Archives for August 2017

‘RailCloud First’ policy for Indian Railways – Draft for comments.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(RAILWAY BOARD)

No. 2017/OneICT/Policy/RailCloud

Dated: 28.08.2017

General Manager,
All Zonal Railways,
Production Units & CORE

Director General, RDSO, Lucknow
NAIR, Vadodara

Director,
All Centralized Training Institutes

Chief Administrative. Officer
COFMOW, DMW Patiala

Chief Managing Director,
RailTel corporation of India, Gurugram

Managing Director,
CRIS, New Delhi

Sub: ‘RailCloud First’ policy for Indian Railways – Draft for comments.

Hon’ble MR has inaugurated the RailCloud on 12.07.17. Also, the first application called NIVARAN has been hosted on it on the same day. To get the benefit of Cloud computing technology, a draft ‘RailCloud First’ policy has been formulated. The draft policy is attached as Annexure-I. Comments may please be sent to balonda.umesh@nic.in by 25th September, 2017 so that it can be finalized.

sd/-
(Umesh Balonda)
Director/OneICT/S&T
Mobile No: 9773533800
Email: balonda.umesh@nic.in

DRAFT FOR COMMENTS

Annexure-I

Sub: Rail Cloud First policy for Indian Railways.

Ref: 1. Govt of India’s GI Cloud (Meghraj) strategic Direction paper.

2. Govt of India’s ‘Software Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications’

3. Govt of India’s ‘Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software.’

Ministry of Railways has decided to establish a RailCloud.The same has been inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister of Railways on 12.07.17.

Cloud Computing, an emerging new technology for deployment of ICT, is the delivery of on-demand computing resources (e.g. servers, storage, network, applications and services) over the internet, with reduced infrastructure costs, agility to scale up/down, faster deployment of applications, ease in integration of applications, better security, pay-only-for-use model. The Policy features of Railway’s Cloud policy are proposed as:

1. RailCloud First approach: Consistent with GoI policy of ‘Cloud- by-Default’, Indian Railway shall follow Cloud Computing as the default ICT deployment strategy as ‘RailCloud First’ for ICT Applications. The exception of this policy shall be in rare circumstances when an alternative ICT deployment strategy is essentially required for the special requirement of Railways. The proposal for such exception shall be sent to Railway Board, for consideration after approval by the GM of Zonal Railways /PU.

2. RailCloud System: The RailCloud system shall be built with open APIs with an open scale out architecture. The cloud system architecture should support horizontal scaling when required, thus allowing to make incremental capital investments when required.

The system should support lights out scenarios by allowing non¬intrusive monitoring of solution components for better manageability and proactive maintenance. Whenever options are available, open source frameworks/components shall be used instead of proprietary frameworks/components to avoid vendor lock-in and high operation and maintenance costs.The RailCloud shall be deployed as Hybrid Cloud Model which will also use the existing data centres resources (e.g. servers, storage, network, etc, with suitable changes) and will gradually develop service capabilities as- IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Plateform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).

3. Application Development and cloud enablement: New IT applications shall be cloud native, open standard-based, technology-independent and open API based architectures to deploy on RailCloud. Also, all new applications shall use Open Source Software (OSS) in all e-Governance systems as a preferred option.

4. Migration of Application to Cloud: Migration of data and applications to the cloud will enhance the availability, agility and functionality of the application and improve the interoperability with other applications. The existing applications are to be migrated to the cloud progressively. For this, application-centric approach shall be made by proper mapping of the existing application and its associated server hardware with due consideration to financial aspects and technical parameters and thereafter roadmap shall be made to migrate. There are five well established approaches to migrate traditional applications to the cloud, these include: REHOST on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), REFACTOR for Platform as a Service (PaaS), REVISE for IaaS or PaaS , REBUILD on PaaS & REPLACE with Software as a Service (SaaS) as detailed in the Ref. 2. In process of application migration, adequate testing of the Cloud environment needs to be performed, before existing (in-premise) application is decommissioned.

5. Application and Data ownership, Intellectual Property Rights: Application ownership and IPR after hosting on RailCloud, shall remain with the original Application owning agency. The application owner agency shall have right on access, retrieval, modification and deletion of the data and shall define the policies and processes of data access. Secured access to be given to Admin of the Application for maintenance and upgradation.

6. Security: The Info-Security will be the shared responsibility of RailCloud managing Agency so that the Applications uploaded /run are secure on the Cloud, and the Application Developing & Managing/uploading agency for making the application secure and resilient, to Run on the RailCloud, by implementing necessary security Controls, Role-Based Authentication and suitable encryption of Data as per the latest standards.

The RailCloud managing Agency will get the Cloud audited annually and application managing agency will get the application audited annually, from CERT-In approved agency. The audit of application may be carried out by RailCloud managing agency when mutually agreed.

7. Uploading of an Application to Cloud: The Application & Data Owning directorate or the Zonal Railway/PU to which Application & Data belongs, will send the proposal for uploading the application to OneICT Cell, which is the nodal cell for the same. Once approved, the same would be uploaded.

8. Service Level Agreements (SLAs): The performance of the Rail¬Cloud will be defined by SLAs including parameters for up- time/down-time, Security and Penalties. Both the agencies shall agree on the minimum SLAs, based on the criticality of the application.

