Pampering the Post

Tukaram Dinabandhu never had a bank account. He hailed from a small village
in Jharkhand, white washed houses in Delhi to earn a living for himself and his
family. And he had never heard of Western Union Money Transfer. So every month
he would avail the age-old method of money orders which was a long, cumbersome
process. The money would take days to reach his village, which was not
well-connected by road.

But the times have changed. It now takes only a few hours for his money to
reach his family. Thanks to the post offices electronic money transfer
services. Called the e-Money Order (e-MO), this electronic transfer can make
your money reach its destination in 24-48 hours as against the 5-7 days taken by
the conventional money order.

And like the e-MO, there are many facilities that our neighborhood post
office now offers, via the use of technology, which make life a lot easier.

Brand New

A lot of things about the India Post are brand new. And the recent change of
logo for a fresh one supplements the air of freshness that has enveloped the
Indian postal services. The new logo, unveiled in September last year, aims to
give the postal service a corporate look and reflects its new approach towards
businessan approach which shall aim to leverage technology to connect the
nation better. The new logo is of bird in flight, done in bold colors like red
and yellow.

Launching the new logo, Minister of Communications and Information
Technology, A Raja said, The bold strokes convey free flight. The choice of
colors are red and yellow. Red has been chosen for its traditional association
with the postal service. It embodies passion, power and commitment.

Apart from the logo, there are several things that are brand new in our
centuries-old postal system. The largest postal network in the world with over
1.55 lakh post offices covering urban and rural areas, is now using web-based
services to get larger than life. Some new initiatives of the Department of
Posts include e-payment, instant money transfers, daknet, online franking and a
new look for rural post offices.

However vast and well-connected our postal network might be, it has always
been wrought by deficiencies and huge inconsistencies. A lot of it can be
attributed to the fact that India is a multi-dialect country, which writes in
numerous languagesbe it books, blogs or letters. This doesnt make the job of
the post office any easier. Often, there is a problem of deciphering what is
written and even a minor alphabetical or writing error can cause havoc while the
letter is on its journey.

Then, there is the problem of stamping and pin codes. According to a survey
done by India Post, pin code is mentioned on about 65% of the total mails that
India Post handles. Out of this, around 10% are non-decipherable. And as most of
the mails handled are hand-written, (only around 5% of the total volume are in
the typed format) they further accelerates the problem. And it is no news that
our postal services have been synonymous with delays and misplacementsfrom
money orders, to accounts and letters.

And for a complete makeover, those who pull the strings have decided to
leverage the one thing which has made a difference everywheretechnology. Says
Ashok Pal Singh, deputy director general, department of Posts, Globally also,
there have been examples of more corporatization and privatization of post
offices. We have also been looking at changes all along. In 1994-95, we started
our business development delivery, which brought in a more management-oriented
outlook in the postal services. In 1995-96 the adoption of IT began. As a first
step we started using VSATs. In the mid nineties there were around 2,500 post
offices connected via VSAT. In 97-98 we began computerization of post offices.

So from money to minds, the postal services are displaying the digitization
drive. Most of the solutions for India Post, the official postal service of
India, have been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Wired Money!

It finally dawned upon the government that it can exploit the reach and
penetration of the postal network to offer instant, secure and hassle-free
transfer and payment of funds. Its two type of money order services, i-MO
(instant money order) and e-MO (electronic money order) are steps in this
direction.

Through e-MO, the money is transferred to the closest destination post office
and then the postman provides a door-to-door delivery. Depending on the batch
time (the time for which transactions accumulate over the server), the e-MO
takes only several hours to reach as against the traditional money order which
takes anywhere between 5-7 days.

i-MO is another variant of the e-MO. The only difference it that when a
sender books an i-MO, he is given a unique 16-digit pin number in a sealed
packet. He can then disclose this pin number to the recipient who can then go
and collect the money himself rather than waiting for the postman. Here, after
the form is filled and submitted with money at the i-MO post office counter, the
counter clerk books the i-MO immediately and hands over a printed receipt with a
computer-generated confidential 16-digit i-MO number in a sealed condition.
The16-digit i-MO number will not be known even to the booking clerk. The
customer is required to tear off the seal and convey the confidential 16-digit i-MO
number to the intended recipient over phone, SMS, e-mail, etc at his means and
risk.

Instant Money Order (i-MO) is one of the most important services that India
Post offers. This instant online money transfer service is a speedy, safe and
reliable option for transferring money. i-MO is an instant web-based money
transfer service through post offices (i-MO Centers) in India between two
resident individuals in Indian territory. It enables money transfer of amounts
ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 from designated i-MO Post Offices.

India Post has revamped the money order service and introduced an electronic
mode for faster remittance of money. This move will reduce transmission of
vouchers from one place to another and provide for a centralized information
system on the money order service. It is also proving to have an immense impact
in terms of cost-saving by India Post.

At the inception stage, around 2,500 post offices all over the country have
switched over to electronic transmission of money orders.

Obviously, the booking facilities for this instant money order would be
available at post offices where Wide Area Connectivity or Broadband connectivity
is available. Once the process stabilizes, the department may consider enhancing
the maximum limit of remittance. However, the present service of conventional
domestic money orders will stay where and how it is.

Supplementing this transfer over the wires, there is the online payments
facility. e-Payment is another service that leverages the tremendous reach of
India Post. This department specializes in accepting across the counter payments
and consolidating the same. It is a Many to One service through which
telephone bills, electricity bills, etc paid by customers in post offices, are
electronically consolidated and transferred.

