Railways plans Rs6000-cr investment in IT
New Delhi: The world's third largest rail network, Indian Railways, plans to invest $1.5 billion or Rs 6000 crore over the next five years to upgrade information technology to meet the increasing demand from the passengers and freight businesses.

Indian Railway officials said the organization has invested Rs 1000 crore on IT in the 10th Five year Plan and would invest $1.5 billion over the next five year years at the Nasscom IT User Award event where the Railways has bagged the award for transforming the organisation by using IT to a large extent.

Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said the Indian Railways is an extraordinary example of a turnaround story, and their plans of public private partnerships for IT makes this a challenging and exciting opportunity for IT companies.

Indian Railways is expected to procure IT hardware and software to continue with its modernisation drive.

Some of the major IT initiatives of the Railways are giving hand-held computers to ticket examiners, building cyber cafes at stations, digitising the signalling system and linking all online applications with the computerised reservation system and tracking the passenger and freight trains.
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Japan to invest $30bn in Indian core sector
Mumbai: Japan's minister for economy, trade and industry, Akira Amari, is leading a delegation, comprising over 60 executives of 15 companies and will visit New Delhi and Mumbai and have meetings with industry bodies like the CII and Ficci.

Japan is likely to announce an investment of $30 billion in infrastructure projects in India towards the end of this month.

The package would include building a high-speed freight railway system between New Delhi and Mumbai, a port in Gujarat, and industrial complexes in Rajasthan.

However, Japanese steel companies, which have long-standing ties with their Indian counterparts, will not be a part of the delegation.

Amari's visit is expected to be followed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's in August. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Tokyo in December and agreed to boost business ties between the two nations.

Sources close to the development said Japan wanted to invest in India's infrastructure and make it a hub for production and exports to Europe and West Asia.
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