Railways bank on artificial intelligence, data analytics to improve operational efficiency
New Delhi: The railways are set to go big with artificial intelligence and data analytics to improve its operational efficiency and has tied up with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad to analyze the data generated by the national transporter, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said.
He said the railways will set up a Centre for Excellence in this regard in the next three months.
The Railway Board has taken a decision to appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in every zonal railway whose mandate will be to keep track of emerging technologies in analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) and use it in the rail system, Yadav said.
We have passengers-related data, train operations-related data, freight data, and even asset-related data. We want to analyze all this data with the help of AI and analytics and use it in our Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the introduction of new trains, and even predictive asset maintenance. We have tied up with the Indian School of Business (ISB) for this, he said.
The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has been assigned to plan an introductory capacity building program and formulate a report on the industrial practices of AI on rail transport and benchmarking. It will also develop a report on establishing the centre for excellence and an advanced capacity building program.
Meanwhile, the railways have already trained 88 officials over the last two months for this purpose and such training will be provided for identified officials in every zone and division.
The training modules include cloud computing, data science, big data analytics, AI using reinforcement learning, and AI for autonomous vehicles.
According to officials, the railways has not only planned to have a CTO in zonal headquarters, but also an assistant chief technology officer (ACTO) in divisions directly reporting to the General Manager and Divisional Railway Managers respectively.
Six to ten officers in divisions and about 20 in zonal headquarters will be identified for training in data analytics and AI. They will be formally trained in institutes like IITs, ISB, IIMs, IIIT in the two subjects (of data analytics and AI).
The railways are also looking at the development of data sharing protocols with the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), RailTel, and others, they added.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
