GOVT IS ADAMANT, NOT BOTHERING ABOUT MAIL DETERIORATION AND UNWARRANTED DELAY IN DELIVERY BY OPTING OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

Thursday 16 June 2011

Govt. is adamant, not bothering about mail deterioration and unwarranted delay in delivery by opting optimization process

We have no other alternative except to strengthen struggles to save postal service.

MAIL OPERATIONS BEING REVAMPED AND TRANSFORMED IN PHASED MANNER

The meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was held here today to discuss the Mail Network Optimization Project of Department of Posts. In his opening remarks Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and Information Technology said that Department of Posts decided to revamp mail operations in line with the international best practices and include a project in the 11th Five Year Plan for consolidation and optimization of the existing mail network. The completion of project would result in improved mail related services to the public.

The need for optimization of the mail network was felt to address the problems of fragmented mail network, functional duplicity, change in mail profile, development in air and road transport, customer demands and induction of technology.

The project seeks to improve the quality of mail operations by Optimization and consolidation of mail operation network across the country.

Greater standardization of processes followed in mail operations.

Identification, evaluation and implementation of appropriate technology in mail processes.

Optimization of mail delivery processes.

Effective performance management mechanism through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

In the first phase Speed post and International mail have been covered but project would cover all kind of mail in phased manner. Under the redesigned Speed Post Operational network, 89 Sorting hubs and 68 Intra- Circle hubs across the country have been created taking into account factors such as volume of mail, distance between Post Office and proposed hub, transmission options etc.

Members of the committee who attended the meeting emphasized the need and importance of post offices in the life of rural population and young generation and urged to open new post offices in view of greater need and public demand.*****

INFOSYS PIPS TCS TO CLINCH POSTAL CONTRACT

Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest information technology (IT) services company, is understood to have bagged the first of the Department of Post's IT modernisation contracts.

The Bangalore-based company pipped its bigger domestic rival, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to clinch India Post's 'rural information and communications technology (ICT) system integrator (SI)' contract, worth about Rs 100 crore.

Infosys declined to comment, while the India Post official concerned could not be reached despite repeated attempts. India Post is embarking on a massive IT modernization programme under the 'India Post 2011' plan. As part of this, the department has split the programme into eight projects.

According to highly-placed sources, the department has already issued requests for proposals for six contracts. The 'rural ICT SI' contract is said to be the first of the eight contracts. According to the terms of the contract, Infosys will be responsible for enabling the Gramin Dak Sewak post office to perform e-transactions.

The department has the largest postal network in the world, with 155,669 post offices. About 89 per cent of these are in rural areas, according to its website. So far, only 12,604 head post offices and sub-post offices have been computerised.

Ever since Infosys established a separate business to focus on the domestic IT outsourcing market, it has been aggressively participating and winning government contracts. It is working with the income tax department in managing the centralised processing centre that processes all electronically-filed returns and a part of the paper filings. The project recently bagged the Gold award in "excellence in government process re-engineering" at the 14th National e-Governance Conference. India contributes about two per cent to Infosys' total revenue.

Meanwhile, the bidding process for India Post's Rs 1,000-crore 'core system integrator' contract is on.

This is touted as the largest of the eight contracts. Capgemini, Accenture, IBM, HP, TCS, Infosys, HCL and Wipro are some companies believed to be participating in the contract, expected to be finalised in two months.

India Posts' IT modernisation initiative is expected to create over Rs 5,000-crore opportunities for IT services and hardware companies.

Source : Business Standard June 14, 2011.