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Showing posts with label Other news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other news. Show all posts

IRCTC chief talks about bandwidth clogging and steps to improve services

Sunday, February 26, 2012



1.Why is the bandwidth congestion acute during the morning window? 

The problem is that as the counters open at 8am sharp, the number of concurrent connections peaks. We have seen a maximum peak of up to 8 lakh concurrent connections -- it means there are 8 lakh people knocking on our firewalls during the first 10-15 minutes from 8 o’clock. This number goes up ahead of festivals and summer vacations. We have a capacity for 1,500-2000 successful transactions a minute. So, naturally there’s congestion. 

2.What steps are you taking to ease this congestion? 

Demand will always be there, in fact it will grow. We have added 52 servers which cater to peak traffic today and have plans to add 18 more servers. Scaling up is not the only solution. We have to add more trains and routes. If we were to increase our bandwidth to unlimited capacity, people in rural areas, who don’t have net access will always be deprived of Tatkal (reservations made a day ahead) tickets since all will be booked within the first 15 minutes of counters opening at 8am. 

3.So, is it a deliberate strategy by IRCTC to not increase website capacity to allow more transactions per minute? 

No. We have increased our bandwidth 10 times, to allow more people to come and log in. But traffic keeps on peaking, especially during a particular time in the morning. Suppose, we were to increase capacity to unlimited ticket bookings a minute, then most tickets will be booked in the first hour. Of the 8 lakh people who log on simultaneously between 8 am 8.10am, only 50,000 manage to get tickets. There are about 7.5 lakh people who go dissatisfied each day. If we increase our capacity to handle 15 lakh concurrent connections, then about 14.5 lakh customers will go dissatisfied. The solution is to increase the capacity and number of trains. My aim is to double the 50,000 bookings to over-a-lakh successful bookings in the first hour, which will reduce the number of dissatisfied customers. 

3.What is the reason that almost one-in-four is a failed transaction on IRCTC website? 

Failure of transactions may be for several reasons. Slow speed of online services of various banks – we have tie-ups with 18 of them -- is a major cause. The payment gateway transaction takes about 1.5-2 minutes. But for some banks, take longer, resulting often in failure. There can be customer-centric reasons like no money in account. Sometimes, customer gives a berth preference and it takes time for the system to find a particular berth. By that time a ticket may already be booked. We have already identified 7 to 8 issues. The aim is to reduce the time taken for each transaction. 

4.What are the steps IRCTC is taking to reduce this transaction time? 

We are looking at a rolling deposit system in which customers can deposit advance money into an account. They won’t have to go to a payment gateway then. They would not have to wait for two minutes for using the netbanking operations. I have put forward this challenge to our technologists and the systems architecture for it is being worked out. Also, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation works with the Ministry of Railways on a system of advance money. Every day I deposit about Rs 50 lakh in the bank account of Indian Railways -- advance money for the tickets I will buy from them that day. We are extending the same system for other websites such as MakeMytrip.com and Yatra.com to book rail tickets, which will ease the load on our site. 

5.Why customer’s money is not instantly credited back after a failed transaction?
After a failed transaction, a report goes back to the bank that a transaction has failed but money has been deducted. The banks make a report and send it to us. It takes 2 to 3 days. We release the money as we get the report. 

6.How do you look at your tenure with IRCTC? 

When I took charge of IRCTC in 2009, we used to book about 40,000 e-tickets every day. Now it has shot up to 4-4.5 lakh bookings a day. It is a quantum leap. Of course, we have become India’s largest e-commerce website -- IRCTC booked about 10 crore tickets worth Rs 8,000 crore in 2010-11. Today, we are able to manage 8 lakh concurrent transactions. In 2009, we used to do about 10,000 successful transactions in the first hour. Now it has gone up to 50,000 bookings per hour. My goal is to increase it to 1 lakh bookings. 

7.Is IRCTC targeting the hospitality and tourism on a big scale? 

We have a tie-up with about 8,000 hotels across India. These are 3 star hotels. We have not gone for 4-star and above because majority of the railway customers are not the airline customers. Over the last 3 years, our revenue through tourism has grown from Rs 10 crore to Rs 70 crore. By the end of this fiscal, we hope to touch Rs 100 crore. Our corporate booking segment is also growing. We are looking to tie-up with PSUs for their total travel arrangements. The company also has ambitious plans for air ticketing.

8.Has the new Tatkal scheme benefited users? 


It has benefitted the consumers who are net savvy. However, the rural Indian is still going to the reservation counters. With this scheme agents are also blocked from transacting on the net or counters in the morning.
Thus, demand will always be there, in fact it will grow. We have added 52 servers which cater to peak traffic today and have plans to add 18 more servers. Scaling up is not the only solution. We have to add more trains and routes.
 
