Modernisation and Digitisation of India Post System

Modernisation and Digitisation of India Post System

Department of Posts implemented IT Modernization Project 2012 (DOP IT 1.0), a Mission Mode e-governance project, aimed at transforming the Department into a technology driven organization ensuring improved service delivery for customers.

For assessment of progress and challenges of DOP IT 1.0 Project, a mid-term review of the Project was done in 2018 by IIM, Lucknow and final evaluation of the Project was done by an independent third-party evaluator, IIPA (Indian Institute of Public Administration), in 2021.  Some of the key findings of the final evaluation are as under –

i.     Department achieved Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 6.33 % after implementation of IT Modernization Project 2012.

ii.    The qualitative and quantitative contributions made by the ‘IT Modernization Project 2012 of the Department of Posts have been found to be effective. Qualitatively, the faster delivery of services has been found as one of the major improvements. Quantitatively, the number of postal services made accessible, particularly to the un-banked/under-banked customers, were found to have grown.

iii.   The postal operations have been found to be efficiently working on digital platforms.

iv.   As per the surveys conducted, the Department of Posts (DoP) customers were found to be by and large satisfied, with the postal staff. The technical glitch due to network connectivity disappointed some customers.

In continuation of DOP IT 1.0, Government has approved Information Technology Modernization Project 2.0 (DOP IT 2.0) with an outlay of Rs 5785 Crore for a period of eight years commencing from 2022-23.

The Information Technology Modernization Project 2.0 combines applications, intelligent platforms and interconnected ecosystems so as to provide an inclusive integrated single window view of Postal and Financial Services to its stakeholders through multiple delivery channels.

Under DOP IT 2.0 Project, Department has completed rollout of new in-house developed Postal and Logistics Solution, named as Advanced Postal Technology (APT), across all 1.64 lakh Post Offices in the country. It will make postal services faster, secure, and user-friendly and enable Post Offices to accept QR Code based digital payments.

DoP has provided Android based Mobile Phones to all rural Branch Post Offices of the country to facilitate the delivery of Postal, Financial, Insurance and Government services to rural masses. In house developed Internal Mobile App (IMA) under APT has now been deployed in these phones which has the capability to capture the digital signature of the addressee, real-time update for articles delivery and integrated digital payment feature (using dynamic QR code functionality).

Further, a list of initiatives taken by the Department in Core Banking Solution (CBS), India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), Mails and Parcel services throughout the nation, including remote and rural regions, to mitigate delivery gaps, address infrastructure challenges and advance the modernization and digitization of the India Post System is attached as Annexure-I.

 

Annexure-I

I.          Initiatives in Core Banking Solution (CBS)

II.        Initiatives in India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)

III.       Initiatives in Mail and Parcel Sector

This information was given by the Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.