In the coming years, Indian Railways can play a game-changing
role in the Indian market place, which is on an evolution path,
by embracing digital agenda and through collaboration with
national and international technology players. The use of ICT is
imperative in railways. Digital technology can make railway
services more secure and safe. Customer oriented features
providing a range of services can be developed to make access
of railways simplified and comfortable.
The time is ripe to invest in defining a strategy and roadmap for
the future and have the budgets in place to implement the
plan.