Postmen to show up on Sundays too!
With Rakshabandhan round the corner, postmen will be making deliveries on Sundays as well to manage the surge in workload. Rakshabandhan week sees the delivery of gifts multiply as sales and discounts at every store and e-commerce website are a common sight. The Indian Postal Service has been making radical changes to compete with private players.
Turning around India Post
India Post declared losses to the tune of Rs.6400 crores in 2012. In desperate need of a turnaround tie-ups with major e-commerce sellers were executed in 2013. India Post's revenues from the cash-on-delivery consignments have increased from Rs.100 crores in 2013 to a massive Rs.1500 crores in 2016. The postal department now has 48 dedicated processing centres to manage the e-commerce workload.
India Post to operate a payments bank
Come mid-2017, India Post will begin to operate a payments bank; 50 branches will be opened in the first phase. This transformation of India Post is keeping in sync with the Government's vision of Digital India; these payment banks will allow benefits of the Direct Transfer Scheme to reach India's farthest corners. It will be called India Post Payments Bank or IPPB.
Gangajal and Prasad at your doorstep
The latest initiative by the government has allowed holy water from the Ganges to be bottled and delivered across the country. Over 33,000 bottles from Rishikesh and Gangotri have already been shipped out. In May 2016, it was recently announced that India Post will also deliver 'prasad' from six Krishna temples in Mathura.
Humongous network
India Post has over 1.5 lakh branches of which 1.25 lakh are located in rural areas. India post employs over 1.7 lakh people and is one of the largest public sector employers in the world.
