Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav may not be happy to hear the lack of competitiveness in the voice of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s General Manager Sanjay Aggarwal. Not only does Agarwal deny competition from other travel portals, he seems to be far too focused on rail ticketing than on rail tourism, which he doesn’t see as something bigger than ticketing in the short or long term. [via agencyfaqs]While I don’t deny the importance of rail ticketing, shouldn’t tourism also be considered as a major value-added revenue source for the railways?

On mobile booking, Aggarwal sees slow GPRS speed and lack of 3D security as constraints. IRCTC has plans to tie up with NGPay and JiGrahak for GPRS mobile payments.