About IRCTC:
It is a company that operates as a part of India's public sector and supplies the Indian Railways with services such as tourism, ticketing, and catering. This company's name literally translates to "Indian Railways Public Sector Company." The government is in charge of monitoring how it runs its operations. In the beginning, the Ministry of Railways was the administrative authority over the employees, and the Government of India was the sole owner of the company. These employees were responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company. Notwithstanding this, as of the year 2019, it is now traded on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), and the government continues to hold the majority of the company's shares.
Establishment and Ownership:
The Indian Railways Catering and tourism corporation (irctc) was established on september 27, 1999 as a public sector undertaking. The Indian government, acting through the Indian railways, is the sole owner of irctc. It is the only entity that is authorised to provide certain services to the Indian railways, including online ticketing, catering, and the sale of drinking water both on trains and at railway stations. These services include online ticketing, catering, and the sale of drinking water. It was given the status of a miniratna public corporation in may of 2008, which gave it a considerable degree of freedom in terms of its financial situation.
Online ticket booking:
Online ticketing: It was a pioneer in internet-based rail ticket booking and allows customers to do so via their mobile phones using WiFi, GPRS, or SMS in addition to booking tickets on its website. Additionally, it has begun offering a reward programme for frequent passengers under the name Shubh Yatra. Passengers can take advantage of savings on any and all tickets they book during the year by enrolling in this programme and paying an up-front charge on a yearly basis.
It established a programme called the Rolling Deposit Scheme with the goal of simplifying the process of purchasing electronic tickets (RDS).
Passengers who purchase unreserved train tickets can take advantage of the organization's new smart card system, which went into effect on August 11, 2021. The cards, which can be reloaded with money via the internet and can be purchased at train stations, allow passengers to bypass lengthy lines at ticket counters.
Passenger Data and Privacy concern:
IRCTC employees used the personal information of passengers that had been provided to them in order to book tickets in order to send an email containing a pamphlet titled "PM Modi and his government's special relationship with Sikhs" during the farmers' protests in India that occurred in 2020 and 2021. The pamphlet advertised the advantages of government policies to Sikh farmers who were participating in the protests. Between the 8th and the 12th of December in the year 2020, more than 20 million of these emails were sent without the agreement of the passengers. According to the head public relations officer for the IRCTC, Sidharth Singh, the brochure "has been given to persons with the surname 'Singh' and those who are from the Punjab region." IRCTC officials later denied that the pamphlet, which was distributed in English, Hindi, and Punjabi, was aimed specifically at members of the Sikh community.
