Dear Comrades,
One minister, one department, one contract, one winner - but many
lobbies. This, in essence, sums up the reason why Project Arrow, which
sought to change the face of India's department of posts
(DoP) - a department that normally does not figure in the vision of
most policymakers and decision-takers - appears to have gone into a
limbo. It is also a project that the Union government hoped would take
inclusive growth in the country to another level.
At the heart of this modernisation project was the Core System
Integrator (CSI) contract for which three companies - HP, TCS and HCL
Technologies - had been shortlisted. In fact, it was in January this
year that the technical evaluation for the project was completed and HP
emerged the lowest bidder. But doing business in India is never easy, as
has emerged in the recent round of corruption scandals that are rocking
the government.
And, this becomes especially difficult for a department that does not make too much news. What is perhaps more inexplicable in declaring the winner is the fact that of the eight request for proposals (RFPs) the government had invited for modernising and upgrading the DoP, it is this project that the other seven contracts will ride upon.
It is a project the DoP itself appears unclear about on how it will take its services and products to a new level as the committee appointed to decide the tender is strongly supporting the decisions taken, but another group keeps pushing for referring the matter repeatedly to the ministry of law. This is all the more surprising since the terms and conditions for the project were first outlined in 2008.
It is because of this uncertainty or deliberate 'delay in decision-making' that the CSI project has been referred to the ministry of law for its opinion three times and got three varying responses - and now, DoP may need to engage a legal consultant to handle the 'back and forth' with the ministry of law.
Earlier, 18 MPs from varying constituencies had written identical technical papers opposing the decisions being taken by the committee, kick-starting the merry-go-round with the ministry of law.
For an organisation that has a predominantly rural network - over 1.39 lakh post offices are in rural areas, with only around 16,000 in urban areas - Project Arrow sought to achieve a big increase in both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction with India Post.
It envisaged a pan-India network that would be flexible enough to support future applications, leading to greater accountability and productivity through the use of technology and improved working conditions. Drawing heavily on the report of an expert committee under the chairmanship of Ajay Shah of NIPFP, the government sought to synergise technology, banking and postal services to achieve the larger aim of financial inclusion.
But for the DoP to be able to provide such self-sufficient, efficient and cost-effective services, it needs to introduce several technological innovations, all of which appear to have got mired in a controversy.
While the department is looking at various solutions as a part of its modernisation drive and to increase its operational effectiveness, it is the delay in decision-making on the core system integrator that is rendering the whole move ineffective.
And, this becomes especially difficult for a department that does not make too much news. What is perhaps more inexplicable in declaring the winner is the fact that of the eight request for proposals (RFPs) the government had invited for modernising and upgrading the DoP, it is this project that the other seven contracts will ride upon.
It is a project the DoP itself appears unclear about on how it will take its services and products to a new level as the committee appointed to decide the tender is strongly supporting the decisions taken, but another group keeps pushing for referring the matter repeatedly to the ministry of law. This is all the more surprising since the terms and conditions for the project were first outlined in 2008.
It is because of this uncertainty or deliberate 'delay in decision-making' that the CSI project has been referred to the ministry of law for its opinion three times and got three varying responses - and now, DoP may need to engage a legal consultant to handle the 'back and forth' with the ministry of law.
Earlier, 18 MPs from varying constituencies had written identical technical papers opposing the decisions being taken by the committee, kick-starting the merry-go-round with the ministry of law.
For an organisation that has a predominantly rural network - over 1.39 lakh post offices are in rural areas, with only around 16,000 in urban areas - Project Arrow sought to achieve a big increase in both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction with India Post.
It envisaged a pan-India network that would be flexible enough to support future applications, leading to greater accountability and productivity through the use of technology and improved working conditions. Drawing heavily on the report of an expert committee under the chairmanship of Ajay Shah of NIPFP, the government sought to synergise technology, banking and postal services to achieve the larger aim of financial inclusion.
But for the DoP to be able to provide such self-sufficient, efficient and cost-effective services, it needs to introduce several technological innovations, all of which appear to have got mired in a controversy.
While the department is looking at various solutions as a part of its modernisation drive and to increase its operational effectiveness, it is the delay in decision-making on the core system integrator that is rendering the whole move ineffective.
Economic times of India
