REINVENTION OF INDIA POST

 The following  information about Indian Postal Service made me go down memory lane about our postal system. How it has been replaced  by the instant communication, across the world, possible through emails and social media today forcing the India Post to reinvent itself.

 “India Post is undergoing a major digital transformation with its IT 2.0 initiative, launching Advanced Postal Technology (APT) to modernise services, integrate banking (IPPB), and enhance rural reach. Key recent changes include the discontinuation of the traditional Registered Post service in favour of Speed Post for better tracking, and new "Generation Z" post offices focused on youth”

 Remember the times, not long ago, when all communication to your near and dear ones, staying near or far, was done through letters written by hand or typewritten on a self-stamped postcard, or an Inland letter or postal covers. If we were sending the letter in plain envelopes, then we had to buy stamps of different denominations depending on the weight of the envelope and paste them on the envelopes using some form of adhesive. Even grains of cooked rice came in handy as an adhesive!. This task was later made easy by the Post Office, which provided self-adhesive stamps, and all that you had to do was to wet it by using a wet sponge or just lick it!.

 We used the postcard for open communication and Inland letters or enveloped letters for any communication which required some privacy. If we wanted to secure the delivery of letters or important documents, we had the facility of sending them by Registered Post, with or without Acknowledgement Due. When the electronic payment facilities or even basic banking services did not have the kind of reach it has today, Money Orders were the sure way of sending money from one place to another. VPP was another service offered.

 In the olden days, our elders believed in using postcards more often, with information packed using every centimeter of space available in the postcard. It was not unusual to see sentences squeezed into the margins and even the address portions. You had to wait patiently for letters from your near and dear ones, living abroad, sent by Sea Post. They would take more than a month to reach you. Later, the waiting time was reduced to a week when the letters started arriving by air mail.

 The government, in its wisdom, has been providing this as a subsidised service. India can proudly claim to have one of the best postal systems in the world. We have 1,55,000 post offices to serve the 6,00,000 villages of India of which 1,38,000 are located in villages. In many of the villages, the Post Offices are located in the home of a prominent resident of the village. I have heard that my maternal grandfather was operating one such Post office from his home in our village in Tamil Nadu

 With the growing popularity of Social media, when the Postal Department found reduced patronage for its services, making huge losses, it had to reinvent itself. It had to think of non-conventional services using its wide network connecting the remotest villages of India. IPO has one of the best distribution networks available in the country for any product or service. No wonder that Post Offices diversified into offering services like Life Insurance, Postal savings. They even offer their Network to Corporates for selling their products. The Indian Post Payments Bank has been taking  Banking services to the doorsteps of households, especially rural households.

 While the Postal Department is trying its best to stay relevant, it is sad that a whole generation of Indians has grown up without any idea of postal services. The other day, I asked a schoolboy if he had heard of post offices. His response was `What is a Post Office?`

 {Updated version of my article titled ``Snail Mail` which appeared in one of the issues of Adyar Times in 2019 under my column `Rajan`s Random Reflections )