Courier companies are worried over the impact of the proposed Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2002, on their business prospects. The proposed amendments, they fear, will monopolize express delivery of letters and documents with the Department of Posts, hitting their business.
Read MoreIndiapost, the postal service under the Union communications ministry, is readying to slug it out with the private sector to grab a larger market share. To take the fight right into competitors territory, Indiapost will set up call centres. So next time you have to send a consignment, just dial a hotline number.
Indiapost is experimenting with outsourcing few of its operations relating to mailing of consignments which can be handled by private call centres.
Read MoreEmployees of the postal department are planning a sustained protest against the Government’s move to amend the Indian Post Office Act, 1898. The proposed amendment is apparently intended to throw the postal sector open to private operators and, according to the postal unions, is a direct fall-out of the policy of “blind liberalisation and privatisation”.
Read MoreThe government is considering a review of the subsidy on postal services and products. At present, a plain postcard priced Re 0.50 is subsidised by Rs 5.55, while printed post cards carry a subsidy of Rs 3.81. As a part of the government policy, postal services in India are highly subsidised
Read MoreFor 138 years, India’s colonial-era postal network has had low-paid mail carriers and a creaky infrastructure.
Now, the government hopes that throguh creative marketing and wireless technology it will get the mail where it needs to be and on time.
On Monday, India’s postal service was thrown open for the first time to advertisements, giving private companies the chance to have their message splashed across mailboxes and postcards, even on mail carriers’ uniforms.
India has the world’s largest postal network, with 158,000 post offices and 525,000 mailboxes serving more than 1 billion people. Yet not much about its methods have changed since it was founded by the British in 1864 including the color of its red mailboxes. The government now wants to shake off that colonial legacy – beginning with the mailboxes, which can be painted in any color advertisers want.
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