Daybreak - Is Digiyatra more about cash than convenience?

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December last year. The idea is for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by  CISF personnel at airports.But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Meanwhile, airlines, which are important stakeholders to make the entire endeavour successful are unable to see any benefits for themselves. Airports though see it as a great opportunity. In fact, multiple sources close to the implementation of Digiyatra told The Ken that the whole idea of Digiyatra came from airports themselves.What's in it for them?Tune in.RecommendationWhat airports really want to do with DigiyatraDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Have you been stopped at the airport recently by someone wearing a navy blue shirt and a white cap? They ask you to sign up with some face recognition software saying that it is going to help you drastically shorten the wait time outside the airport. You even get small food and beverage discounts if you sign up.

It is called Digi Yatra and I'm sure you've heard about it. It's basically an online wallet that has all your ID information plus your biometric data. A contactless facial recognition-based passenger entry system, to be precise. Once you have it and you go to an airport that has Digiata, you don't have to scuffle around your bag looking for documents and wait for your turn with the CISF guy who looks at your ID, and then he looks at your face and then again your ID and then again your face and finally he lets you enter the airport. The government launched Digi Yatra in December last year labeling it as the future of air travel. As of now, it is deployed across at least eight government and privately owned airports across the country.

Sounds quite good, no? I mean, air travel has become more affordable, which means more and more people are going to be taking flights. So anything that helps with a seamless air travel experience, bring it on, right? But go on social media and you'll find a whole bunch of stories from passengers complaining about how they were aggressively pushed to sign up for Digiatra. Even airlines are sort of reluctant to participate on the platform. But for it to work properly, multiple stakeholders, including the airport authorities and airlines, have to come together. It is a tough journey, but what is in it for airports and airlines? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nickda Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle.

Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 13th of September. So, first of all, who runs Digi Yatra? It's called the Digi Yatra Foundation, or DYF. It is a not-for-profit company created to streamline air travel in India. The airports authority of India, or the AAI, which is a public sector enterprise responsible for civil aviation infrastructure, holds a 26% stake in DVIF. The rest of it is held by five

private airports, namely Cochin, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. A senior official who works with the AIAI told my colleague the Ken reporter Anushka Jain that to implement Digiathra's functionalities at four government-owned airports, the AAI gave a contract worth 160 to 165 crore rupees to a consortium of two companies. So, what do you get out of all this as a passenger? You're basically able to avoid the usual airport queues that move at Snail Space. The idea is that those who sign up will not have to get their IDN flight tickets checked by the CISF personnel. As great as it sounds, and I'm sure you'll agree, giving your biometric information is not the best feeling. Many people hesitate and it is only fair, right?

Stories of biometric data being leaked are not unheard of, so if passengers are concerned, it is valid. On its part, sometime in March this year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation did clarify this concern. Minister Joti Raditya Sindia said that the passengers' data is encrypted and stored in the wallet of their smart. smartphone and not in a centralized storage. It is shared only between the passenger and the airport of travel origin, where the passenger's Digi Yatra ID needs to be validated. And after 24 hours of departure, the data is deleted from the airport system. Coming up next, we discuss why some people have been complaining about being forced to sign up

for Digiata. To all the airports where it is functional, Digi Yatra appointed staff called buddies, the ones wearing navy blue shirts and white caps? Each one of them was given a daily target of 100 enrollments through the Digi Yatra app. And then from June onwards, Digi Yatra installed kiosks at airports, after which the staff were given an additional target of enrolling one user every five minutes on each machine that was given to them. Slowly, sign-ups via the app improved, so the targets for it were removed in September this year. But the push for machine-based enrollments still continue. Anushka spoke to DVIF's Suresh Kharakbawi and he said that the staff members have

certainly not been instructed to force any passengers to sign up. But remember, they have daily targets which they have to meet. He said, and I'm quoting, maybe people are being asked to enroll but it is certainly something which is optional and not mandatory for passengers. They can always choose between Digi Yatra or the manual process. End quote. Meanwhile, DVIF also wants to invest more in social media outreach to get more people on board. DYF also plans on expanding the ecosystem's use cases to include ID validation for hotel check-ins, passport-based enrollments and minor travellers' credential creation for parents and guardians. And now to the important question. What is in it for the airlines and also the airports?

Stay tuned to find out. For airlines, the journey of getting on Digiatra has been filled with some reluctance, mainly because the benefits for them from this app is still not very clear. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DIYF have had to urge airlines to help in outreach and drive enrollment. Ever since, airlines have been emailing and messaging their passengers about Digi-yatra-based boarding ahead of their flights. For airlines, this is still a small ask because they've already done the heavy lifting by sharing passenger data with the Digi-yatra platform. This allows the digital authentication of passengers' boarding passes. But when the Civil Aviation Ministry first started pushing this to the airlines,

they were still trying to recover from the losses they suffered during the pandemic, which is why they weren't willing to integrate Digiata. An airline executive explained it to us. They said, and I'm quoting, configuring our systems to it would require us to purchase additional features to the tune of two crore rupees from our tech provider, and Digi Yatra provided no, apparent revenue benefits for us."

But finally, after facing a lot of pressure from the ministry to integrate with Digi Yatra, airlines found a temporary low-cost solution. Now, they send details of flights and passengers 10 to 12 hours before their departure to the airport's internal Digi Yatra biometric-based boarding system or DYBBS system. The boarding system then uses this information to verify the passengers' boarding passes, when they enter the airport. Talking about airports, what is in it for them? Airports have been promoting the platform through advertisements at terminals and small discounts on food and beverage purchases. As of last month, nearly three and a half million passengers

had used the Digiathra platform. Now, think about it. For airports, this is an opportunity to get more revenue if faster processes freeze up or travellers' time, because that means the passenger will be spending more time inside the airport, meaning more chances of them spending money. Airports enjoy the highest margins as high as 40% on duty-free sales, which is followed by F&B and retail sales outside of duty-free zones. Which is why it was not surprising when we got to know from multiple individuals closely associated with its implementation that the idea for Digi Yatra came from the airports themselves. But to actually implement it at the scale that the government wants to, airports have to bear

some costs. Stuff like setting up facial recognition scanner systems, eGates and softwares that connect their internal systems to the Digi Yatra app and website. Dhrouv Kodara, a tech consultant at GMR, told us that the cost of installing these systems and tweaking the existing IT systems to implement Digi Yatra. at a private airport is estimated to have been over 15 crore rupees. Dear listeners, this is just a part of Anushka's full report. There is a lot more to the story that you should know about.

To read it, click on the link that I have added to the show notes of this episode. Thank you for listening. See you on Friday. Daybreak is produced from the Newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber. only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only

apps and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. I am Snigda Sharma, your host and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.