It feels good to walk-in now. That?s 50-year-old Delhi-based K Vijayan, who, like most Indians of his generation, has been a post office regular for most of his life. He could perhaps tell as much about the Indian postal service as any of the about 5 lakh employees of the over 150-year-old organisation. He has seen the transformation of India Post from close quarters ? from the drab ?sarkari? look to the squeaky clean corporate look with the red-and-yellow logo flashing on service counters. ?Not that I had any complaints earlier, but now it looks like a private bank.?
Of late, India Post has a new goal ? to turn profitable in less than five years. Just last month it announced a $1 bn IT revamp to automate and integrate its business processes. This week in association with Air India it launched two dedicated freighter aircrafts for faster transmission of Speed Post, mail, parcel and logistics across the country, overnight. The successful Project Arrow, launched last year, as part of the department?s infrastructure development programme is in its third phase already. Likewise, the department has been silently entering new arenas and forging new partnerships. How many of us know that India Post has a tie-up with DHL (yes, one of the leaders in global logistics industry). So, every time you book a parcel at your nearby post office ? you have the option to reach 200 countries across the world. You can even track your parcel with just one SMS. The organisation is even planning to launch a virtual post office soon ? enabling you to book money orders, send articles and do a lot more online. Post office ATMs are also on the cards. Just a few months ago, it tied up with Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to collect data from 1,183 villages to compile the consumer price index. It already has a tie up with Western Union for incoming payments from abroad. And soon EuroGiro will enable remittances in just an hour.
There?s more. Its vans are even operating on virgin turfs in the north east, armed with GPS devices, so that they can be traced in the event of a Naxal hijack. India Post is also managing over 21 mn NREGA accounts for the Ministry of Rural Development. And now you even have 1,116 customer care centres to address your complaints. The department sold 32 kg gold during the month-long Akshaya Trithiya festival, earning a neat 22 lakh in the process. Vijayan, who has most of his savings in the form of Kisan Vikas Patra and postal saving certificates too bought gold from his neighbourhood post office this year. ?It is more difficult to locate a MMTC franchisee. Moreover, there?s a certain credibility attached to the postal system.?
Quite a change
Looks apart, India Post is also diversifying into a variety of services. Radhika Doraiswamy, Secretary, India Post puts it otherwise: ?we are rather consolidating our core areas ? the financial and retailing activities.? She feels there is a ?tremendous potential for growth and expansion, especially in the rural areas.? Considering that against 2.35 lakh Gram Panchayats, only 1.15 lakh Gram Panchayats have post offices, the potential is clear indeed. Moreover, the department is also looking at retailing social security schemes.
Guru Malladi, Partner-Advisory services, Ernst & Young, considers it ?as much a challenge as an opportunity. To reach the bottom of the pyramid is difficult. All the post office branches will have to work under a single network. But the advantage is that in rural India people trust a post office more than a bank and the post man is like a neighbourhood friend for the villagers. India Post must capitalise on that trust. And while expanding in the rural segment, they should also look to increase their share of pie in the urban areas,? he says. Malladi recommends India Post to focus on their financial services to cross subsidise their other services. ?Financial services account for the largest share of revenues for India Post ? close to 55%. With 1.5 lakh branches across the country, its deposit base is larger than SBI?s. That gives them a big edge.?
That?s a direction India Post is already moving towards. ?We are not just managing the NREGA accounts but also trying to sell Rural Postal Life Insurance to the NREGA beneficiaries. Interestingly, in contrast to the popular perception that the beneficiaries withdraw all the money for consumption, they leave some money in the account ? they too save,? says AK Roy, a senior official in the Department of Posts. That apart five crore people in the rural areas are proposed to be targeted by having tie-ups with self-help groups and other financial institutions including banks.
Ambitious plans?
The optimism and ambition in Doraiswamy?s voice is unmistakable. ?Come back in a year?s time and see the change for yourself.? If all works out well, you?ll not need a person at the counter to serve you ? such will be the level of automation. Technological upgradation, she says, has helped India Post complement its manpower but the ?challenge lies in closely monitoring services and ensuring efficiency.? And her target is ?to try and get self-sufficient in the next four years?.? The target, given that the deficit for 2007-08 stood at Rs 1,511 crore, does come across as ambitious. A perception she is quick to correct ? ?The deficit is largely due to the increase in salaries and allowances due to the Sixth Central Pay Commission.? The corollary is that the revenue has risen from Rs 4,010 crore to Rs 5,495 crore in the last five years. The deficit for the same period has increased from Rs 1,364 to Rs 1,511 crore.
The department is also aiming at increasing productivity (defined as revenue per employee) from the current level of Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 2,40,000 per employee by 2013. That does translate in simple terms for the consumer ? the next time you enter any of the post offices glance through the Citizen Charter and you?ll find out for yourself. It clearly lists time norms against major postal services. So, you know that booking a speed post article should not take more than two minutes; issue of saving certificates seven minutes and a new savings account should take not more than 10 minutes of your time. Not everyone seems impressed though. At least not Kavita Karnik. Karnik went to visit Philately museum in Delhi only to find that it?s ?still? closed for renovation. ?It?s been more closed for renovation for more than a year now. That?s a tad too long, isn?t it?? And when she went to buy philately stamps, there was no one at the counter. ?11.30 in the morning and the person still doesn?t seem to have turned up for work,? she added disappointingly. She may not have a reason to complain for long ? the stamps are expected to be shortly available on eBay!
But as India Post looks to induct 9,000 new recruits by the end of this year, things should only improve. Part of the evolution exercise, we guess!
