The Department of Posts,

d/b/a A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

India Post, is an Indian

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

postal system The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

statutory body headquartered in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is an organisation under the

Ministry of Communications A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities include regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. The ...

. It is the most widely distributed postal system in the world, and

is the country that has the largest number of

post offices Post, POST, or posting may refer to: Postal services * Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries ** An Post, the Irish national postal service ** Canada Post, Canadian postal service ** Deutsche Post, German posta ...

in the world. It is involved in delivering mail (post), remitting money by money orders, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance coverage under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. Apart from delivering services to general public and corporates, India Post is also proud custodian of a rich heritage of postal buildings that echo the historical evolution and architectural grandeur of bygone eras. India Post has declared 44 heritage buildings so far.

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...

had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into a service under the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

in 1854 by

Lord Dalhousie James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), known as the Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and colonial administrator in British India. He served as Governor-Ge ...

. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates (

universal service Universal service is an economic, legal and business term used mostly in regulated industries, referring to the practice of providing a baseline level of services to every resident of a country. An example of this concept is found in the US Tel ...

) and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country. The DoP also acts as an agent for the Indian government in discharging other services for citizens such as old age pension payments and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement. With 164,972 post offices (as of March 2024), India Post is the widest postal network in the world. The country has been divided into 23 postal circles, each circle headed by a Chief Postmaster General. Each circle is divided into regions, headed by a Postmaster General and comprising field units known as Divisions. These divisions are further divided into subdivisions. In addition to the 23 circles, there is a base circle to provide postal services to the Armed Forces of India headed by a Director General. One of the highest post offices in the world is in

Hikkim Hikkim is a village in Lahaul and Spiti district in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh at an elevation of . It is from Kaza, the nearest town connected by road. It is one of the highest year-round inhabited locations in India, with ...

, At 4,400m above sea level in northern India's remote Spiti Valley, the Hikkim post office is a vital connection to the outside world.

History

Posts and the British Raj (1858–1947)

The

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

was transferred to the Crown. A number of acts were enacted during the

to expand and regulate posts and telegraphs service: *The Government Savings Bank Act, 1873 (5 of 1873), passed by the legislature 28 January 1873, was enacted in 1881. On 1 April 1882, Post Office Savings Banks opened throughout India (except in the Bombay Presidency). In

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

, it was limited; in the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

, no POSBs were established in Calcutta or Howrah. *Postal life insurance began on 1 February 1884 as a welfare measure for the employees of the Posts & Telegraphs Department as Government of India dispatch No. 299 dated 18 October 1882 to the Secretary of State. *The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 *The Indian Post Office Act, 1898, passed by the legislature on 22 March 1898, became effective on 1 July 1898 regulating postal service. It was preceded by Act III of 1882 and Act XVI of 1896. *The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 The world's first official airmail flight took place in India on 18 February 1911, a journey of lasting 27 minutes. Henri Pequet, a French pilot, carried about of mail (approximately 6,000 letters and cards) across the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

from

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

to Naini; included in the airmail was a letter to King

George V of the United Kingdom George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

. India Post inaugurated a floating post office in August 2011 at Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir. Telegraphy and telephony made their appearance as part of the postal service before becoming separate departments. One unique

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

office was established and operated in the capital of

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

until the People's Republic of China's annexation of Tibet. The Posts and Telegraphs departments merged in 1914, later separated again on 1 January 1985.

After independence in 1947

Since India became independent in 1947, the postal service continues to function on a nationwide basis, providing a variety of services. The structure of the organization has the directorate at its apex; below it are circle offices, regional offices, the superintendent's offices, head post offices, sub-post offices and branch offices. In April 1959, the Indian Postal Department adopted the motto "Service before help"; it revised its logo in September 2008. Yogayog Bhawan 1

The number of post offices was 23,344 when India became independent in 1947 and these were primarily in urban areas. The number increased to 165,000 2025 and 90% of these were in rural areas.

Postage-stamp history

First adhesive stamps in Asia

The first adhesive

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s in Asia were issued in the Indian district of Scinde in July 1852 by Bartle Frere, chief commissioner of the region. Frere was an admirer of

Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solu ...

