India Post Task Force
finalises report; to meet Prasad
NEW DELHI: The Task
Force set up to suggest ways for turning around India Post has finalised its
report and has sought a meeting with Communications and IT Minister Ravi
Shankar Parsad to discuss its findings.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi had set up the Task Force to leverage the postal network in India
and to enhance the role of India Post in financial inclusion, among other
services like delivery of goods for eCommerce firms.
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 Task Force,
chaired by Former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian, has finalised its report,
sources said.
"The 10-member
force has now sought a meeting with Prasad to discuss the findings of the
report before submitting it to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)," a
source said.
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.
Earlier this year in
October, Banerjee had said the Task Force will submit its report by the end of
the year.
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 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.
Prasad has on various
occasions said India Post with its unparallelled rural, urban and semi-urban
reach is best suited to offer delivery services to e-commerce players.
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