Dear Comrades,
The Department of Posts has been the backbone of
India’s communication network and core of the country’s socio-economic
development for the last 150 years. It has touched the lives of every
citizen, be it through mail, banking, insurance, money transfer or
retail services. India has the largest postal network in the world with
1,54,866 post offices as on March 31, 2011 of which 1,39,040 (89.78 per
cent) are in the rural areas. On an average, a post office serves an
area of 21.23 sq. km and a population of 7,814 people (5992 in rural
areas and 23828 in urban areas).
The core activity of the Department is processing,
transmission and delivery of mail which is collected from more than 5.7
lakh letter boxes, processed by network of mail offices and conveyed by
rail, road and airlines all over the country. Considering the vital need
for providing benefits of technology to customers, counter operations
are now being progressively computerized to provide a greater range of
services to the customer from a single window leading to prompt and
effort free services.
Mail Volume
The Department of Posts handled 177.9 million
registered letters, 6157.6 million unregistered mail traffic and 281
million Premium Products (speed post and express parcel post) during the
year 2010-2011.
Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP)
As part of the Plan schemes, the Department has
undertaken Mail Network Optimization Project to improve the quality of
mail procession, transmission and delivery. The project seeks to
optimize the existing mail network of Department of Posts with a view to
streamline core mail operations. It also seeks to bring in greater
standardization and improvement in the operational processes relating to
mail processing, transmission and delivery.
In the first phase, Speed Post has been
covered and in the subsequent phases first and second class mail
operations would be covered. It seeks to improve the quality of mail
operations.
Setting up of Automated Mail Processing Centres (AMPCs)
The Department has a proposal to set up Automated
Mail Processing Centres in the metro cities with a view to automate mail
sorting. The letter sorting machines would be able to sort about
35000 articles per hour, whereas, the Mixed Mail Sorters would sort
about 16000 articles per hour. The Mixed Mail sorting machines would
help in faster processing of large size letters, packets and parcels
through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
Automation in mail processing would also help the
Department in modernization of mail network and consolidation of sorting
activities in these cities. The sorting machines in Delhi and Kolkata
are under installation and commissioning.
Creation of National Address Data Base Management System
Under this project, the Department has taken an
initiative to put in place a National Address Database Management System
with an objective to effectively manage the address database of public
customers, update the addresses online, and help customers in locating
correct addresses. The project has been completed in Delhi and Kolkata
where address data up to street level has been collected and street
directory prepared.
Project Arrow
It envisages upgradation of post offices in urban
and rural areas, both in terms of urgradation and enhancing the quality
of service in ‘core areas’ and improving their ‘look and feel’. The
project aims at creating a conducive and friendly work environment both
for the staff and customers visiting post offices, providing all IT -
Enabled Services through secure connectivity, improving the service
quality levels in the core business areas, e.g. mail delivery,
remittances, both electronic and manual, and postal savings
schemes. The ‘look and feel’ activity focuses on improvement in
branding, information technology, human resource and infrastructure.
So far the project has been implemented
in respect of monitoring of core areas in more than 15,500 post offices
and ‘look and feel’ has been improved in 1,530 post offices. The
Department of Posts received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence
in Public Administration for the year 2008-09 for “Project
Arrow-Transforming India Post” on April 21, 2010. In 2011-12, ‘look and
feel’ component was implemented in 229 more post offices.
Business Development and Marketing
It has introduced a number of business products and
services such as speed post, express parcel post, business post, bill
mail, e-Post, etc. to meet the demands of India’s growing economy,
especially the service sector. The Business Development and Marketing
Directorate was set in 2004-05 to provide a sharper focus on
marketing. The Directorate now has a Speed Post and Marketing Division
and a Business Products Division.
Retail Post
With the introduction of Retail Post, India Post is
leveraging the vast network of more than 150,000 post offices across
India. Services under Retail Post include collection of electricity
bills, telephone bills, taxes and fees. Application forms of State
Public Service Commission, UPSC, universities and various educational
institutions etc. are sold through the postal network. Apart from this,
sale of gold coins, railway tickets, forex, retailing of products
through mail order service and address verification for telecom and gas
companies are being done too.
An MoU was signed with National Stock Exchange for
installation LCD TVs in select post offices for creating “financial
awareness” among the public.
During 2011-12 (April 2011 to December 2011), 1.3 million railway tickets were issued through 179 post offices and network.
Financial Services
The Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) is the oldest and
largest banking institution in the country. It operates more than 238
million saving accounts in more than 154000 post offices. These schemes
are an agency function performed by the Department of Posts on behalf
of the Finance Department of India. Through the network, the Post
Office Saving Bank provides an Avenue to people all over the country to
deposit their savings in various schemes. Its reach and service is
unparalleled by any other banking agency in the country. The Ministry
of Finance remunerates Department of Posts for the savings bank work at
a rate fixed from time to time.
Eight Savings Schemes are operated from post offices
across the country. The outstanding balance under all National Savings
Schemes is Rs.6189.26 million as on March 31, 2011.
10-year National Savings Certificate (IX issue)
The new scheme was introduced on December 1,2011
which carried interest of 8.7 per cent compounded six monthly but
payable at maturity. There is a provision for getting income tax rebate
under Section 80 C of Income Tax Act. The interest accruing annually
but deemed to be reinvested will also qualify for tax rebate.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)
Starting with Andhra Pradesh Circle in 2005, the
scheme of disbursement of MGNREGA wages through post office accounts is
currently operational in 19 postal circles (except Delhi, J&K and
Tamilnadu circles). As on December 30, 2011, nearly 53.5 million
MGNREGA accounts have been opened in post offices.
Collection of Data for Computing Rural Consumer Price Indices
Data for rural CPI is collected for 1181 villages
every month. The branch post masters concerned collect prices of 185 to
292 commodities from the local market on the weeks fixed for each
village.
Postal Life Insurance (PLI)
It caters to employees of the civil and military
personnel of the Central and State governments, local bodies, government
aided educational institutions, universities, nationalized banks,
autonomous institutions, public sector undertakings. Rural Postal Life
Insurance (RPLI) scheme benefits rural populace. On an average there
are 46,86,245 policies under PLI and sum assured is Rs.640,778
million. There are 1,22,03,345 policies under RPLI worth Rs.661,322.3
million.
Philately
A total of 61 stamps in 43 issues comprising commemorative/special postage stamps were released in 2011.
Financial Management
The total revenue earned, including remuneration for
savings bank and sale of cash certificates work, in 2010-2011 was Rs.
69623.32 million and the amount received from other
ministries/departments as agency charges (recoveries) was Rs.4857.21
million. Gross working expenditure for 2010-2011 was Rs.137963.69
million (i.e. an increase of about 3.35 per cent). The increase was
mainly due to payment of dearness allowance/dearness relief and payment
of pensionary charges etc. In spite of the increase in salaries and
pensionary charges, deficit of the Department was Rs. 63456.16 million
as against the previous year (2009-2010) deficit of Rs.66413.04
million.
The postal articles like postcard, printed postcard,
inland letter, letter registered newspapers-single, registered
newspapers-bundles, book post (book patron and sample packets), book
post (printed books), book post (other periodicals), acknowledgement,
registration, speed post, value payable post, money order and Indian
Postal Order are highly subsidized by the department.
PIB
