A good fix: On the IRCTC and ticket booking
The e-ticketing system of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is one of India's most widely used e-commerce platforms. Crores of Indian rail commuters and passengers use it to book their tickets, which makes it imperative that the system is run robustly. The scale of the operation is revealing — on May 22, 2025, the IRCTC processed a staggering 31,814 tickets in 60 seconds to set a new record. Yet, the popular e-ticketing system, especially the Tatkal booking part, is plagued by issues. Extremely high demand during peak hours, particularly during the designated Tatkal booking window period, often leads to crashes and slow performance. A major concern is that the system is exploited by ticketing agents who use unfair automated tools (or bots), leading to rapidly dwindling ticket availability for passengers. These issues are what prompted the IRCTC to announce two major steps. The first was a major digital overhaul of the ticketing infrastructure using anti-bot systems to prevent unauthorised automated bookings — a measure that led to the de-activation of a whopping 2.5 crore suspect user IDs. Implementation of a content delivery network also helped improve website performance. In addition, Aadhaar verification is necessary immediately after a ticket is booked. The IRCTC has also mandated Aadhaar authentication for all Tatkal bookings, from July 1, along with OTP-based authentication. Authorised agents have been restricted from booking Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the booking window period.
The idea behind an e-ticketing platform and the provision of Tatkal booking of tickets are to provide equitable chances for passengers to travel. Despite more train services having been introduced over the years by the Indian Railways, which is a state monopoly, demand far outstrips supply, and passengers have to rely on advanced booking and Tatkal tickets for their travel. When agents use bots to game the system, it kills the purpose of equity. Therefore, the IRCTC's steps will bring relief to passengers. That said, the Indian Railways must focus not only on easing the process of ticketing but also on elevating the passenger experience in terms of increasing its train and track capacity to fulfil travel demand, ensuring safety and enhancing its facilities. Seen in this context, while these ticketing fixes are important, the true test for the Indian Railways will be its ability to move beyond just technical and administrative solutions and undertake a fundamental expansion of its services to serve India's large passenger clientele. In a way, meaningful expansion to meet the demand will also obviate the need for reworking technological solutions yet again in the future.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
32 minutes ago
- The Print
Two days of mkt slump wipes out Rs 8.35 lakh cr investors' wealth
In two days, the benchmark has lost 1,396.54 points or 1.69 per cent. Falling for the second day in a row on Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex dived 573.38 points or 0.70 per cent to settle at 81,118.60. During the morning trade, it tanked 1,337.39 points or 1.63 per cent to 80,354.59. New Delhi, Jun 13 (PTI) Equity investors become poorer by Rs 8.35 lakh crore in two days of market fall, where the benchmark Sensex dropped nearly 2 per cent amid heightened Middle East tensions, which drove Brent crude oil prices to sky-high levels. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 8,35,799.85 crore to Rs 4,47,21,343.34 crore (USD 5.19 trillion) in two days. 'Indian equities fell sharply, reacting to weak global cues and a surge in crude oil prices after Israel launched military strikes on Iran earlier today. The sharp rise in crude prices weighed on the Indian rupee and led to selling pressure in OMCs, paints, tyres and lubricant stocks,' Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Research, Wealth Management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said. Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 7.61 per cent to USD 74.64 a barrel. 'Indian equity markets endured a sharp sell-off on Friday, with the Nifty-50 and Sensex both off their intra-day lows but still closing with significant losses. The market faced pressure from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, surging crude oil prices, and broad-based sectoral weakness,' Satish Chandra Aluri, Analyst at Lemonn Markets Desk, said. Among the Sensex firms, Adani Ports, ITC, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank and UltraTech Cement were the major laggards. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti and Sun Pharma were the gainers. The BSE midcap gauge declined 0.32 per cent and smallcap index dipped 0.30 per cent. Among BSE sectoral indices, services tumbled 2.06 per cent, bankex (1.01 per cent), FMCG (0.94 per cent), financial services (0.85 per cent), metal (0.81 per cent) and power (0.75 per cent). Healthcare index and realty were the only winners. As many as 2,469 stocks declined while 1,516 advanced and 137 remained unchanged on the BSE. PTI SUM SUM SHW This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
