Future of India Post

Adjudged the best article and awarded 1^st Prize

 in 29^th All India Conference of AIPEU, Group-C, CHQ

held at Thiruvanthapuram from 10.03.2013 to 13.03.2013

( Published in Bhartiya Post, June-2013 issue )

By Bruhaspati Samal

Divnl. Secy., AIPEU, Gr.-C, Bhubaneswar ( Odisha)

eMail:bsamalbbsr@gmail.com

Glorious Background and There After:

“It makes the Post Office what under any other system it never can be the unrestricted means of diffusing knowledge, extending commerce and promoting in every way the social and intellectual improvement of the people” stated Lord Dalhousie, the father of India Post in his Minute dated 30^th December, 1851. To prove this statement, honestly, if one searches about an organization which serves India, the land of heterogeneous racial, lingual, religious, and social culture upholding its rich cultural heritage through religious pluralism with Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Budhists, Jains etc. sharing their sorrows and happiness in 1652 mother tongues  inclusive of 18 constitutional languages door to door and protects the national unity, social cohesion, secular and federal structure and democratic ethos, certainly, the name of India Post comes to mind. Competently assisting the rulers, elite and mercantile community in its various forms in ancient and medieval times, it has conveniently served both the British rulers  and general public in modern times as a forceful organization in raising national and political consciousness.  Long before the times of email and mobile phones, pigeons, barefoot runners and bullock carts were used to carry messages from one part of India to another. The mail-runner in earlier times not only carried people's messages but their emotions and hopes. Without caring for the dense forests, wild beasts, intense heat, heavy shower or highway robber, they used to march ahead with belled spears and serve the mankind heart and soul. Prior to independence, India Post, through a limited work force could be able to develop a vast network  of communication even before the Railways and Telephones were introduced with wide spread impact on  the socio-economic life of the nation through efficient and prompt service.

From pigeon to post, India Post has traveled a long way with the passage of time. From 23,344 post offices primarily opened in urban areas prior to independence catering to the needs of Britishers for development of their trade and exercising control over their vast Indian possessions with one post office serving 15038 persons covering an area of 53 square miles to 1,54,979 post offices (139182 i.e. 89.81% in rural area and 15797 i.e. 10.19% in urban area ) having 4.75 lakh employees (2.06 lakh Departmental and 2.69 lakh Gramin Dak Sewak) as on 31.3.2010, India Post has registered nearly a seven fold growth during the period of last seven decades focusing its expansion to rural areas and thus has been acknowledged as the  largest postal network in the world with one post office serving 7176 people in average (5682 in rural area and 20346 in urban area) covering an area of approximately 21.2 sq. kms and providing  postal facilities within reach of every citizen in the country at affordable prices adopting every mode of transmission from bare foot to air route with recorded  delivery of 1,575 crore mails every year.

Challenging Transformation of India Post to Protect the Future:

But the days are gone. Passing through ages, India Post has never remained as a service   Department. While it is providing poor man’s service like post cards etc. on subsidized rate on one hand, it is charging the corporate sector in commercial rates on the other and earning revenue to meet its own expenses by running other products and services, both postal and non-postal for the common man. Due to emergence of electronic alternatives, more demanding customers, presence of organized / unorganized couriers for mail conveyance, financial players like banks and insurance companies and above all the challenges of globalization, corporatization and liberalization, India Post is now facing competition which has compelled it to be commercial day by day rather than remaining as a full public utility service department. Thus, to meet the challenges and to face the competitors on one hand  and to prove itself as an  efficient and reliable communication network as the main component of the communication infrastructure for playing  a crucial role in the socio-economic development and  integration of the country on the other,  the Postal department is doing a lot of things other than just delivering letters aiming for a transformation with re-engineering of Business Processes and making it compatible to suit the new ICT solutions  and evolving new processes based on customer needs. 

A. Business Development:

Going beyond its traditional products and services of sale of stamps and stationery, booking and delivery of letters/parcels etc., India Post, through establishment of a Business Directorate has introduced several new products and services viz., Speed Post, Express Parcel Post, Business Post, Media Post, Retail Post, Speed Post Passport Service, Direct Post, Bill Mail Service, Logistic Post, ePost, iMO, ePayment, World Net Express etc. which cater to the need of every citizen. National Postal Policy has been formulated to develop services that assist, facilitate, enhance and quicken the process of development aimed at inclusive growth and to reposition India Post to become a self-sufficient, credible, efficient, quick and cost–effective provider of these services. Thus, it is just trying to do more than what it can to stay relevant today.  Undoubtedly, it is a big challenge for the Department.

