Making the most of mobile platform and its increased penetration, Railways on Friday launched facilities for booking of paperless unreserved tickets as well as platform tickets to cut queues at the reservation counters.
The initiatives are mostly targetted at the Mumbai suburban sections to begin with where 75 lakh (7.5 million) passengers use the local train services to commute between places.
Launching the IT-enabled passenger services here, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said they are in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Digital India' mission and seeks to help passengers save time by booking tickets right at their home before travelling.
The paperless platform ticket programme would cover the major sections in the Mumbai suburban sections, as well as New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations in New Delhi.
Prabhu also launched paperless season tickets on suburban sections of the Western Railway, Central Railway and between New Delhi and Palwal section of the Northern Railway.

Car sales in India rose 9.48 per cent in September -- 11th consecutive month of growth, as the domestic auto industry continues to drive on the slow road to recovery riding on new launches and softening interest rates.
Motorcycle sales, however, continued to remain in the negative territory with sales in September declining 2.87 per cent as compared to same period a year ago, according to a data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
In September, domestic car sales stood at 1,69,590 units as against 1,54,898 units in the same month last year.
"Companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Honda have been doing good due to new product launches, which is driving growth in the passenger car segment," SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen told reporters here.
Softening interest rates and comparatively cheaper fuel have also helped the growth in the passenger car segment, he added.
As per SIAM estimates, at present, interest rates on car loans are hovering between 10.8 per cent and 14.3 per cent for various lenders, including public sector and private banks, as well as NBFCs.
Various car models like Honda's Jazz, Hyundai's Creta, and Maruti Suzuki's S-Cross have received a good response from customers in the domestic market during the month.
Commenting on the outlook for remaining 2015-16 fiscal, Sen said that passenger car and utility segments are expected to grow marginally.
"Motorcycle is expected to remain flat, scooters segment would also slow down a bit. In commercial vehicle segment, M&HCV segment would grow in double digits while light commercial vehicle segment would continue to be in negative territory," he added.
Sen said withdrawal of export incentives, high vehicle interest rates, and inclusion of certain items in the anti-dumping list, mostly concerning components, are some of the challenges facing the auto industry.
During the month, market leader Maruti Suzuki India posted a growth of 7.94 per cent in its domestic car sales at 87,916 units as against 81,447 units in the same month last year.
Rival Hyundai Motor India saw its car sales increase marginally to 35,193 units as against 34,906 units in the year-ago month. 

Vodafone India on Friday said it will offer the latest iPhone 6S and 6S plus from October 16 wherein customers can avail free data and voice benefits worth Rs 8,885 for six months.

Asserting that the global economic recovery is uncertain, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has underlined the need to explore unconventional means to raise resources to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. 
Jaitley, in his interventions at the G24 Finance Ministers meet, welcomed the SDGs, which are to be achieved by 2030.
"He alluded to the uncertainty surrounding the recovery of global economy and emphasised the need to explore unconventional means to raise resources to achieve the SDGs," a Finance Ministry statement said.
Jaitley is in Peru to participate in the IMF-World Bank annual meeting. 
On Thursday, he took part in the G-20 Finance Ministers meet.
The minister also highlighted initiatives taken by India to overcome the challenges to the economy and elaborated the unique identity-linked financial inclusion programme, which has resulted in opening of 18 crore (Rs 180 million) new bank accounts enabling direct transfer of benefits under various government welfare schemes.
Jaitley also welcomed international tax co-operation, particularly the automatic exchange of tax information and referred to recent enactment of a strong law to curb illicit financial outflows from the country.
In addition, he explained the initiative Mudra Bank to provide loans to micro and small enterprises, thus, facilitating job creation and self-employment.
India has stepped up public spending, particularly in infrastructure sector, which offset slowdown in private investments.
India has set an ambitious target of achieving 175 GW of power generation by 2022 through a mix of renewable energy sources and has initiated the mission to set up 100 smart cities in India.
Jaitley also held bilateral meetings with the US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, Finance Minister of France Michael Sapin and Finance Minister of China Lou Jiwei.

 

In a major network and fleet expansion, budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday said it will induct six new aircraft and operate 291 flights during the winter schedule, which would come into effect from the last Saturday of this month.
The induction of the new planes, which will be added in the existing fleet in the next one month period, is part of SpiceJet's comprehensive plan of operating an enhanced flight schedule to meet the winter demand, the airline said.
The new flight schedule also include 10 new sectors and 30 increased frequencies and 22 via connections, it said, adding, the airline would connect Varnasi from Mumbai and Benglauru as well.
"We have been speedily moving on the growth path by consistently adding new flights to enhance our overall network.
With the new network schedule we are offering better timings, increased frequencies," SpiceJet's senior vice-president and head of sales and marketing, Shilpa Bhatia said.