, the English postal reformer who had introduced the Penny Post. The Scinde stamps became known as "

Scinde Dawk Scinde Dawk () was a postal system of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh, an area of present-day Pakistan. The term also refers to the first adhesive postage stamps in Asia, the forerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughout Indi ...

s"; "Dawk" is the Anglicised spelling of the Hindustani word ''Dak'' or ("post"). These stamps, with a value of -anna, were in use until June 1866. The first all-India stamps were issued on 1 October 1854.

Stamps issued by the East India Company

The volume of mail moved by the postal system increased significantly, doubling between 1854 and 1866 and doubling again by 1871. The Indian Post Office Act, 1866 (XIV) introduced reforms by 1 May 1866 to correct some of the more obvious postal-system deficiencies and abuses. Postal-service efficiencies were also introduced. In 1863, lower rates were set for "steamer" mail to Europe at (six annas, eight pies for a -ounce letter). Lower rates were also introduced for inland mail. New regulations removed special postal privileges enjoyed by officials of the East India Company. Stamps for official use were prepared and carefully accounted for, to combat abuses by officials. In 1854 Spain had printed special stamps for official communications, but in 1866 India was the first country to adopt the expedient of

overprint An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a Postage stamp, postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or Ticket (admission), ticket after it has been Printing, printed. Post offices most often use ...

ing "Service" on postage stamps and "Service Postage" on revenue stamps. This innovation was later widely adopted by other countries. Shortages developed, so stamps also had to be improvised. Some "Service Postage" overprinted rarities resulted from abrupt changes in postal regulations. New designs for the four-anna and six-anna-eight-

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...

stamps were issued in 1866. Nevertheless, there was a shortage of stamps to meet the new rates. Provisional six-anna stamps were improvised by cutting the top and bottom from a current foreign-bill

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...

and overprinting "Postage". India was the first country in the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

to issue airmail stamps.

Post-independence stamps

India attained independence on 15 August 1947. Thereafter, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Department embarked on a broad-based policy for the issuance of stamps. On 21 November 1947 the first new stamp was issued by independent India. It depicts the Indian flag with the patriots' slogan, '' Jai Hind'' ("long live India"), at the top right-hand corner. The stamp was valued at three and one-half annas. A memorial to

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

was issued 15 August 1948 on the first anniversary of independence. One year later a definitive series appeared, depicting India's broad cultural heritage (primarily

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

and Jain temples, sculptures, monuments and fortresses). A subsequent issue commemorated the beginning of the

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by ...

on 26 January 1950. Definitives included a technology-and-development theme in 1955, a series depicting a map of India in 1957 (denominated in '' naya paisa''—decimal currency) and a 1965 series with a wide variety of images. The old inscription "India Postage" was replaced in 1962 with ''"भारत INDIA"'', although three stamps (issued from December 1962 to January 1963) carried the earlier inscription. India has printed stamps and postal stationery for other countries, mostly neighbours. Countries which have had stamps printed in India include

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(before independence),

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

.Saksena, V. (1989), pp. 86–8. The country has issued definitive and commemorative stamps. Six definitive series on India's heritage and progress in a number of fields have been issued. The seventh series, with a theme of science and technology, began in 1986. Between independence and 1983, 770 stamps were issued.

Losses

The postal department has always been the biggest loss-making entity in India, surpassing others like the

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

and BSNL, with an annual loss to the exchequer to the tune of ₹15,000 crore in the fiscal year 2019, and amounting to ₹15,541 crore in the calendar year 2020. The following table shows losses incurred by the postal department over the years.

The

Postal Index Number A Postal Index Number (PIN; sometimes redundantly a PIN code) refers to a six-digit code in the Indian postal code system used by India Post. On 15 August 2022, the PIN system celebrated its 50th anniversary. History The PIN system was introd ...

(PIN, or sometimes redundantly PIN code) is a six-digit

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

. The PIN system was made by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar when he was at service in Kolkata. It was introduced on 15 August 1972 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There are nine postal zones in the country; the first eight are geographical regions, and the ninth is reserved for the Army Postal Service (APS905898). The PIN system is organised in the following way: * The first digit indicates the zone. * The first two digits indicate the sub-zone (or postal circle). * The first three digits indicate a sorting district. * The first four digits indicate a service route. * The last two digits indicate the delivery post office. The PIN for an address may be found on the Postal Service website. There are total of 19,101 PINs covering 154,725 post offices in India, with the exception of the Army Postal Service, 2014.