To cater the needs of  NRI dependent families in   India,  visiting International tourists and foreign students studying in India, the  Department  in  collaboration   with the   Western   Union Financial Services, USA operates  International Money Transfer  Service  through  the post offices  in India  which  enables  instantaneous  remittance  of  money  from 185 countries   to India. In January 2006, an on‐line web‐based domestic money transmission service called iMO was launched which enables the customer to receive money in minutes from any of the 2175 identified post offices for the purpose. The electronic money order, i.e. e MO which has been launched in October 2008, facilitates transmission of ordinary money orders from all the computerized post offices through electronic media without any extra charge.  The Department of Posts entered into an International Cooperation Agreement with Money Gram Payment Systems, USA to offer to the general public the Money Gram International Money Transfer Service through selected Post Offices in India. This service has been launched on 29th September 2011.  e‐Payment is a 'Many to One' service through which bills and taxes etc. are paid by customers in 14000 Post Offices across the country and will soon be extended to all  computerized Post Offices. The Department of Posts introduced ECS scheme on   9^th August 2003 which facilitates depositors to get  MIS interest automatically transferred and credited into their SB account on the due dates at the designated Bank of their choice.

B. I T Modernization :

Briefing the Department’s long journey from pigeon post to e-post, it is evident that the Department of Posts actively entered into the digital era through counter mechanization installing 102 personal computer-based MPCMs in 22 selected post offices during the year 1990 – 91 and conceived   the   Project Arrow concept in April, 2008 under “Look & Feel Good” concept.  During 2008-09, 45 post offices were computerized, computer hardware was upgraded in 1847 post offices and 500 post offices were modernized under Project Arrow.  During 2009 -10, 2920 post offices were computerized, computer hardware was upgraded in 92 post offices and 500 post offices were modernized under Project Arrow.  As on 31.03.2010, out of 25563 departmental post offices, 14415 POs including those in the rural areas have been computerized. 1304 Post Offices have been networked through leased lines so far with the National Data Centre. Further 5170 Post Offices have been networked through broad band. The XIth Plan proposal includes computerization and networking of remaining 10841 departmental Post Offices and all the 129416 Branch Post Offices.

Being the oldest and largest banking institution in the country, Post Office Savings Bank operates more than 240 million Savings Accounts and the outstanding balance under all the eight national savings schemes (SB, RD, RD, MIS, SCSS, PPF, NSC & KVP) is Rs.5828329.6 million as on 31.03.2010. Not to lose such a large number of customers due to lack of modernization and non-availability of the services of ATMs, mobile banking and demat facilities on one hand and for providing Any‐where, Any‐time and Any branch banking on the other, Core Banking Solutions (CBS) has been included in the 11^th Five Year Plan with a financial outlay of Rs. 106 crores for development of CBS software and other related activities.

C. Potential Service Provider :

The Department of Posts is also emerging as a potential service provider to other organizations. To meet the challenges, India Post has revolutionized the way it used to function before adopting varieties of products and services starting from selling of movie tickets in urban area to agriculture insurance in rural area. Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSP) has entrusted the job of collecting statistics for ascertaining the Rural Price Index from 1183 post offices across the country with effect from Oct 2009. Railway Ministry and the Department of Posts have signed a memorandum of understanding for providing railway ticket booking services at the post offices.  The Department of Posts is discharging the responsibility to disburse the wages to NREGS beneficiaries through Post Office Savings Bank account. Currently operational in 19 Postal Circles comprising of 21 States, the scheme is operational through 90,000 post offices. 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. Department of Posts has signed an agreement on 17.9.08 with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd. to retail their Pension Products through select Post Offices on Referral Model.   India Post introduced a new international air express service known as World Net Express on 26.11.2008. The service is available at selected post offices for more than 220 countries. India Post has tied up with State Bank of India to sell its assets and liability products through identified post offices. Old Age Pension is being paid through   Post Office Savings Accounts and Money Orders. As a tie‐up with Reliance Money Limited, sale of gold coins has been launched on 15th October, 2008 as part of retail post in selected post offices.  The Department of Posts has been assisting other public authorities under the Central Government in implementing the RTI Act by providing services of its designated Central Assistant Public Information Officers (CAPIOs). For this, Sub Post Masters at Tehsil level act as the Central Assistant Public Information officer (CAPIO) for accepting RTI requests and appeals from all central Government Departments.   Under a partnership with Deutsche Post, Money Order Videsh was launched by India Post on 24.10.2009 to facilitate remittances to foreign countries and receiving of remittances from foreign countries through Post Office. 