RAKESH TANDON 
CMD, IRCTC

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Kingfisher submit fresh flight schedule before DGCA

Wednesday, February 22, 2012



Ailing Kingfisher Airlines, whose services remained affected for the sixth day, on Wednesday  submitted a fresh flight schedule with DGCA, scaling down its operations to about 170 daily flights with 28 functional aircraft. Faced with the regulators deadline, the airline submitted a revised winter schedule of flights it would operate till March. This schedule is being examined, DGCA sources said.
On a day when over 30 flights were cancelled by Kingfisher, DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan briefed Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on the tough financial situation faced by the carrier.
With reports that banks were offering to help out the airline, the Minister again made it clear that government would not give any dole to a private carrier.
“We have made it clear and I am sure Mr (Vijay) Mallya knows that Air India is a government concern. Whatever help we give them (Air India), we cannot do it to any private industry.
“We have said it before that banks will decide that (pumping in money). Government is not going to interfere in it. Banks have to follow RBI guidelines. They have to worry about their NPAs (non—performing assets). They have to decide on the basis of the business plan of the company. If they are satisfied with the business plan, they can lend money,” he said.
Sources said that as per the revised schedule, the airline would operate about 170 flights daily, instead of over 400 it had sought permission for last October when the winter schedule for the airlines came into operation.
At that time, Kingfisher had informed the regulator that it would fly 64 aircraft, a number which has now come down to 28 as many of its planes have either been taken away by the lessors or were awaiting repairs and spare parts or been cannibalised.
The DGCA, which summoned the Kingfisher’s CEO Sanjay Agarwal yesterday, had asked the airline to come up with a “realistic” schedule which can be operated by 28 planes.
Bhushan is understood to have apprised the Civil Aviation Minister on the discussions he had with the Kingfisher top brass and the airline’s plan to restore its flight schedule over the next few days.
Issues relating to whether any action could be taken against the struggling carrier for flouting the provisions of Aircraft Rules of 1937 are also understood to have come up for discussion, though the Minister has made it clear that closure of any airline would not be good for the health of the Indian aviation industry.
Kingfisher also partially resumed flights from Kolkata, operating four to the Northeast, though it cancelled 14 from Mumbai, eight from Bangalore and two from Delhi. The entire Kolkata operations were shut down from Friday night.
The cash—strapped carrier had faced the wrath of the Income Tax authorities which froze its bank accounts, which, the airline said had been primarily responsible for large— scale disruption of its flights.
Kingfisher, which suffered a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010—11 and has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore, posted a Rs 444 crore loss in third quarter this fiscal.

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Kerala fishermen killing: Antony says, Guilty will be punished

Friday, February 17, 2012


India on Friday said the firing by armed guards on-board an Italian merchant ship killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala, was “against the laws and norms” and the guilty will be punished.
“We are taking this issue very seriously. What happened was against the laws and the norms. The guilty will have to be punished,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters here.
Underlining that India wanted to send “strong signals” on the issue, the minister said, “This is not only for India but for all others. Everybody should follow the norms and the laws.”
He was asked about the steps being taken by the government to book the guilty in the incident.
Mr. Antony said the Kerala police and the Indian Coast Guard were questioning all the people involved in the case and it would be “inappropriate” for him to comment further on the incident.
The two fishermen, native of Alappuzha, were killed on Wednesday night when armed guards on-board the Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie opened fire on their fishing boat.
The vessel was brought to Kochi on Friday and police and Coast Guard personnel were questioning the crew. The ship has been berthed at Kochi oil terminal, where security has been tightened.
The preliminary assessment of the marine authorities is that the armed guards aboard the ship might have fired at the fishing boat mistaking it for a vessel belonging to pirates.
Italian Consul General in India, GiamPaolo Cutillo, was in Kochi on Thursday in connection with the incident and had met the city Police Commissioner there.
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New initiative to tackle cyber threats

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A new initiative has been launched at the World Economic Forum to strengthen cyber security & efforts to contend rising cyber risks. The initiative 'Partnering for Cyber Resilience' is a set of shared principles, promoted by chief executives of firms that recognise interdependence of organisations in tackling cyber risks.
Citing the importance of the initiative, India's largest software exporter TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran underlined the need for consistent processes and uniform policy framework (in the digital world) that can be implemented internationally.
The new programme would engage the corporate firms into working towards a safer digital environment.
"We need to recognize that making the world more resilient to cyber-risks is a challenge that can only be addressed collectively by policy-makers, business and civil society," Alan Marcus, senior director and head of Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries at WEF USA, said.
"Everything attached to a network can be hacked and everything is being attached to a network," Rod A Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer of the Internet Corp of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said.
US consultancy major Deloitte LLP was project advisor to the programme, developed through multi-stakeholder dialogue across the globe.
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Voting Day in Manipur

Saturday, January 28, 2012


Voters lined up before 2,357 polling stations across nine districts of Manipur as elections began in 60 Assembly constituencies in between tight security. An electorate of 17,40,576, including 8,82,236 woman voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives from among 279 candidates in the 10th Assembly polls.
A total of 12,967 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections which began at 7 am and would continue till 4 pm. Chief Minister Ibobi Singh cast his vote at a polling station in Khangabok of Thoubal district, officials said.
Around 350 companies of security personnel including 270 central paramilitary forces were deployed besides the State armed police.
Prominent candidates in the fray include the Chief Minister, who is contesting from Thoubal constituency, former vice-chancellor of Manipur University Ng Bijoy (Khurai) and Forest Minister Th Debendra (Jiribam).
Manipur has nine districts — Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnnupur and Thoubal (all in valley) and Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel in the hills.
Security forces are keeping a tab on the situation in the State, where blasts have taken place in the past few days, amid reports that insurgent groups might target some candidates.
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