Tag: India

India Department of Posts to mechanise sorting system

Posted by | Jan 11, 2008 | |

As part of modernisation drive, the Department of Posts (DoP) will mechanise its sorting system in metros and other cities, set up national mail grid and take four aircraft on lease to deliver mails in the quickest possible time.

“Currently, Chennai and Mumbai Circles have machines that are 10 years old and have not reached their full capacity. Besides, they do not have higher capacity. With manual intervention around 2,000 mails are being sorted out in seven and a half hours daily, whereas the sorting machines in Italy and the U.S. have capacities to sort out around 40,000 to 50,000 mails a day,” Postal Services Board Member (Operation and Marketing) K. Noorjehan told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Apart from China, Postal Services departments in major countries use both bar-coding and optical character recognition (OCR) method to sort out mails. India will use both technologies, since it has several languages and character recognition is complicated in certain cases.

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GeoPost to buy 60 pc stake in Delhi-based Continental Air Express

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Paris-based GeoPost Intercontinental is buying a 60pct stake in Continental Air Express for Euro 4, 00,000 through preferential allotment of equity. GeoPost, a Paris-based firm with a turnover of close to Euro 3,000 million in 2006, is engaged in B-2-B express parcel deliveries. The promoters of Continental Air Express – Vipin and Vaibhav Vohra- and GeoPost will invest an additional e 4 million in the ratio of their shareholding 40pct:60pct, respectively.

According to a recent E&Y study, India’s logistics market is pegged at USD 40 billion and is expected to grow at 15-20pct over the next 5 years. At present, only 25pct of the total logistics business is outsourced while the rest is handled by companies in-house.

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Western Union Launches 50,000th Agent Location in India

Posted by | Jan 7, 2008 | |

The Western Union Company announced the opening of its 50,000th Agent location in India at the State Bank of India branch in Gurgaon, Haryana. To mark the occasion, Hikmet Ersek, EVP and MD, Western Union Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia (EMEASA), joined Gautam Kanjilal, Chief General Manager (Delhi), State Bank of India, for a special inauguration ceremony.

Western Union, together with its affiliates, Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, is a leading provider of global money-transfer services. Consumer demand for Western Union services has grown due to a rise in long-term global migration trends, which have resulted in increasing cross-border remittances. India is one of the world’s largest receivers of remittances with more than 26.9 USD billion remitted into India in 2006-2007, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

“India offers immense growth potential in the money-transfer business, and with the launch of the 50,000th location we re-emphasize our commitment to our customers in the country,” Hikmet Ersek said. “Money transfer is a very unique way of participating in the growth and development of a nation, especially in India where Indian Diaspora income is regularly channeled back into the country. Together with our Agents we aim to contribute to the development of the country by delivering fast and reliable money-transfer services to our customers. ”

Gautam Kanjilal, Chief General Manager (Delhi), SBI, said, “We highly value our relationship with Western Union and look forward to delivering even better services to our customers by working closely together.”

Speaking at the inauguration event, Anil Kapur, MD-South Asia, Western Union Services India Private Limited, said: “Western Union is expanding its services in India by increasing our reach as well as adding value to our service offerings. In November 2007, we announced a pilot Mobile Money Transfer Project in association with Bharti Airtel.”

Western Union has 50,000 Agent locations in India spanning over 5,000 cities, towns and villages. This includes more than 8,500 post offices and more than 14,000 branches of leading banks.

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India Post and Emirates Post launch 'International Express Money Order' through postal network

Posted by | Jan 6, 2008 | |

Mr. I.M.G. Khan, Director General of India Post and Mr. Ibrahim Karam Ali Bin Karam, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Post, recently signed an agreement in Dubai, putting in place a system that will allow UAE residents to transfer money speedily to any part of India through India’s postal network, the largest in the world.

Customers sending money to India through Emirates Post offices will have two options. They can either have the money delivered to the addressee’s residence, or ask the addressee to collect the money from any authorized post office in India. On the other hand, Money Orders sent from India through India Post will be payable at post offices in the UAE.

The agreement stipulates that a single Money Order issued by Emirates Post for payment in India shall not exceed USD 2,500 or its equivalent. It also lays down that only 12 Money Orders addressed to one beneficiary will be allowed in a calendar year. Amounts of less than 50,000 Indian Rupees will be paid in cash, and those exceeding 50,000 Indian Rupees will be payable by cheque.

In India, the electronic Money Orders payable at post office counters will be delivered the same day at main post offices. In the case of Money Orders payable at addresses destination, the delivery will be within two days through the IFS network. Outside the IS network, the delivery will take place within five days.

If the money is sent from India to the UAE, the amount can be collected the same day at Emirates Post offices.

The IFS-based International Express Money Order is a reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use tool and can be installed in the remotest areas of the world. The UPU anticipates that financial services could generate up to 50 per cent of a country’s postal revenue, and by promoting IFS, the dominance of big players could be reduced, thus offering customers, especially migrant workers, a cost-effective system of money transfer.

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Commercialising postal delivery of mail and cargo

Posted by | Jan 3, 2008 | |

The Indian Postal Department, Tamil Nadu, is seriously exploring the commercial and technical viability of starting airport-to-airport mail and cargo transport via road to address the international mail delivery across India.

According to Indira Krishnakumar, Chief Post Master General, Tamil Nadu, the idea was to connect airports and take care of collection, delivery of mail and cargo between airports.

The Postal Department already has a logistic post service connecting several cities with Chennai.

“We have many surface logistic post services, which operate on a daily basis, like Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai- Madurai and Chennai-Coimbatore. In 2006, we earned a revenue of more than Rs 52 lakh through this service and earned Rs 72 lakh till this November,” said T Murthy, Post Master General, Business Development and Marketing.

The computerisation works of post offices across Tamil Nadu are also progressing.

“We have already computerised all head post offices in the State in the first phase. The second phase, covering computerisation of all sub-post offices, will be completed in another two years. The sub-post offices are classified into three categories and the computerisation works of category A have been finished,” K Balasubramaniam, Director, Technology, India Post, said. 1 USD = 39.4138 INR

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