India Post seeks innovative solutions to an old problem

India Post’s 155,000 post offices is the biggest worldwide, and its 266,600 employees are second only to the Indian Railways in numbers, but it is beset with worries over a Rs 1,400 crore defict, one-third of which came from running rural-area services.

‘‘We wear two hats: One, as some kind of social catalyst, the other, as an operator trying to be market leader,” says Bhushan.

Another plan announced by the Prime Minister to make India Posts a global hub for mail sorting services, has also not been ruled out. ‘‘This could be a fresh revenue stream, our only concern that we are a very large country, and managing the outsourced mail may not be speedy enough,’’ Bushan said.

Apart from the Speed Post diversification in 1986, it is considering tie-ups with insurance firms and mututal funds. In 2003, it entered an arrangement with Oriental Insurance to distribute non-life products. ‘‘Before the Communications Minister D. Maran and FM P Chidambaram, we discussed making post offices the point of sale for UTI mutual funds as well. We are exploring the market for this at present,’’ said Bhushan.

A test phase with 50 post offices has been given the go-ahead. If successful, the scheme will go to the rest of the country.