Here, the post office collects bill payments from customers on the behalf of
service providers or billers such as BSNL, Airtel, RTOs, etc. The post office
then issues a receipt to the customer and accounts for the transaction.

The collection data is updated into a central server and is accessible to the
biller through a web interface. The accounts are consolidated electronically and
amount is paid to the service provider at one point, which is convenient.

Netting IT

The postal department of India is determined to utilize the miracle called
Internet as much as it can. Its ambitious agenda includes taking the internet
into rural areas. And it is well on its way to change the face of rural India,
which isnt very well-connected. And who knows, we might be talking about
bridging digital divide, rather than just an existing digital divide.

The state of Jharkhand is already rolling on the digital mode and artisans in
Raghurajpur village of Orissa are now connected to the world through the
Internet, thanks to the state transport bus, which is fitted with a Wi-Fi box.

The United Villages concept(?) is also called the Daknet or Internet Post,
and the bus is like a postman. It connects twenty-five remote villages in Orissa
to already Internet-enabled areas.

To facilitate Internet connectivity, the United Villages kiosk in Raghurajpur is
equipped with a Wi-Fi antenna and computers and the villagers save their emails
on the hard disk.

If that sounds like some crazy dream, then e-Post services will perhaps sound
out of this world! e-Post enables any hand-written message, photograph or simple
text message to be sent between e-Post centers (post offices) all across the
country. These messages can then be downloaded at the addressee e-Post center
and delivered by the postman to the recipient. The service can also be availed
by individuals from their home or office, or by purchasing a prepaid card from
the post office.

e-Post is a service through which printed or even hand-written messages are
scanned and transmitted as email over the Internet. At the destination post
offices, these messages are printed, enveloped and delivered by postmen like
other letters to the postal addresses. e-Post is a sort of hybrid mail service.
It connects the physical and the virtual world. Under this service, we scan the
messages written in any form (postcard, inland letter, etc) and then send them
electronically. They are printed at the destination post office and then
delivered conventionally. Basically, an e-post message can originate in any form
and it gets delivered electronically. This has lead to major cost and time
saving for us. This service is also useful to businesses for bulk mailing etc,
says Singh.

Keeping maximum coverage in mind, e-Post centers have been set up in post
offices, covering all the districts and major towns. These e-Post centers are
equipped with an Internet connection, computers, printers and other necessary
equipment. However, the e-Post service are not limited to the e-Post centers.
They can be availed from any post office. Irrespective of whether a customer is
in a metropolis or in a remote village, he can send and receive e-Post messages.
The messages booked at post offices which are not e-Post centers, are sent to
the enabled centers for scanning and dispatch. Similarly, messages received at
centers for areas beyond their delivery jurisdiction are printed, and sent to
the concerned post offices for delivery.

Besides availing e-Post service through post offices, it can also be accessed
from a customers home or office if he has a computer and Internet access. The
customer can make his payment through a prepaid card that is available from
selected post offices and other outlets. There are post tracking services also
available, which enable the consumers to track their parcels and posts online.

Aiming the Arrow

Project Arrow is another major technology initiative of the DoP. This
project was started in April 2008 with the aim of giving a new corporate
identity to post offices. Under this, we try and give a more enabled
environment to our users. We engage third party agencies for training etc. Our
training and management is done by McKinsey and our logo was designed by OnM.
Each of the post offices covered under this, provide a full range of IT
services. We use things like video conferencing, benchmarking and are also
setting up kiosks, says Singh.

Currently about 500 offices are covered under this project. The plan,
according to Singh is to cover around 4,500 offices by mid 2010. He however says
that the the nature of the challenges, that are fundamentally different for
postal services, have to be kept in mind before taking any step. We are the
largest postal network in the world and there are issues of bandwidth,
connectivity, power and management that need to be looked into seriously.

As of now, over 10,000 post offices are computerized and work on LAN. There
are 1,200 dedicated lease lines. There are also two important data centersone
in Delhi and one in Mysore, which is also the software development center. 5,000
plus post offices have broadband and a lot of benefits accrue due to branch
computerization. All this is bound to improve. But when you ask Singh about this
technology adaptation happening rather late in the day for our post offices, he
says, Evolution in post offices was happening all along, but bringing them to
the limelight was never our aim. The post office is the only place where the
common man can walk in unhesitatingly and ask for services. No matter what, we
dont want to change that. We dont want the common man to be intimidated by
glass doors, flashy interiors and LCD screens. We want to serve, not exercise
power. The post office is the only arm of the government which serves rather
than tries to control.

More on the Plate

And the things mentioned above are just a piece of the pie. The postal
department has much more on its plate. This includes providing franking services
online, enabling easy loans from post offices (a tie-up with SBI has already
been established in rural Punjab), a new look for rural post offices and even
payment of NREGA wages via e-payment mechanism.

Project Arrow which was launched in 2008, aims to revamp the rural post
office network and enable it to play a larger role in the socio-economic
transformation of the country. These new-age post offices would serve as a
window to the world for the common man.

But well, cynicism enters the frame as soon as the word common man is
heard. For a lot is promised to this breed but never really delivered. Lets
hope that all the ambitious plans for our very own dak Khana dont get engulfed
in the corruption and bribery sins, that are almost like an epidemic in this
country.

Mehak Chawla

mehakc@cybermedia.co.in