Indian railwyas e-ticketing system and youth: survey findings

The onset of e-governance and its rapid growth and quick popularity has taken everyone by surprise. But it has also led to new innovations and simplification of the way things are done. e-ticketing is one such example of flexible, transparent e-governance. The Indian railways introduced e-governance on its web portal IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) and since then, to now, e-ticketing accounts for almost 97% of all tickets booked online. How has this had an impact on students in India's famed technical institutions where students breathe technology to sustain themselves? Has this increased their travelling by the railways? Students these days are exposed to a breath-taking amount of new technologies and new inventions- do they believe the e-ticketing has all the add-ons and features it can? Do old habits die hard, and is manual booking still preferred? And more importantly is online booking convenient in hostels where servers are sometimes slow? In short, what are the impacts of e-ticketing on students and their view of the Indian Railways- a behemoth by any standards. Does a facility, by going online make itself trendy and shed a red tape image? These are some of the questions answered and explained in this exhaustive survey conducted at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT) one of India's premier technological institutions. The survey finds that the e-ticketing mechanism is indeed very popular amongst students. The travelling patterns of students are scrutinized. It has also been noticed that given a choice, students prefer technological booking and services to manual booking.