Data monetisation plan: Parliamentary panel calls IRCTC officials

A parliamentary panel has called upon representatives of Indian Railway Catering and (IRCTC) to be briefed on the subject of citizens’ data security and privacy. This comes at a time when is facing flak for floating an expression of interest (EOI) to rope in a consultant to explore avenues for passenger data monetisation. The criticism was amplified since the country does not have a data protection framework in place.

According to a notice issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat, IRCTC officials are to brief the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology later this week on Friday, August 26. This committee is chaired by Shashi Tharoor, the Indian National Congress (INC) party’s Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram.

Among other prominent politicians in this committee are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Tejasvi Surya, and Locket Chatterjee. All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)’s Mahua Moitra, and INC’s Karti P Chidambaram are also among the members in this committee.

Officials in the know say that EY and KPMG have already showed willingness in being appointed as a consultant to IRCTC. Responding to queries from ET, both KPMG and EY said they cannot comment on this issue.

IRCTC officials said that a final decision on the way ahead for data monetisation will be taken at a much later stage and that the current exercise is very preliminary in nature.

Another official also clarified that monetising of 'digital assets' did not mean storing the name and Aadhaar number, house address, PAN card or bank details of the passenger. It could just mean how many passengers generally travel on a particular train, and how many choose the catering option, among other data points.