Department of Posts - Year End Summary, PIB, Major Schemes, Achievements 2017

1. Implementation of Core Banking Solutions in the Department of Post: Overview: Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) was started in 1882 to facilitate small savings in the country, Many value added services like ATMs, inter branch banking, Internet and mobile banking, DBT etc were not available to the POSB customers.

Ministerial Summary 2017 PIB (Current Affairs⟋GS 2018)
  • Initiative:
  • The project aimed to introduce CBS in all the 25,353 departmental Post Offices.
  • Upgrade infrastructure and monitoring
  • Change management, internal communication and training of more than one lakh employees in the new software.

    Key results:

  • 23,424 out of a total of 25,353 (92%) Post Offices are on the CBS platform as on 11⟋10⟋2017.
  • A total of 37.62 Cr accounts and 31.79 Crore savings certificates.
  • 991 of the proposed 1000 ATMs are functional in the country.

    Impacts:

  • Services like RTGS, NEFT, POSB debit cards at POS as digital payments, full-fledged internet and mobile banking can be provided with India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) in near future.

    2. Postal Life Insurance (PLI)

    Overview:

    • PLI introduced in 1884, is one of the oldest life insurance schemes for benefit of Government and semi-Government employees.
    • Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) , introduced on March 24,1995.
    • At the end on March 31,2017, there were 46.8 lakh PLI and 146.8 lakh RPLI policies across the country.
    Table contain shows the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) And Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI)
    Sl No.PLIRPLI
    1.Whole Life Assurance (Suraksha)Whole Life Assurance (Gram Suraksha)
    2.Endowment Assurance (Santosh)Endowment Assurance (Gram Santosh)
    3.Convertible Whole Life Assurance (Suvidha)Convertible Whole Life Assurance (Gram Suvidha)
    4.Anticipated Endowment Assurance (Sumangal)Anticipated Endowment Assurance (Gram Sumangal)
    5.Joint Life Assurance (Yugal Suraksha)10 Years RPLI (Gram Priya)
    6.Children Policy (Bal Jeevan Bima)Children Policy (Bal Jeevan Bima)

    Initiatives:

    (i) Increase in Sum Assured Limit of PLI⟋RPLI policies: The maximum limit of life insurance (sum assured) has been increased to ₹ 50 lakhs in case of PLI and ₹ 10 lakh in respect of RPLI policies.

    (ii) Technology Induction: All the PLI⟋RPLI operations have been automated under the FSI project.

    (iii) Expansion of Clientele Base of PLI: Benefits of PLI will no more be confined to Government and semi-Government employees, but will also be available to various professionals.

    (iv) Launch of Sampoorna Bima Gram (SBG) Yojana: At least one village (having a minimum of 100 households) has been identified in each of the revenue districts of the country.

    The bonus rates given above are highest in Indian life insurance industry.

    (iii) Growth in Asset Under Management (AUM) ⟋Investment Functions of PLI⟋RPLI Fund:

    Impacts:

  • A significant step towards providing affordable life insurance coverage of Postal Life Insurance (PLI) to professionals.
  • Sampoorna Bima Gram (SBG) linking with Saansad Adarsh Gram will result in increase in insurance penetration in India along with enhanced financial inclusion.

    3. Leveraging Post Offices as Passport Seva Kendra

    Overview:

    • The Ministry of External Affairs has 38 Passport Offices and 93 Passport Seva Kendras operating across the country to provide these services to the applicants.
    • Setup 235 Post Offices Passport Seva Kendra in various parts of country in a phased manner out of which 86 POPSKs will be set up in 1st phase and 149 POPSKs will be set up in 2nd phase.

    Key Results: Around 3.75 lakh passport appointments have been processed through these POPSKs.

    Challenges:

    • Identifying and making available Verifying Officer (VO) and Granting Officer (GO) in every POPSK.
    • To open a POPSK at every 50 kilometers
    • Financials to be formalized.
    • Project to be institutionalized by way of MoU between DoP and MEA.
    • Upgradation of POPSKs from camp mode to full-fledged Passport Seva Kendra

    4. CPMG, Ahmedabad: Success Story

    (I) Collection of the Examination & Recruitment fee under e-Payment:

    Initiatives:

  • Gujarat Govt. had implemented e. Governance Project.
  • Gujarat Circle approached to Govt. of Gujarat for offering our e-Payment service.
  • NIC, Gandhinagar created OJAS (Online Job Application System) Web Portal.
  • With Co-ordination of NIC and State Government, MIS System has been developed & created User-IDs and Password.

(II) Distribution of Prize Money to the Winners of Khel Mahakumbh through e-Money Order:

Overview:

  • Khel-Mahakumbh is a prestigious annual sporting competition conducted every year since 2010.
  • The Prize money to the winner of Event were being distributed since 2010 through relevant Coach Manager⟋Institute⟋School etc. In the year, 2014 it was with ICICI Bank.

(III) Distribution of Scholarship:

Overview: There were 2,64, 621 Scholarship accounts opened in different post offices of Gujarat Circle.

5. CPMG, Karnataka Circle: Success Story

Overview:

  • The system was aimed at booking at centralized office, dispatching of the consignments to the delivery post office and updating the status of delivery or otherwise on the same day of receipt.
  • The delivery area of 94 PINCODEs are covered by 39 Nodal Delivery Centre՚s in Bangalore for delivery of the consignments.

Impacts:

  • The above arrangement has given a platform to the DOP to establish its strength for the SAME DAY DELIVERY.
  • 3.5 Crore revenue is earned from SAME DAY DELIVERY.

6. O⟋o CPMG, West Bengal: Success Story

Overview: E Commerce:

  • To cater to the demands of the market, the Circle has introduced parcel delivery for its corporate E commerce clients.
  • Mechanized delivery of parcels and large Speed Post articles are being done at the doorstep of the addressee by using vehicles.

Initiatives: E-Commerce:

  • The circle has also embarked upon providing one stop solution to its E-commerce customers by setting up E-commerce hub at Nabadiganta.
  • Infrastructure was upgraded wherever required to support the software.

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Examrace Team at Aug 27, 2021