India Post – Coming soon, money orders via SMS.
Trials have already been completed and they are in final stages of service rollout. Here is a good news for the customers of postal services. Now, the money orders will become hassle-free and can be disbursed via an SMS. The trials are completed and the services are expected to be launched soon.
The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has developed a customized application to facilitate money order service to 155,000 post offices across India. BSNL is the technology enabler and this service will remain operator neutral.
Speaking to CIOL, BSNL CMD RK Upadhyay said that they are working as per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the department of post (DoP). “We are in the final stages of service rollout” he informed.
The government initially chose Bihar and Punjab to initiate the service since a lot of immigrant workers hail from these states.
India Posts secretary Manjula Prasher had on an earlier occasion told CIOL that mobile money orders would be a good initiative to help immigrant workers who remit money to their home states.
The project will empower designated post offices with mobile devices that have pre-embedded the application. While transferring, the remittance senders’ need to furnish basic details that includes receivers’ mobile number.
The receiver will get a 16-digit transaction code via SMS from which money can be claimed from a local post office. The government has planned to allow instant money order service up to Rs. 50,000.
