Why in news? Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), has collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for live tracking to help Railways run trains efficiently.

Highlights:

• The Indian Railways is harnessing the power of data analytics for integrated transportation.
• It has commenced a project that will now enable real time tracking of train movements with the assistance of satellite imagery under the Real Time Train Information System (RTIS)
• ISRO has developed its own regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) and Bhuvan, a web-based utility which allows users to explore a set of map-based content being deployed for tracking.
• Every locomotive is fitted with a device and a SIM, which communicates the train’s real position to the satellite and feedback is received. The movement is updated every three seconds.
• A pilot project underway between Sanchar Bhavan, (houses the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology), and Rail Bhavan, (houses the Ministry of Railways), to use quantum key encryption in order to exchange information in a way that is “non-hackable”.