IRCTC looks to leverage ‘digital assets’ to bolster revenue

Calls for applications from consultants

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has floated a tender to hire a consultant that can help the firm monetise the “reservoir of digital data”, including customer data of both passenger services as well as freight services, to unlock estimated revenue potential of ₹1,000 crore.

In the notice inviting applications from consultants, the firm said Indian Railways generated enormous amounts of data, presenting ‘large scope’ for monetisation.

“Indian Railways desires to monetise the data in customer/vendor applications and internal applications of Indian Railways…for generating revenues and also to enhance facilitation and further improve the services,” it said in the tender floated last month.

“IRCTC wishes to engage a consulting firm to help in identification, design, and development and roll-out of data monetisation opportunities.”

It also added that the applying party needed to study “various Acts or laws including IT Act 2000 and its amendments, User data privacy laws including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and current ‘Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 of India, and accordingly propose the business models for monetisation of Digital Assets”.

The consultant, it said, would be provided with details of applications and the data collected, for conducting the study on monetisation of digital data and would need to study data of the passenger, freight and parcel businesses, including customer data such as name, age, gender, class of journey, payment mode, etc. The consultant will also need to study digital data systems that generate behavioural data such as flow of passengers, frequency of journey, travel time and booking time, among other things.

In a recent earnings call, the company’s Chairperson and MD Rajni Hasija said IRCTC was focussing on the non-convenience fee resources more, in addition to the convenience fee resources (for revenue generation) and “one key driver will be… encashing the presence of IRCTC in the Internet and the digital asset monetisation…we have floated the tender for that, so we are hoping for some good results”.