Task Force proposes to divide India Post into
five biz verticals :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to
review a report on the revival of India Post soon.
Official sources said that Minister for
Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has approved the
task force report and will submit it to the prime minister for a review.
The task force had submitted its report to the
Minister in December, recommending division of India Post into five verticals,
including one each for banking, insurance and e-commerce, with India Post being
the holding company.
“The minister is expected to meet the prime
minister on Wednesday for an in-principle approval. The task force has
highlighted priority areas, which would give a fillip to our postal
department,” an official told BusinessLine.
The Centre is also investing ₹5,000 crore for
IT modernisation in India Post.
He said priority tasks include providing
banking and insurance services to the public and making e-commerce companies
such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal use India Post’s services.
“The main purpose is to utilise the network in
line with the Prime Minister’s vision of reaching rural areas for financial
services through innovation and digital connectivity instead of mere postal
services,” the official added.
The task force, chaired by former Cabinet
Secretary TSR Subramanian, was set up by the Prime Minister last year.
The idea was to leverage India Post’s wide
reach across India.
Snapdeal has already partnered with India Post
to work on bringing thousands of weavers and artisans from Varanasi on its
website. The online company has launched a pilot with India Post to set up
facilitation desks at Varanasi post offices to enable local weavers to sell
their products on its platform.
Source : Hindu Businessline