Apprehensions & Suggestions for Prospective Future:

As a result of these challenges, all operational, administrative and accounting units of this vast organization are being affected presently and will be affected in future with new management system. The Circles, Regions, Divisions and Post Offices are dealing with implementation of multiple solutions. Therefore, employees from all levels are inducted to the changes for capacity building, augmenting training infrastructure, achieving computer literacy at all levels etc. to run a massive change management plan.

But while analyzing the processes the Department has adopted to meet the challenges and to secure the future of India Post,   the following shortcomings are noticed which are required to be taken care of.

1.         The National Postal Policy broadly speaks that urban postal and financial services are essential in order to maintain the flow of funds between urban and rural residents and it is necessary to ensure safe and quick transmission of moneys. Since the competitors for such urban services are aggressive and efficient private players, India Post should enhance and improve its delivery of urban services in order to offer comparative standards of performance. But contradictorily, now there is a move by India Post for rationalization of postal network in urban areas by way of relocation / merger of 9797 single / double handed post offices. This apart the Department has also initiated action for abolition of 17093 unfilled posts. The proposed closure of 9797 Post offices means reduction of about 36% of the existing postal network. The arguments put forward by the Department justifying such mass-scale closure/merger/relocation cannot be accepted when all other private couriers and companies are competing to canvass customers of India Post by opening more and more outlets in the urban areas for extending their services to the doorstep of such customers.  It is apprehended that in the name of rationalization and optimization, India Post is giving more space to the private companies for occupying more share in the mail market segment.  Large scale closure of Post Offices and RMS offices will not only lead to inconvenience to the public leading to discontentment but also adversely affect the interest of the employees. The Department needs to look after this aspect very carefully before implementation.

2.         To face the twin challenges of increasing competition and continuing advances in communication technology, especially in mobile telephony and the Internet and to provide the best-in-class customer services,  India Posts has undertaken an end to end IT Modernization project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and technologies. With key objective to Modernize and computerize of all Post Offices in the country including Branch Post Offices in rural areas, India Post 2012 aims at transforming the DoP into a “Technology Enabled, Self-Reliant Market Leader”.

Two important things are being overlooked by the Department under IT Modernization Project.

a.         Out of 154979 post office, 129416 branch post offices (83.50%) are in rural areas which are managed by Gramin Dak Sewaks with minimum qualification of Matriculate or below and without any technical knowledge. In addition, barring a few new entrants, most of the regular departmental senior officials don’t know the fundamentals of computer. Contradictorily, the present mode of computer literacy and training programme of India Post only aims at imparting training on different modules / packages in operation by the Department just to suit its needs only without considering the needs of the employees.  There is no plan to redesign the computer training programmes by the Department which may stand in the way of effective service delivery clearly satisfying the standards fixed in the Citizen Charter.

b.         Most of the Branch Post Offices functioning in the rent free accommodations provided by the BPMs are completely unsuitable for computer networking. The basic civil and electrical works needed for computerization have been witnessed to be of sub-standard nature in Departmental post offices most of which are functioning on rented buildings owned by private people. So modernization of all such post office buildings over which the Department has no control may be a myth.

Thus, such deficiencies need to be taken care of failing which the aims and objectives of IT Project, 2012 may be futile in future in the hands of untrained non-technical employees and in private rented buildings.

3.         The draft Corporate Plan outlined by India Post seems not to be comprehensive. Implementing large scale closure of post offices, it will be hypothetical to provide basic postal facilities within easy reach of all people and businesses by 2013-14.  Keeping the rates of interest on various POSB Schemes lower than banks, it is just theoretical to increase financial inclusion of the unbanked population by at least 10% by the year 2013-14. Still remaining  partly commercial and partly service and awaiting to address the issue relating to definition and cost of its Universal Service Obligation, it is really imaginary to attain self-sufficiency by 2013-14. The quality of service delivery standards outlined in the Corporate Plan of India Post and guaranteed under the Citizen Charter to the members of Public is witnessed to be affected greatly after introduction of National Speed Post Hubs and L 1 and L 2 hubs for Registered and Un-registered mails. Thus, India Post needs to adopt different strategy with a comprehensive corporate plan to secure the future of the Department and its employees.

