Watches and gold coins for sale at post offices being displayed at Yogayog Bhavan

Walk into a post office next year and chances are you will be able to post your bio-data on a job portal, recharge your mobile SIM card, buy gold coins and pick up a wristwatch.

In an age when mail to the urban populace is no longer what the postman delivers, India Post is exploring avenues to stay relevant and use its vast network to increase revenue while harnessing technology to improve existing services.

“The post office of 2017 will not be the same as what you walk into today just as today’s post office is different from that of 2007. We need to stay in tune with the demands of the environment,” said B.V. Sudhakur, postmaster general, business development, West Bengal circle, announcing a slew of measures.

Some changes have already taken place. Admitting that revenue from traditional products was dwindling, Sudhakur said offering e-products was the solution. E-money orders have been launched for transfer of cash at the click of a button.

“Earlier, one had to wait for the physical delivery of cash. Now if one books a money order in Calcutta using a credit or a debit card, the information is transmitted electronically and the money handed over to the recipient by a post office in Kerala or Kashmir within hours without any extra charge. Transporters especially are making use of this facility.”

Some facilities are set to be available at select post offices from January 5. One such, as reported earlier by Metro, is SIM card recharge for BSNL customers. Another is the sale of job cards that will enable a job seeker to upload his biodata on to a job portal called icodecity.com for a one-time fee of Rs 300. “Neither the company nor the person needs to pay again on recruitment,” said Sudhakur.

One profitable path identified is the sale of gold coins. Some post offices have been retailing gold coins since 2008 on auspicious occasions, in association with Reliance Money. “Sales are doubling year on year ever since we started out. Till November we have already sold 21.17kg, yielding us a commission of Rs 23 lakh. Our target is 50-75kg by March. So we have decided not to wait for occasions but create opportunities ourselves. We are targeting spending periods like the months when government employees get dearness allowance arrears and the year-end,” Sudhakur explained.

Watches from HMT, a central government public sector undertaking, will also be sold from five post offices in Calcutta. The prices will range from Rs 325 to Rs 3,000.

Following Andhra Pradesh, the Bengal circle is set to launch Tech Seva. “This is a software which sends an SMS to a person as soon as a speed post or a money order is booked in his name. Postmen are increasingly finding empty homes while delivering letters and parcels, resulting in delays. The message will ask the person to be present at the address on the delivery day or collect it later from the post office,” Sudhakur said.

An automatic mail processing centre will soon be set up at the airport post office. “From March, it will sort 8 lakh business mails per day, so that delivery time is reduced.”

On the drawing board are two more projects. One is an e-commerce portal, whereby, say, a silk sari vendor in Murshidabad can reach his product to a client in Mumbai using the postal delivery service and collect the price paid by the client on the site from his local post office.

Another is Core Banking — the networking of all post offices in India. “This way people with accounts in post offices would be able to transact even while travelling. Postal accounts can then be operated from any branch, like in banks.”