| |
V Shankar Aiyar
|
|
. |
|
AU CONTRAIYAR
email@villagepostoffice
Last week
the women of Nayla in Rajasthan who celebrated Holi and danced
with Bill Clinton during his March visit, provided the expose of the year.
In a letter to the US President--- with a rakhi enclosed---they revealed
that the Rajasthan Government virtually pulled a fast one on him, the
media and the villagers. The truth: forget net connection, the village
is not even connected by phone.
One could view this as a typical instance of the Government's functioning.
After all Indians are used to tricks like roads being quick-fixed and
cleaned just before a VIP show. The Nayla instance takes this a bit further.
One could sit back and lament the duplicity of the powers that be. Or
one could view it as an opportunity to e-connect villages.
Sounds implausible? Consider this: India Post is the world's largest postal
service. It boasts of 1,53,041 post offices (as of 1998). Of these, 1,37,043
are in the rural areas and 15,998 are in urban centres. Using 1,39,438
delivery post offices and 5,58,659 letter boxes, the postal department
services 634,321 villages and 4,689 towns. Step back a moment. What do
you need to connect these villages by internet and email? A telephone
connection, a net-ready computer, a simple scanner and a printer. First
the telephone connections. We assume that each of the 4,689 towns will
have a telephone connection and therefore the post office too would have
a working phone. Of the 6,34,321 villages 3.43 villages are (according
to the Government) connected by phone. So at least half the villages could
be e-connected. If a John Doe or Ganga Ram were buying, a net-ready computer
would cost around Rs 25,000 but surely at the volumes India Post would
need the price could easily be brought down. Indeed, if they contact the
Chinese---whose calculators sell on Mumbai streets for Rs 30----the cost
could perhaps be halved. Ditto for scanners (current price Rs 5,000) and
printers (again Rs 5,000).
Juxtapose this with the state of the world's largest postal department---in
terms of efficiency, commercial viability and a road map to the future.
Currently the losses of the postal department are about Rs 1,961.50 crore
(up from Rs 86 crore in 1992-93). Primarily due to inefficient pricing
of postal stationery and operational costs. Just post cards contribute
around Rs 86 crore to the losses. India Post provides post cards at 0.25
paise which translates to a loss of Rs 1.75 per card. That apart most
post cards (and indeed letters) take between three days to a week and
even longer to reach their address.
Clearly the route to both commercial and operational efficiency will have
to be through the internet. How? Suppose post offices are fitted with
a net-ready computer and a scanner. Each post office could have its own
e-mail address (like the PIN code) both for sending and receiving mail.
Of course, keyboard literacy would be an issue which is where the scanners
come in. The villagers bring in their letters, have them scanned and sent
to whoever at the relevant post office's e-mail address. At the receiving
end, the post office would simply print the scanned letter and have it
delivered. Those keen on mail privacy could open individual accounts.
They could visit the post office at designated hours, access mail and
take prints home.
For starters, the mail would reach the addresses faster than any other
medium. Secondly, the cost of stationery---cards, inland letters and envelopes---now
provided by the department would be cut. But the third and more important
change would be the cutting down of operational costs as sorting and physical
deliveries would be limited to the area of the post offices. Sure, the
capital cost would be huge but savings could compensate for costs. Also
the proposed corporatisation would enable the department to leverage assets
and raise funds for technology upgradation.
Once in place, the network could also be used for the financial services
provided by the postal department. These include 100 million savings accounts
serviced by 1,46,000 branches (1,25,000 in rural India) with an
outstanding balance of Rs 1,05,000 crore. Add Rural Postal Life Insurance
boasting of 2.5 million policies with an assured sum in excess of Rs 8,000
crore. Once established, the reach of the network would be an automatic
data base choice for the growing numbers of mutual funds, the newly opened
insurance sector and any marketing effort. Not just that. The network
could also tap the potential of net telephony, now inevitable.
Indeed, the world's largest communications set up would then be ready
to take on the best brands in the business. All that the Government needs
to do then is float an IPO - both on Nasdaq and Dalal Street. Not just
Nayla but every village in the country could thus be e-connected. From
being a drag on resources, India Post could in the coming years be transformed
into a paying proposition. Any takers?
(V
Shankar Aiyar is Associate Editor, INDIA TODAY. He is based in Mumbai.
Write to V. Shankar
Aiyar.)
|