4.         Amendment of Indian Post Office Act with a view to legalize private courier services will certainly have an adverse impact on the monopoly of India Post in future. The proposed Postal Regulatory Authority will snatch away the monopoly of the Department in handling postal articles in future. When the main spirit behind the introduction of Post Office Act was aimed at having effective control of their dominions by the allies, introduction of a fresh Act to bring complete elimination of the private courier agencies is more desirable now for better national interest rather than a move to legalize their business activities.

5.         The Strategic Plan of India Post includes, inter alia, “Neat, clean and spacious post offices “ and   “Dynamic Queue Management”.  Unfortunately, it is quite evident that most of the post offices especially functioning in rented buildings are highly below the prescribed schedule of accommodation . The mail, sorting, delivery and counter hall are witnessed to be functioning in a single room in most of the post offices. Similarly, the queue management system has been totally ignored in respect of the Project Arrow post offices  under Phase – I and II. When customers are attending the counters at unpredictable places forming unstructured queues , high and standardized quality service is seriously affected. Thus the present Strategic  Plan of India Post needs to be redefined  so that India Post which has touched the lives of every citizen for more than 150 years will continue to enjoy the trust and support of its customers and stakeholders in future.

6.         The vision of the Result Framework Document (RFD) for India Post (2011-12) specifies that its products and services will be the customers’ first choice. This can only be possible if India Post will promote its own mail, financial and insurance products instead of promoting the products and services of outside agencies, viz, ICICI Prudential, UTI etc  More revenue will be earned if India Post does directly any business instead of doing through intermediaries as is being done for sale of Gold Coin. The trust of the general public with India Post need not be exploited in any manner failing which the future of India Post may be at stake.

7.         In spite of recent hikes of the rates of interests in Post Office Small Savings Schemes twice, i. e. once from 01.01.2011 and once again from 01.04.2012, the same has still remained unexpectedly lower than its financial competitors affecting the S B transactions from which the Department earns nearly 48% of its total income.  The Department does not find any financial autonomy and commercial flexibility to respond to market forces quickly and efficiently since it is functioning as a corporate agent of the Ministry of Finance. Full autonomy for operationalization of all POSB Schemes needs to be retained with India Post.

8.         India Post aims at providing new and better services on par with global industry standards by computerizing and networking of all post offices using Central Server based system which may affect the present status of Head Post Offices and Accounts Offices. It is apprehended that the Department may attempt in future to decentralize the postal accounts shifting over to accrual basis accounting. When full computerization will make the post offices paperless, establishments like the Postal Stores Depots and Postal Printing Press in the present form may be redundant in future. Thus, India Post awaits a great structural redesigning in future.

9.         The Technology Wing and Business Development Cell of India Post are neither managed by Technically and Management qualified personnel nor there is a plan for direct recruitment of such personnel from open market. Leading such wings by non-professionals may not bring the targeted result for which the Department is likely to suffer in future.

10.       The basis of any policy of sustainability and growth, especially of labour intensive activities, is the productivity, capacity and morale of its personnel. But as seen, the employees at grass root level who are directly responsible for smooth implementation of all the policies and decisions are highly depressed. It is witnessed that increased productivity and higher performance are not receiving appropriate incentives in the Department and the interests of the workforce of India Post are not being safeguarded. The demands of the Staff Side with scientific approaches to meet the future challenges are either overlooked or totally sidelined and the department is blindly going ahead with unscientific proposals recommended by outside agencies. While progress is being expected and monitored by the Department through Public Private Partnership, avoidance to Staff Side is not at all a good sign for future progress of India Post.

Conclusion:

When the possibility of the existence of a civilized state cannot be conceived without the cooperation of this vast organization of effective communication which has legitimately conquered so important place in Indian social, political, religious, cultural and economic atmosphere, there can be no threat to India Post in future provided the Department works with the collective mindset of the employees, clients, customers and vendors paying due honour to their  voice for rights, social protection and decision-making which are the basic components of economic growth since in the era of globalization, an organization will only sustain if it wins the confidence of all the stakeholders. Then only, the commitment of India Post to meeting the challenges of the economy and to ensure connectivity, communication and financial services to every citizen can be found feasible.

To conclude, it can only be said that since India Post has occupied the nervous system which transmits the words and thoughts of the nation, its significance can be better understood by visualizing its absence. All stakeholders should work consistently so that the existence of this vast organization may not be jeopardized.

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