'Single network to connect post offices'

All 1.55 lakh branches of post offices across the country will be digitised and connected through a single network, Kavery Banerjee, secretary of department of posts, said here on Thursday.

Banerjee inaugurated a two-day conference of heads of circles of post offices of the country. Heads of all the 22 circles of postal services are participating in the conference.

She said: "We are trying to provide facilities of core banking solutions (CBS) at the post offices."

She said the post offices have a reliable network in the country and these can play a significant role in socio-economic growth, particularly in the rural hinterland.

Banerjee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that the post office can play a stellar role in furthering financial inclusion, both by upscaling life insurance initiatives and diversification of insurance products, and by intensifying efforts to encourage small savings with new products and facilities.

She said the government also believes that e-Commerce will be critical in bridging the urban-rural divide and postal services are in the best position to capture the e-delivery market.

Banerjee advised the circle heads to move very quickly on this front, to upscale their capabilities and to take over the business before other players step in and seize the opportunity to turn their fortunes around, riding on the e-commerce boom which is set to grow exponentially in the coming years.

According to her, more than 100 ATMs have also been commissioned in head post offices. She said that in Haryana, one such ATM has been commissioned at Ambala and the second ATM will be commissioned at Gurgaon shortly.

She said the post offices have opened more than 43 lakh Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna accounts in the country and garnered investment worth Rs.2,600 crore within a span of less than four months.

She was of the view that "we need to pay immediate attention to the entire parcel handling chain, ramp up our system in double-quick time, and aggressively market out parcel services to become the market leader".