9. The stakeholders shall follow the Govt of India’s Cloud and IT security policies as issued from time to time.

Enclosure (soft link):

1. Government of India’s GI Cloud (Meghraj) Strategic Direction Paperhttp://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/GI- Cloud%20Strategic%20Direction%20Report%281%29_0.pdf

2. Govt of India’s policy on Software Development & Re¬Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload files/dit/files/Application_Development Re-Engineering Guidelines.pdf

3. Govt of India’s policy on ‘Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software’http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload files/dit/files/policy on adoption of oss.pdf

Source : http://www.indianrailways.gov.in

Shri Ashwani Lohani appointed as New Chairman, Ministry of Railways

Shri Lohani assumes the Charge of his new assignment today i.e. 24 August 2017

Shri Ashwani Lohani, IRSME has been appointed as Chairman, Railway Board (Ministry of Railways) and ex-officio Principal Secretary to Government of India vice Shri A.K.Mital. He assumed charge of his new assignment today i.e 24th August, 2017. Prior to this assignment, Shri Ashwani Lohani was serving as Chairman and Managing Director, Air India.

After assuming charge, Shri Lohani held a high level meeting with the Railway Board Members. Later, he also addressed the officers & the staff of Railway Board.

Shri Lohani has worked in various capacities in Ministry of Railways, Union Ministry of Tourism and in Government of Madhya Pradesh. Within the railways he has worked on the South Central, Eastern and Northern Railways besides the Diesel Locomotive Works at Varanasi and the Integral Coach Factory, at Chennai.

He has worked as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Indian Railway Organization for Alternate Fuels (IROAF), Chief Mechanical Engineer, Northern Railway, Divisional Railway Manager of Delhi Division, Director, National Rail Museum, New Delhi, Director in the Ministry of Tourism Government of India, CMD of India Tourism Development Corporation, MD of Madhya Pradesh Tourism and in many other important assignments in Railways.

Academic Excellence :

i) Qualified Chartered Mechanical Engineer from I.Mech.E (UK)

ii) Degree equivalence in Electrical Engineering from Institution of Engineers, India

iii)Degree equivalence in Metallurgical Engineering from Institution of Engineers, India

iv) Degree equivalence in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from Institution of Engineers, India

v) Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India

vi) Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.

vii) Gold Medalist in Metallurgical engineering

viii) Limca National Record received in 2007 for the four engineering degrees

Awards/Accolades Received:

a) Ashwani Garden” created at Patratu, Bihar in 1989.

b) National Award for Outstanding Performance, Ministry of Railways in April 1996

c) Featured as “Man of the Week” in the Week magazine 21st July 2002 issue.

d) PATWA International Young Achievers Award at Berlin in March 2007

e) Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Award “Icon of Change” in May 2010

f) Life Time Achievement Award in Tourism in September 2010.

g) Art Moda Kala Samman in May 2011

h) ”Eminent Engineer” award by Institution of Engineers India in September 2013.

i) “Excellence in Governance” award in November 2013

j) Felicitated by ASSOCHAM in March 2014 for Excellence in Tourism

k) Lifetime Award – India Pride awards.

THREE MAJOR PUBLIC SECTOR TURNAROUNDS TO HIS CREDIT.

a) Turnaround of the India Tourism Development Corporation in the year 2002-3 as its Chairman & Managing Director.

b) Turnaround of Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation as its Managing Director (2004-5 & 2006-9) and achieving corporate excellence.

c) Operative turnaround of Air India in 2015-16 followed by 2016-17.

ACHIEVEMENTS DURING HIS TENURE AS DRM DELHI DIVISION-

Delhi Division of Northern Railway received accolades during his tenure as the Divisional Railway Manager. In a modest time frame he achieved substantial quantitative and qualitative improvements at railway stations and work areas with the division receiving national awards and appreciation from the CAG.

a) New Delhi Railway Station was awarded the National Tourism Award in March 2011 and again in February 2012 in the category of the most tourist friendly station.

b) The CAG in its audit report on the CWG games (page 45) has heartily appreciated the improvement works done at the New Delhi station making Delhi Division the only Government Department to have earned appreciation for the infrastructure works related to the games.

c) He has brought Rewari on the world tourism map by upgrading the Rewari steam locomotive shed to an internationally acclaimed steam tourism destination. Rewari shed of the Delhi division received the National Tourism Award in February 2012 in the category of the most innovative tourism project of India.

ASSOCIATION WITH HERITAGE & PRESERVATION MATTERS

a) Revival of the National Rail Museum, New Delhi. Brought rail heritage in focus.

b) Setting a Guinness World Record in 1998 by running the Fairy Queen Express hauled by the oldest working steam locomotive in the world.

c) While working as the Director of National Rail Museum, successfully piloted the nomination of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that was declared as a world heritage site in 1999. Also actively involved with declaration of Victoria Terminus as a World Heritage site.

d) While working as the Director(Tourism) GOI & CMD/ITDC, successfully piloted the nomination of the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya that was declared as a world heritage site in 2002

e) Spearheading preservation of live steam locomotives and generating public affection for the same as the Founder and Working President of the Indian Steam Railway Society.

f) Life Member, Museums Association of India

g) Resurrection and positioning of Rewari Heritage Steam Shed as the finest steam heritage destination in the world.

h) Had been actively associated with ASI in developing heritage sites in state of MP.

He has set many firsts in the country in the field of application of Information Technology for tourist facilitation and museum management.

Since setting a Guinness World Record in 1998 for running the oldest working steam locomotive in the world, he has been spearheading the steam preservation and revival movement in the country. He is a life member of the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers and the Museums Association of India and the Founder cum Working President of the Indian Steam Railway Society. He has written over seventy articles and columns on a variety of subjects in magazines and newspapers of national repute. He has also authored four publications namely, a coffee table book titled “Smoking Beauties”(March 2004), a book on management titled “Winning at Work against all odds” (Jan 2006), a comprehensive report on “Rail Heritage & Tourism” (Jan 2006) and a comprehensive report on “Steam Heritage Tourism (July 2002).

Source : PIB