India Post is preparing to offer better services to post office visitors and ensure their work is done as soon as possible. It is now working on projects and technology to bring government services to its doorstep and is adding 10,000 post offices this year to increase its reach, a top department official said Thursday. Postal Ministry Minister Aman Sharma told a CII conference that the government has allocated Rs 5,200 crore to the ministry to upgrade post offices with the help of technology.
“We recently completed delivery by drone in Gujarat. The government has asked us to continue the IT project started in 2012. The post and various government services are soon given on the doorstep. “Instead of people coming to the post offices, services are being delivered at their doorstep using technology,” Sharma said, PTI news agency reported.
He said that digital transformation will be the way forward and the government is very optimistic about using technology to provide services to citizens. During the pandemic, India Post delivered more than Rs 20,000 crore to doorsteps
“The government is asking us to continue to increase our reach and open more post offices. We have just received permission to open 10,000 more post offices. These will be brick and mortar structures in distant areas. The government wants banking and financial services to be available to people within 5 kilometers of their homes. So we’re setting up more post offices,” Sharma said.
The new 10,000 post offices will open in the current fiscal year, bringing the total number of post offices in India to around 1.7 lakh.
As well as manufacturing brick and mortar structures, the government also wants to expand to the online scenario as part of a push towards digital India. According to a recent report, the central government is considering a link between India Post Payments Bank and leading messaging platform WhatsApp to offer a variety of banking and financial services.
According to an Economic Times report citing insiders, the initial collaboration between the payments bank and the messaging giant will offer customers services “such as checking account balances and being able to request opening of a new bank account.” IPPB is the banking arm of India Post.
“A pilot will be conducted over the next 60 days to test IPPB’s services such as checking account balances, requesting a new account, changing pins and passwords,” ET reported in June, citing the above individuals. They went on to say services will also be made available to a select number of customers, including requesting cash withdrawals and deposits, Aadhaar to Aadhaar transfers, updating the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar Number, and managing account beneficiaries .
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