India Post needs to be reformed
India Post should be reformed to offer more meaningful role in the new economy, said speakers at a two-day seminar on India Post-2010 organised by World Bank, Department of Post, Indian government and India Invest Economic Foundation.
The Indian postal network with 1,54,000 offices and over 10 lakh employees, can play a vital role in inter-connecting the country to provide upgraded payments system and e-governance, said speakers like chairman of OASIS Foundation SA Dave, Administrative Staff College principal EAS Sharma, IDBI Principal MD Sanjay Sachdev, ICICI Bank Joint MD Chanda Kochhar and Regional director (Asia Pacific) Transend Worldwide Limited among others. They suggested to evolve a prudential regulation for India Post before it diversifies into financial and other related sector.
Chief economic advisor to the finance ministry Ashok Lahiri said a prudential norm with proper regulatory body needed to be put in place before venturing into financial sectors and other e-governance space. Recently, OASIS committee suggested that post offices could become pension administrators. It is also selling financial products. IDBI Principal had tied up with India Post for distributing their mutual funds products.
Speakers also suggested to change the structure of India Post. Lahiri said that postal services have been successfully privatised in the country like Denmark, Sweden and England. In Bhutan, it has been corporatised.
World Bank V-P (South Asia) Mieko Nishimizu said postal reforms had become imperative in view of enlarged social security.
