Minister
for Communications and IT, Mr. Kapil Sibal with MoS, Mr. Sachin Pilot, at the
FICCI round table on National Postal policy 2012 , in the capital on
Wednesday.
NEW
DELHI, FEB. 1:
The
Postal Department has applied to the Reserve Bank of India for a banking
licence, the Communications Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, said here on
Wednesday.
Mr
Sibal said he had written to the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, to
expedite the granting of licence.
Speaking
on the sidelines of the postal policy round table organised by FICCI, Mr Sibal
said, “A national postal policy targeting expansion and modernisation of the
postal network would be announced during this year. The Government does not
intend to issue licences to courier service companies, but would make it
mandatory for them to register.”
Aimed
at modernising postal services, the policy is expected to make the department
adopt a more financially viable revenue model. It would also provide affordable
services at all points in the country as part of its Universal Service
Obligation, the Minister said.
The
Department is also expecting large-scale private sector participation in
providing value added services and extending its product range beyond the
current core functions.
“There
are tremendous opportunities for the private corporate sector to use its
ingenuity to create innovative products and delivery mechanisms through the
Indian postal network,” Mr Sibal said.
India
currently has 1.55 lakh post offices, 95 per cent of which are located in rural
areas.
Source
: thehindu dtd
01/02/2012
