India Post prepares to bridge digital divide in rural India by rolling out 1,000 hand-held devices in TN

Chennai:

In a bid to bridge digital divide in rural India, India Post will be
rolling out a pilot project in Tamil Nadu in the next few months by
providing the rural postman with network connected hand-held devices.



Addressing a press conference, Post Master General of Chennai region
Merwin Alexander and Post Master General, Mails and Marketing S C
Barmma told reporters here on Tuesday that a total of 1,000 devices
would be provided in the branch post offices in the state.



Besides Chennai rural post offices which will be provided with 250
such devices, the central, southern and western region would also be
getting 250 devices each. The state has a total of 9,287 branch post
offices.



The announcement comes in the wake of Department of Posts (DoP)
planning to roll out Rs 1,370-crore mega project that will allow
India's 1.3 lakh postmen in rural regions to use network-connected
handheld terminals for postal delivery.



The device, which will have a printer, camera, scanner, a sim card and
finger print recognition device, would be connected to a base server.

It will will have a biometric module to authenticate the identity of
an individual by using Aadhar number, solar powered panel for charging
terminals. It will also have a thermal printer. The device would also
be used for savings bank transaction as well as for money orders, said
Alexander. This will help in the financial inclusion of people of
rural India besides tracking the movement of postmen through GPS, he
said.





Interestingly, India Post is also planning to install solar panels at
every branch offices as the devices would be charged through them.
Meanwhile, India Post has started training Branch Post Masters on how
to use the hand-held devices. “We have started the preparation work to
launch the project,” said Alexander.



On the revenue front, India Post during 2014-15 has earned a revenue
of 11,000 crore of which 10 per cent of it comes from Tamil Nadu and
Puducherry. “The state is ranked next to Maharashtra when it comes to
maximum contribution of revenue from the states. Maharashtra’s
contribution is Rs 1,500 crore” he said.



But India Post is facing a huge challenge as the expenditure
overshoots revenue. “We have a expenditure of Rs 17,000 crore. We are
trying to bridge the gap,” said Alexander.