The Hindu
32 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Israel-Iran conflict to impact oil supply to India, increase export costs by 40-50%
Israel's attack on Iran and heightened tensions in the area pose significant risks to India in terms of curtailed supplies of oil and a 40-50% increase in the export costs, according to analysts and trade experts. Early on Friday (June 13, 2025), Israel said it had struck 'dozens' of nuclear and military targets in Iran, following which Iran reportedly retaliated with drone strikes of its own. Following these developments, global oil prices jumped about 8% in a single day, sparking fears that a sustained escalation could push inflation in India up, since it imports about 80% of its oil requirement. Problems for India 'The ongoing Iran-Israel conflict is likely to pose risks to oil supply even though India does not directly import large volumes of oil from Iran,' Amit Kumar, Partner and Energy & Renewables Industry Leader at Grant Thornton Bharat told The Hindu. 'India imports more than 80% of its crude oil needs. Hence, even if direct imports from Iran are minimal, global price spikes due to conflict will raise crude oil import costs.' Further, Mr. Kumar said that around 20% of global oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which is located between Iran to the north and the Arabian Peninsula to the south. 'Any disruption around the Strait of Hormuz may affect oil shipments coming from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE who are key suppliers for India,' he added. Disruptions in this area could also significantly hurt India's exports in terms of time as well as costs, according to Pankaj Chadha, Chairman of the Engineering Exports Promotion Council of India. 'The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East once again closes access to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, which will have a huge cost and time escalation for Indian exports by ship,' Mr. Chadda told The Hindu. 'Going around the Cape of Good Hope will add about 15-20 days per ship and $500-1,000 per container, which effectively works out to a 40-50% increase in costs,' he added. Impact on prices While oil prices immediately surged following Israel's attack, they are expected to settle back down, according to Norbert Rücker, Head of Economics and Next Generation Research at Julius Baer. 'Our best guess is that this latest conflict eruption follows the usual pattern, with prices rising temporarily before returning to previous levels,' Mr. Rücker said. 'The oil market is very resilient today and supplies are unlikely at risk. Storage is ample, spare capacity plentiful, and exports grow outside of the Middle East.' The price of gold, too, surged to above Rs 1 lakh per 10 grams following the attack as investors flocked to 'safe haven' assets. 'In times of conflict and uncertainty, gold remains the go-to hedge for both institutional and retail investors,' Amit Jain, co-founder of Ashika Global Family Office Services said. 'What we're witnessing isn't just a knee-jerk reaction. It's a continuation of a broader structural uptrend driven by central bank accumulation, weakening fiat confidence, and long-term inflationary concerns.'
Economic Times
32 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Adobe shares slump 7% as investors skeptical of quicker AI-adoption returns
Adobe's stock experienced a 7% drop due to investor apprehension regarding the timeline for AI integration to yield profits, despite an increased annual revenue forecast. Concerns about competitive pressures and the monetization of AI initiatives have led to lowered price targets from several brokerages. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Adobe's shares dropped 7% in early trading on Friday as investors' concern that the company's AI adoption into its software tools could take longer to fetch returns, overshadowed a raised annual revenue forecast "(We see) increasing concerns surrounding competitive pressures and a longer time horizon to reach notable AI monetization," said Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA San Jose, California-based creative software veteran is relied on by creatives for its tools including Photoshop and Premiere Pro The company said in April that it would add AI models from OpenAI and Google to Firefly, its generative AI tool allows users to create and edit images and videos for commercial purposes through basic text prompts without facing copyright challenges."While guidance was raised and management remains positive around demand generation, it feels like it will take more time to prove out these (AI) initiatives and quiet concerns of competition around GenAI," RBC analysts said in a now expects full-year 2025 revenue between $23.50 billion and $23.60 billion, up from its prior estimates of $23.30 billion to $23.55 least five brokerages cut their price target on the Adobe stock following the second-quarter session's losses, the stock has fallen around 13% so far this company's 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio stands at 18.88, compared with Autodesk's 29.16.
