Mainstream media and Jairam Ramesh made a false claim
In a recurring trend, opposition parties have established a customary tradition of cooking up fabricated narratives whenever Gautam Adani ventures into a new business. This pattern persists with the recent reports in mainstream media suggesting Adani’s entry into the railway ticket-booking sector. However, certain politicians and segments of the mainstream media have misconstrued this development to suit their own political agendas, falsely asserting that the Adani group is poised to take control of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
Business Standard was one of many media houses that started this latest Adani-IRCTC fire. Business Standard published a report titled, “Adani Ent likely to challenge IRCTC’s monopoly in online ticket booking biz”. This headline is self-explanatory. The report further said, “Adani Enterprises will soon begin selling online train tickets after the company on Friday that it has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Stark Enterprises Private Limited.”
The Hindustan Times, a prominent mainstream media publication, employed an astute strategy to generate click-bait views. On their webpage, the article headline appears as “Adani to take on IRCTC, set to start selling online train tickets.” However, upon delving into the actual content, the inside story presents a stark contrast. The revised headline of the same article states, “Adani to soon sell online train tickets, acquire booking platform Trainman.” This situation serves as a pertinent illustration of the well-known adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by reading the cover.’
Dainik Bhaskar reported that Adani is set to enter the train ticket booking business, which will give competition to the IRCTC. Jairam Ramesh, the Congress Party leader, quoted Dainik Bhaskar and claimed, “First competition with IRCTC, then take over.”
Jansatta, a Hindi newspaper from the Indian Express group, reported, “Now Adani group will give competition to the IRCTC, Gautam Adani is all set to foot a hold in the train ticket business.”
India TV and Hindustan (Hindi) also published this news with a similar headline.
A Twitter handle “Everything works”, tweeted an infographic image, with the claim that Adani has bought a 100 percent stake in ‘Trainman,” which is expected to take over IRCTC.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is an Indian public sector undertaking that provides ticketing, catering, and tourism services for the Indian Railways. Initially, the Government of India wholly owned and operated IRCTC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways.
The question at hand pertains to the potential competition posed by the Adani Group against the IRCTC, and whether there are prospects of an eventual takeover. In our pursuit of factual accuracy, we shall investigate deeper into this matter and present our findings in an upcoming fact-checking report.
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Commencing our investigation into the matter that has garnered widespread attention on the internet, we discovered that the Adani Group has acquired Stark Enterprises. Stark Enterprises, in turn, held ownership of a train booking platform known as “Trainman.” Consequently, the Adani Group has assumed control of Trainman, which functions similarly to other popular ticket-booking platforms such as Ixigo, Goibibo, PayTM and MakeMyTrip.
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned ticket booking platforms operate as either B2B or B2C partners of IRCTC. In simpler terms, to book a ticket through any online application, a valid IRCTC ID and password are required. While these ticket booking platforms facilitate the navigation process, providing information about seat availability and train schedules, the actual ticket booking is ultimately conducted by the IRCTC.
Interestingly, the IRCTC has explicitly refuted media reports that suggest Adani’s intention to compete with or take over the IRCTC. While quoting the statement made by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, IRCTC tweeted, “This is a misleading statement. Trainman is one of the 32 authorized B2C (Business to Customer) partners of IRCTC. Changing the stake won’t make any difference. All integration and operations will continue to be done through IRCTC. It will only complement IRCTC and is not a threat or challenge to it.”
Hence, it is now clear that the Adani Group is not in a competitive relationship with the IRCTC; rather, they are collaborating to enhance the efficiency of the challenging ticket booking process. Contrary to claims made in media reports and opposition statements, the Adani Group and IRCTC are poised to be partners, not adversaries.
To further corroborate and reinforce my findings, I’m adding the Live Mint report.
Live Mint reported, “In an e-mail communication with Livemint, Stark Enterprises Private Limited or Trainman has said that the development is in no way going to hit IRCTC’s online train ticket booking business. IRCTC gives out its APIs to anyone who has the money. There are some 26 companies with APIs who can book tickets, Paytm and MakeMyTrip as well. So Trainman that Adani Enterprises is buying isn’t going to break IRCTC’s monopoly. It is just one of the companies that have API access to book tickets on the IRCTC platform only. So, online train ticket booking via Adani Enterprises owned platform would also be powered by IRCTC’s API.”
The report further stated, “Trainman is an IRCTC-authorised train ticket booking agent. We are in no way challenging IRCTC or contending with them. We work with them and it is because of IRCTC that online train ticketing exists.”
ICICI Direct has also published a detailed report quelling the alleged media reports. ICICI’s direct report said, “You can book tickets on IRCTC and also from aggregators like MakeMyTrip, and Paytm. Through whichever platform the tickets are sold, the main beneficiary is IRCTC. For example, of the total ticket sales on Paytm, IRCTC made a profit of Rs 70 crore or Rs 12 per ticket. Post the news of competition, IRCTC has shared its business model, which states that 14.5L daily tickets are booked, of which 81% are done on IRCTC itself.”
The report further said, “Trainman is one of 32 partners of IRCTC to which it provides its API services – contributes only 0.13% of the total reserved ticketing. We need to understand the competition of IRCTC. As mentioned above, Trainman is one of its partners. Therefore, the question of competition does not arise.”
According to a published report by ICICI Direct, it was revealed that the IRCTC is in competition with the traditional offline method of train ticket reservation conducted through railway counters.
In conclusion, our thorough fact-checking investigation has shed light on the recent claims and media reports surrounding the Adani Group’s entry into the railway ticket booking venture. We have established that these assertions, suggesting competition with or a potential takeover of the IRCTC, are unfounded. The IRCTC has explicitly denied such claims, emphasizing its partnership with the Adani Group in enhancing the ticket booking process. The acquisition of Trainman by the Adani Group further signifies collaboration rather than competition.
| Claim | Adani Enterprise will compete, and later eventually it will take over IRCTC. |
| Claimed by | Business Standard, Dainik Bhaskar, Jansatta and Jairam Ramesh. |
| Fact Check | Fake and Misleading. |
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