lndia Post partners with TCS to upgrade 1.5 lakh post offices

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said on Monday it has partnered with the Department of Posts (DoP) to modernise a network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices across the country, making it the largest distributed e-postal network in the world.

"The multi-year digital core programme will transform the DoP into a multi-service digital hub, modernise the delivery of mail and packages, enhance customer experience and launch innovative services that will drive new revenues," it said in a statement.

Debashis Ghosh, Business Group Head for Public Services at TCS, said an important objective of the transformation is to use the DoP's nation-wide reach to drive financial inclusion and accessibility of citizen services in remote areas.

This is being accomplished through over 1.3 lakh DARPAN (Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New lndia) hand-held devices that gramin dak sevaks use to provide postal, banking, insurance and cash management services in remote villages, even those without network connectivity.

The integrated solution supports the human resource needs of over five lakh employees, services over 40,000 concurrent users and processes over 30 lakh postal transactions a day.

The web portal has an e-marketplace to help rural artisans, self-help groups and women entrepreneurs reach out to buyers throughout the country, said TCS -- India's largest IT company with annual revenues of Rs 1.46 lakh crore.