Indian Railways which is one of the oldest and largest rail networks in the world is planning to catch the modern technology train to match the international standards. This is what the railway minister of India plans to achieve under the Information Technology Vision 2012 which was announced in the Railway budget for 2008-09. Modern communication systems such as RFID, GPS and GIS will be implemented to give the Indian Railways a modern look and feel.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, India's railway minister during the presentation of his fifth Railway Budget stated:

For getting maximum benefit in the coming years, the mantra for present and future IT applications would be seamless integration. The railways nationwide communication infrastructure will provide the foundation for a common delivery network and platform. Modern technologies like GIS, GPS and RFID will be applied progressively

Overall it is a welcome announcement for both customers and the RFID industry since the former will experience an overall improvement in efficiency of services, operations and safety whereas the latter can expect some big RFID contracts since the Indian Railways is known to hand out contracts worth millions each year for its operations.