Government plans to
transform India Post
into a multi-service agency
into a multi-service agency
New Delhi: Aiming to
leverage technology to provide cost-effective and innovative solutions, the
government is planning to equip India Post to handle not only savings and
insurance services, but also payments and data registration.
With the world's
largest postal network, India Post has about 1.55 lakh post offices spread
across the country. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.21 sq km
and a population of 7,175 people.
The government is
planning to utilise the huge resources at the disposal of India Post to provide
cost-effective and innovative solutions to the citizens like financial services
using digital connectivity, a source said.
"The Task Force
is already in consultation with related ministries on how to best use these
resources. Already there are plans to roll out hand-held devices and related
software to post offices on a pan-India basis from October 2016," the
source said.
The idea behind the
exercise is to enable the postman in rural areas to provide a plethora of
services like savings and insurance, normal postal operations and also value
added services like accepting payments of various services as well as
registration of data, the source added.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has set up a Task Force to leverage the postal network in India
to enhance the role of India Posts in financial inclusion, among other services
and is expected to submit its report by year-end.
The Task Force
includes the Department of Posts Secretary Kavery Banerjee, Telecom Secretary
Rakesh Garg, Department of Electronics and IT Secretary R S Sharma, Rural
Development Secretary L C Goyal and former SEBI Chairman G N Bajpai.
Former Cabinet
Secretary TSR Subramanian is the Chairman of the Task Force.
Communications and IT
Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has on various occasions said India Post with its
unparallelled rural reach is best suited to offer delivery services to
e-commerce players.
Already, the West
Bengal circle of the postal department has approached various industrial bodies
with a plan to create an online marketplace for the local traders.
