This network not only helps meet the social obligation of providing essential postal services to all citizens but also provides the necessary infrastructure for providing economic activities in these areas. Progressive use of computers and thus connected network of post offices on a single integrated platform presents an opportunity to India Post to retail products and services of other service providers.

Changed mail profile has substantially increased volume of mail in Business‐to‐Customer and Business‐to‐Business segments. Changing economic scenario has enhanced expectations of common man in terms of services and facilities. The Governments and corporate sector have decided to use credibility and huge network of India Post to reach out to the masses.

Some of the services being rendered through post offices are:

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) ‐The Department of Posts has been given the responsibility to disburse the wages to NREGS beneficiaries through Post Office Savings Bank account. Starting with Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle in 2006, the payment of wages under NREGS is currently operational in 19 Postal Circles comprising 21 States. The scheme is operational through
1, 00,000(one lakh) post offices. Nearly 4.9 crore(5.04) NREGS accounts have been opened up to March 2011(July2011), and the amount disbursed in this financial year (20010‐11) alone amounts to Rs. 7300 crore.

Tie‐Up With SBI ‐India Post has tied up with State Bank of India to sell its assets and liability products through identified post offices. Initially, the scheme was started in five states; the scheme was later extended to 23 States and Union Territories. The total number of different kinds of accounts opened is 1.04 lakhs and total assets sold up to Rs.17 crores.

Tie‐up with NABARD ‐The Department of Posts in collaboration with NABARD is providing the facility of micro‐credit to Self Help Groups (SHGs) through identified post offices on agency basis.

The corpus fund for implementing this project is given by NABARD. The pilot is in operation in five districts involving seven divisions of Tamil Nadu Circle. The revolving fund assistance has been raised to Rs.3 crores. There are 1200 SHGs benefitting from the scheme.

Sale of Gold Coins ‐As a tie‐up with Reliance Money Limited, sale of gold coins has been launched in October 2008 in selected post offices. Scheme is available in 672 Post Offices in 21 States.

Old Age Pension ‐Old Age Pension is being paid through 20 lakh Post Office Savings accounts in Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand and North East, and through Money Order in J&K, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

On Line Acceptance of RTI Applications ‐The Department of Posts has been assisting other public authorities under the Central Government in implementing the Right to Information Act (RTI) by providing services of its designated Central Assistant Public Information Officers (CAPIOs). Sub Post Masters at Tehsil level act as the CAPIO for accepting RTI requests and appeals. The Department has designated 4000 Post offices as receipt points for RTI applications and forwarding to public authorities. An RTI software has been got developed to deal with such applications.

Railway Ticket Reservation ‐The scheme for sale of railway tickets through post offices is presently operative at 170 locations, and will be extended to rural areas also.

Collection of Rural Price Index Data ‐Ministry of Statistics and program implementation (MOSPI) has entrusted the job of collecting statistics for ascertaining the Rural Price Index from 1183 post offices across the country with effect from October 2009. Branch Post masters collect prices of 185 to 292 commodities on fixed week days. The data so collected is electronically transmitted to MOSPI. Department of Posts has earned revenue of Rs. 7.33 crores from this activity.

Unique Identification Number ‐Department of Posts is striving to provide complete solution for delivering the Unique Identification Number to all the residents in the country. The Department of Posts with its vast network of post offices is the only organization in the country that can provide an end to end comprehensive solution to the requirements of the UIDAI in this regard. The mandate of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is to provide a Unique Identification Number to each and every resident of the country.

With a views to leverage this vast network which touches each and every resident of the country, Department of Posts and UIDAI came together and signed the first Memorandum of Understanding on 30th April, 2010. This MOU provides for printing of communication carrying UID Number addressed to the resident at Department of Posts ‘Print to Post’ facility at Kolkata GPO, transmission of these UID communications to the addressee by the fastest means and delivery of the UID communication to the addressee through the vast network of post offices across the country.

Subsequently the second Memorandum of Understanding was signed on September 18, 2010 wherein Department of Posts agreed to act as Registrar to UIDAI. Enrolment Agencies shortlisted by UIDAI will manage the Enrolment Stations in the identified post offices. More than 3700 post offices across the country have been identified for providing enrolment stations facility. These stations will facilitate in capturing of demographic and bio‐metric data of each and every resident and updating of resident’s data on periodic basis.

Postal Retail Service ‐ India Post and Fabindia partnered to benefit customers in a first of its kind Public‐ Private Partnership. With the opening of first postal retail extension counter at Fabindia’s flagship store, India post will now offer customers hassle free postal retail service which would enable the customers to buy, pack and dispatch Fabindia products not only within India but also to international destinations. To help the customers in booking consignments, Delhi Postal Circle staff will man postal retail extension counter at Fabindia store. This comes as an expansion of the existing postal retail service earlier introduced at the Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan (Cottage Emporium), New Delhi, where customers can avail Speed Post Services & Registered Parcel booking within the premises of the shopping complex.

Visa Related Services ‐ India Post has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with M/s VFS Global to provide visa related services for different countries through Post Offices. Memorandum signed on 30.08.2011 sets out broad understandings and intentions of both the parties to provide visa related services at places where they are not currently available. Post Office counters will be used for fee collections, providing visa applications forms, dissemination of visa information, biometric enrollment and other visa application process related services. India Post and VFS are also planning to cooperate in utilizing India Post’s courier service, Speed Post for movements of passports to VFS offices and concerned embassies, and their delivery back to the applicants. Both the parties will also explore to provide any other service that India Post may want to provide through VFS global network on mutually accepted terms.

Sale of coolers ‐India Post in Tamilnadu has tied up with M/s Godrej & Boyece Mfg.Co. Ltd for booking “Chotukool” a thermo electric cooler through all post offices in the state. The scheme was launched on 12th August 2011.

Partnering India Post: 2012 and Beyond ‐A Round Table Conference of all stakeholders was held recently to deliberate upon “Partnering India Post: 2012 and Beyond”. The conference was organized to enable vast postal network to play a bigger and effective role in the socio and economic development of the nation. This will also help department of posts to develop the future business model and its integration with the technological architecture of India Post 2012 Project.

About seventy representatives of Key Stakeholders from Banking/ Insurance/ Telecom/ FMCG/ IT/ e‐Commerce/ Logistics/ Publications/ Financial Institutions/ Government Ministries & Departments/ Industry Associations/ Academic sector participated in the Round Table conference and engaged into discussions to give shape to the India Post 2012 Project and explore strategic
tie‐ups with India Post.

India Post with its vast network of 1.5 lakh Post‐Offices and the huge bouquet of services including mails, logistics, finance, deposits, insurance, savings and retailing, have the potential to play an extremely vital role in accelerating economic growth.

By Changing look and feel of Post Offices under Project Arrow, acquiring three leased dedicated freighter aircraft, setting up 162 Mail Business Centres and plans to set up Automatic Mail Processing System at Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and upgrade the existing automatic mail processing centers at Mumbai and Chennai, India Post is trying to transform the challenge in to an opportunity to serve the masses brisker and better.