Bangalore, March 18 (IANS) State-run India Post has selected Infosys Ltd to build and manage a platform for its rural operations across the country, the IT bellwether said Monday.
“The technology tie-up will enable the postal department to enhance its services to the rural population and streamline distribution of its social benefits,” the global software major said in a statement here.
The company will build a rural systems integration platform that will transform its operations for efficient delivery of services.
“We are also partnering with India Post to transform its financial services operations and end-user experience under the financial services system integration programme,” Infosys’ vice-president and head of its India business C.N. Raghupathi said in the statement.
The twin projects are part of the department’s modernisation programme to bring transparency, agility, flexibility and scalability to its business operations.
The projects will empower postal employees to deliver services efficiently to rural communities using the latest technology and position the department as a key agent in the government’s inclusive growth policies.
“We will develop a service delivery platform (SDP) by leveraging solutions such as mConnect, TruSync and Finacle Inclusion to enable 130,000 rural post offices to offer online services and connect an equal number (130,000) of handheld devices used by its rural staff to distribute social benefits under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Act and process electronic money orders,” Raghupathi observed.
As the backbone of the country’s communication, India Post touches lives of millions of citizens in many ways — delivering mails, accepting deposits under small savings schemes, providing life insurance cover under postal life insurance and rural postal life insurance and providing retail services like bill collection and sale of forms.
“India Post has been a key driver of the country’s socio-economic development for over 150 years. This partnership will give us an opportunity to promote inclusive growth by helping to deliver services more efficiently to all citizens,” Raghupathi added.
The department of posts also acts as an agent for government to deliver other services for citizens such as wage disbursement and old age pension payments.
With 1 55,015 post offices across the country, the department has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.