Digital Address Code

Indian post proposed a 10 digit unique identification number to each and every address in India based on geo coordinates called DIGIPIN. Digital Address Code (DAC) will be assigned to all types of addresses in the country ranging from independent houses, individual building, every flat in the given apartment, every shop in a commercial building and every individual unit in an office complex. Draft approach paper on Digital Address Code was issued by Indian Post for public comments. Here you can find links of third party app to get DIGIPIN Android
Find Digipin
iOS
Find Digipin

Project Arrow

Project Arrow was launched in April 2008. The project plans to upgrade post offices in urban and rural areas, improving service and appearance into a vibrant and responsive organization and to make a visible and positive difference. The project aims to create an effective, friendly environment for staff and customers, providing secure IT services and improving mail delivery, remittances (electronic and manual) and postal-savings plans. Core areas for improvement are branding, information technology, human resources and infrastructure. The project to improve service has been implemented in more than 23,500 post offices, and 'look and feel' improvements have been made in 2,940 post offices. The Department of Posts received th
Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration
during 2008–09 for "Project Arrow – Transforming India Post" on 21 April 2010. Multipurpose counter machines with computers were introduced in post offices in 1991 to improve customer service and increase staff productivity. 25,000 departmental post offices out of 25,464 were computerized between as of 2011–2012. In 2012, a plan costing was formulated to computerize rural post offices.

Services

Philately

The first philatelic Society in India was founded in Calcutta on 6 March 1897 to service postage-stamp collections. Function include design, printing and distribution of special or commemorative postage stamps, definitive postage stamps and items of postal stationery, promotion of philately, conduct of philatelic examinations at the national level, participation in international exhibitions and monitoring exhibitions at the state, regional and district levels and maintenance of the National Philatelic Museum. Philatelic bureaus were established in head post offices located at circle headquarters and at district-capital head post offices (as necessary). There are 68 philately bureaus and 1111 philatelic counters, including all head post offices (''Mukhya Dak Ghars'') in the country as of 31 March 2011. A domestic philatelic deposit-account system was introduced on 1 August 1965 at all philatelic bureaus. Customers are given priority in purchasing commemorative or special-issue stamps, first-day covers and information sheets soon after their issue by opening a deposit account at any philatelic bureau. The number of philately deposit-accountholders grew from 23,905 in 1999–2000 to 168,282 in 2006–2007 and 183,202 in 2008–2009. Four philatelic bureaux—the

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

and Parliament Street, New Delhi GPOs are authorized to sell United Nations stamps. A quarterly philatelic magazine, ''Philapost'', was launched in 2008. The Department of Post has also developed software for philatelic inventory management, known as "Philsim". It is used for all activities relating to philately, including forecasting, indenting, invoicing, monitoring supply and demand and recording sales and revenue for commemorative stamps and other philatelic products at philately bureaus and counters (and definitive stamps and stationery at circle stamp depots and head post offices). The National Philatelic Museum was inaugurated on 6 July 1968 in New Delhi. It had its beginnings at a meeting of the Philatelic Advisory Committee on 18 September 1962. Besides a large collection of India Postage stamps designed, printed and issued, it has a large collection of Indian states (confederate and feudatory), early essays, proofs and colour trials, a collection of Indian stamps used abroad, early Indian postcards, postal stationery and thematic collections. The museum was renovated in 2009 with more exhibits, a philatelic bureau and postal objects (such as Victorian post boxes). The Department of Posts inaugurated the National Philatelic Museum on 11 July 2011. It exhibits rare postage stamps from around the world and provides a venue for philatelists to exhibit their collections.

Army Postal Service

The Army Postal Service (APS) functions as a government-operated military mail system in India. A primary feature of Army Postal Service systems is that normally they are subsidized to ensure that military mail posted between duty stations abroad and the home country (or vice versa) does not cost the sender any more than normal domestic mail traffic. In some cases, Indian military personnel in a combat zone may post letters and/or packages to the home country for free, while in others, senders located in a specific overseas area may send military mail to another military recipient, also located in the same overseas area, without charge.

Electronic Indian Postal Order

The Electronic Indian Postal Order (e-IPO) was introduced on 22 March 2013, initially only for citizens living abroad. The postal orders can be used for

online payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...

of fees for access to information under the

Right to Information Act, 2005 Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

. The service was expanded to include all Indian citizens on 14 February 2014.

