IRCTC withdraws digital data monetisation tender after huge criticism over privacy issue

NEW DELHI: The railways’ catering and ticketing arm IRCTC has withdrawn the tender it had floated nearly a month back for engaging a consultant for monetisation of its digital data, including the bank of passenger data. The IRCTC informed this to the Bombay and National stock exchanges on Friday. IRCTC officials also informed a parliamentary panel about the decision on Friday evening which had summoned them.
“...due to withdrawal of Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 by the Government of India, the e-tender for appointment of a consultant for data monetisation of Indian railway/ IRCTC floated by IRCTC on July 29 has been withdrawn,” the IRCTC informed the BSE and NSE.
TOI on August 20 had reported that the government would prefer to wait for the passage of the Data Protection Bill in Parliament before going ahead with the plan to monetisation of the IRCTC and railway’s digital data.
The IRCTC’s plan to generate Rs 1,000 crore revenue from two sets of monetisation of data had come under huge criticism after it was reported by the media. The IRCTC had earlier set the August 29 deadline for submission of bids for the consultancy service and had held the pre-bid meetings. Officials had maintained that there was no question of the railway agency monetising the data pertaining to individual customers.
Sources had said that before floating the tender, the IRCTC had obtained the necessary approvals and it was decided that only generic and anonymous data would be monetised, which means no individual data or details will be monetised by the government entity.