INDIA POST INVITES SUGGESTIONS FROM THE MEMBERS OF PUBLIC:

            Department of Posts (DOP) a more than 150 years old organization, provides

services through its network of 1,50,000 offices, a majority of them being in rural areas. India Post connects all of India with mail, banking and insurance services. It is also the last mile provider of Government schemes such as payment of old age pension and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

2. Urbanization, increased demand for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker sections in the rural sector have opened up new opportunities for the Department of Posts which has necessitated development of new processes and supporting technology. The DOP is also faced with the challenge of keeping pace with the advances in communication technology. In order to provide the best-in-class customer service, deliver new services and improve operational efficiencies, the DOP is undertaking an end to end IT modernization project to equip itself with the requisite modern tools an technologies. Some of the salient features that are expected to be in place in the next two years are:-

- All the post offices to be fully networked and ICT enabled.

- Centralized Banking Services for Urban and unbanked rural

   population.

- End to end tracking of accountable articles.

- 24 x 7 call centres.

- Multiple channel of access to customers e.g., post office counters,

  kiosks, internet, ATMs etc.

3. The Department of Posts thus envisions to connect people, organizations and government using physical and electronic networks with the following objectives:-

(i) Modernization of postal services.

(ii) Improving the reach of postal services.

(iii) Improving the quality of services and develop, implement and operate a system of standards with accountable performance.

4. We are in the process of developing a Strategic Plan for the Department which will set the roadmap for achieving the above objectives. As important stakeholders in this journey, India Post, requests its customers to share their views on how India Post can achieve its objectives. Feedback on the following is requested by 04/02/2001 at ddg-cp@indiapost.gov.in.

(i) What kind of post office would meet your expectation – the

     infrastructure in the post office, facilities and services?

(ii) How to make postal service customer friendly?

(iii) How can the existing products and services be made more attractive?

(iv) What new services and facilities can India Post provide to meet the

      new and emerging needs of customers?