Over the last decade and a half, I have written hundreds of articles in myriad publications on various aspects of Indian Railways. The majority of my pieces have been critical of the way Indian Railways exists, functions, and performs. But this piece is different. It celebrates the coming of age of a railway corporation—Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, or IRCTC for short. The success story of IRCTC assumes far greater significance because the corporation has achieved what it has despite the frequent follies of its parent, Indian Railways, which seemed intent on throttling its very existence.

The story that unfolds in this piece is largely the untold story of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the fifth-born PSU of Indian Railways, established on 27 September 1999.

From its very inception, IRCTC found itself sandwiched among many siblings—preceded by Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited (1974), IRCON International Limited (1976), Indian Railway Finance Corporation (1986), and Container Corporation of India Limited (1988), and followed by RailTel Corporation of India Limited (2000) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (2003).

IRCTC was conceived as a subsidiary company of Indian Railways, with its registered office in Room No. 502, Rail Bhawan, Raisina Road, Delhi, in late 1999. This room was then occupied by the late S. K. Malik, who was the Executive Director of Tourism and Catering (T&C) at the Railway Board. With the formation of IRCTC, Malik became its first employee as Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD), and thus, the journey of the newly born corporation began.

As the idea of IRCTC germinated from the Catering and Tourism Directorate of the Railway Board, so too was its original purpose. It began operations with a limited agenda, focusing on catering and tourism. The corporation’s objectives, as outlined in its Memorandum of Association, were:

From this modest beginning, IRCTC has grown into India’s most successful e-commerce platform and a household name. In the process, it has not only come of age but also carved out a niche for itself.

Earlier this month (on 3 March 2025), the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Ministry of Finance, announced IRCTC’s elevation to Navratna status through a post on X (formerly Twitter). The announcement stated that IRCTC’s annual turnover was Rs 4,270.18 crore, with a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1,111.26 crore and a net worth of Rs 3,229.97 crore in FY 2023-24. IRCTC thus became the twenty-fifth Navratna PSU of India in twenty-five years of its existence.

To put this into perspective, Navratna corporations are the second tier of central government-owned ‘Ratna’ companies, positioned between the Maharatnas and Miniratnas, based on criteria such as profitability, net worth, earnings, and inter-sectoral performance. Earlier, in May 2008, IRCTC was classified as a Miniratna public........

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