The Indian Postal Service (India Post) has a famed history of 150 years.
Operating under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, it has touched the lives of millions of Indians as a carrier of mails, an agent for collection of money under various types of small savings deposit schemes, provider of life insurance cover under Postal and Rural Life Insurance (PLI and RPLI) and delivering various other services like remittances, sale of forms, etc.
The extensive network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices that link India’s geographical extremities (as against the approximately 22000 branched of SBI, the largest PSB ) earns India Post the distinction of being a service provider with an enviable reach to the grassroot level as a last mile connect. Out of the said network, about 90% of the post offices serve the rural and semi-urban areas of India. This huge network is manned by about 1.9 lakh departmental employees and 2.5 lakh Gramin Dak Sewaks who are largely the feet-on-the street.
Though Sher Shah Suri, the founder of Sur dynasty in the mid-sixteenth century is accredited with the initiation of the postal system in Indian subcontinent, it was institutionalised under British rule. Since then, the postal service has gradually grown to cover the length and breadth of the country, having divided the entire country into 23 postal circles and 49 zones. In a way, this logistical behemoth is capable of delivering services to the doorstep of the customer located at the remotest corners of the county.
This story is from the September 16-30, 2018 edition of BUSINESS ECONOMICS.
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This story is from the September 16-30, 2018 edition of BUSINESS ECONOMICS.
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