Postal Life insurance

Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1 February 1884 with the express approval of the Secretary of State (for India) to Her Majesty, the Queen Empress of India. It was essentially a welfare scheme for th
benefit
of Postal employees in 1884 and later extended to the employees of Telegraph Department in 1888. In 1894, PLI extended insurance cover to female employees of P & T Department at a time when no other insurance company covered female lives. It is the oldest life insurer in this country. There was over 6.4 million policies active as on 31 March 2015 with a sum assured of . Premium income of PLI for the year 2014-15 was . It was extended to all rural residents on 24 March 1995. Policies for government employees include ''Santhosh'' (endowment assurance), ''Suraksha'' (whole-life assurance), ''Suvidha'' (convertible whole-life assurance), ''Sumangal'' (anticipated endowment policy) and ''Yugal Suraksha'' (joint life endowment assurance). India Post started Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) for the rural public in 1995. RPLI plans include ''Gram Santosh'' (endowment assurance), ''Gram Suraksha'' (whole-life assurance), ''Gram Suvidha'' (convertible whole-life assurance), ''Gram Sumangal'' (anticipated endowment assurance) and ''Gram Priya''.

Postal savings

The post office offers a number of savings plans, including

recurring deposit A recurring deposit is a special kind of term deposit in India that is offered by Indian banks and India Post, which helps people with regular incomes to deposit a fixed amount every month into their recurring deposit account and earn interest at ...

accounts, Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) is also known as Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), National Savings Certificates (''NSC''), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), the Public Provident Fund, savings-bank accounts, monthly-income plans, senior-citizens' savings plans and time-deposit accounts.

Banking

In 2013, it was revealed that the Indian postal service had formulated plans to enter the banking industry after RBI guidelines for the issuance of new banking licenses were released. Eventually they are planning to open a Post Bank of India, an independent banking service. As of 29 February 2016, 18,231 post offices are utilizing Core Banking Solutions (CBS). ATMs are installed at 576 Post Office locations and debit cards issued to Post Office Savings Bank customers. Core Insurance Solution (CIS) for Postal Life Insurance (PLI) is rolled out in 808 head post offices and corresponding 24,000+ sub post offices. In September 2017, it was announced that by 2018 all of the 1.55 lakh post offices, every postman and ''grameen dak sevak'' (postmaster) will accept all payment options that the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) plans to provide. On 1 September 2018, the India Post Payments Bank was inaugurated by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

Data collection

A collaboration between the

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is an executive ministry of the Government of India concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released. The surveys conducted by the Ministry are based on scientifi ...

(MoSPI) and the Department of Posts has enabled the computation of consumer-price indices for rural areas. These statistics were previously unobtainable, due to problems of remoteness and scale. The agreement authorises the postal service to collect data on prices paid for selected consumer goods. In February 2011, MoSPI published its first

Consumer Price Index A consumer price index (CPI) is a statistical estimate of the level of prices of goods and services bought for consumption purposes by households. It is calculated as the weighted average price of a market basket of Goods, consumer goods and ...

(CPI) and All-India Consumer Price Index. The information has since been published monthly, based on data available from 1,181 villages across the country.

E-commerce delivery

The boom in e-commerce and the surging number of cash-on-delivery consignments has led India Post to partner with major e-commerce portals for delivering pre-paid as well as

cash on delivery Cash on delivery (COD), sometimes called payment on delivery, cash on demand, payment on demand or collect on delivery is the sale of goods by mail order where payment is made on delivery rather than in advance. If the goods are not paid for, th ...

(COD) parcels. According to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, revenue of India Post from such deliveries would go up to in the year 2015–16.

Other services

Other services include: * Post boxes and post bags for mail receipt * Speed Post * Identity cards for proof of residence * India Post ATM * RMS ( Railway Mail Service) * Post office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) * Aadhaar Enrollment and Updation. * Western Union. * Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance. *

Savings Bank A savings bank is a financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive interest. Savings banks ha ...

(SB/RD/TD/MIS/SCSS/PPF/SSA) * Savings Cash Certificates. * India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). * Stamp Sales.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Postal organizations Postal Postal system of India Philately of India 1854 establishments in India