Visitors Wowed by India Post's Range of Services at DICCI Trade Expo in Mumbai

The Post Office may be a much-loved neighbourhood landmark, but the extent of diversity in the products and services offered by this nation-wide network is still largely unknown to the public. It is no surprise then that when India Post introduced itself through a sales counter and a series of information panels at the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI)’s Trade Expo in Mumbai, the visitors were pleasantly surprised to see what was on display.

The 5th Industrial and Trade Expo of DICCI was held at Goregaon Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, from 25-27 March 2016. The Department of Posts (India Post) participated in the fair, by putting up a stall at the event. The stall had two counters – the first one dedicated to the MY STAMP product, and the other to the promotion of premium products and sale of philatelic items.

The first counter garnered quite a bit of attention and excitement from the visitors. The instant print outs of MY STAMP sheets, where one could get oneself pictured on a sheet of postage stamp, delighted them and raised their curiosity. Many of them were unaware about this unique personalisation venture of India Post. The helpful postal staff were ready with explanations and clarifications on the procedure of acquiring MY STAMP. The initial reaction of the visitors was typically surprise, which soon gave way to appreciation, and even pride in such an endeavour from the Post Office, which was an institution they all had faith in. For the India Post team led by Abhishek Jain, the Senior Superintendent of Mumbai North-West Postal Division, it was a gratifying experience that dozens of successful transactions were made on the spot for MY STAMP.

The second counter was a philatelist’s paradise. It displayed albums of philatelic stamps, stock books, white and black cardboards – everything required by a stamp collector. The twin objectives were to draw the attention of existing philatelists, and also to attract the Gen Y into the fascinating world of stamp collection.

The display boards at the stall showcased the ongoing transformation of the Post Office, wherein Information Technology is being inducted on an unprecedented scale to modernise the postal services. It also elaborated upon the wide spectrum of services offered by the  Post Office, ranging from the post card to Postal Life Insurance.

In the 3 days of the Trade Fair, around 1500 guests visited the India Post stall. A team of Marketing Executives were present from the start to the finish, approaching the guests individually, explaining to and educating them about the role and services of the Department of Posts. This team made it a point to use the opportunity offered by the Trade Expo to spread awareness about the various services on offer at the post offices. Pamphlets and books of various premium products (especially Speed Post), Retail Post, Savings schemes, Atal Pension Yojana, Postal Life Insurance and Sukanya Samridhi Yojana were distributed to the guests at the India Post stall, and also to the general visitors to the Trade Expo. In addition to this, cards were distributed to create awareness about the importance of writing correct pin code for prompt delivery of parcels.

The participation of the Department of Posts in the 5th Industrial and Trade Expo turned out to be hugely successful and productive. It brought forth the extent of trust reposed by the people of the country in this 160-year old institution, and gave an opportunity to the postal staff to reach out to their valued customers in a relaxed context different from the normally busy environs of the post office.

Gole Dak Khana Wins Accolades for Service Quality

The historic Gole Dak Khana post office in New Delhi has won the prestigious ‘Sevottam’ title for service excellence for the second time in a row.

Back in 2008,  Gole Dak Khana - officially known as New Delhi GPO - had created waves, becoming the first Central Government Office in India to achieve the “Sevottam” service delivery excellence standards. This quality benchmark is as per the standard IS 15700: 2005 developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and is an indication of high quality of service. The BIS has now renewed the Sevottam License of the New Delhi GPO up to 2014, after subjecting the post office through a rigorous assessment process, which it passed with flying colours.

“Gole Dak Khana” or the Round Post Office came up in 1934, in the building formerly known as Alexandra Place. Originally a Sub Post Office, it was upgraded to a Head Post Office in 01.01.1948. Surrounded by lush greens, it also served as a hub of social activity for the common man during those transient times. 

Throughout its Sevottam Odyssey, the New Delhi GPO has functioned as a unified organisation, exhibiting strong commitment to providing the customers high quality mail, parcel and related services. There has been a sharp customer focus as envisioned in the Citizen’s Charter of the Department of Posts. Outcome of Post Forum Meetings and customer feedback are regularly scrutinized to assess whether customer expectations are attained. A Sevottam compliant Grievance Redress Mechanism, periodical internal audits and Management Review Meetings are other tools are utilized to monitor the implementation of Service Quality Policy. There is also a continuous effort to re-invent the services according to the changing needs of the 

Possessing an unrivalled ambience and operating through a trained and dedicated work force, Gole Dak Khana is a true role model for any Central Government Office.

Aadhar Enrolments: Why Post Office is the Popular Choice?

- Anurag Priyadarshee*

Of late, post offices across the country have been attracting large crowds eager to enroll themselves for Aadhar. In many post offices enrolment slots for the whole year are already booked and citizens are being advised to book post office appointments for the enrolment in the next year.

Post offices are used to having unmanageable rush of customers off and on, as they keep being entrusted with a variety of assignments due to their unparalleled reach among Indian citizens. People rushing to the post offices for Aadhar enrolment is however significant in view of the fact that post offices are not the only agency engaged in this work. Despite the fact that banks, state governments agencies and other institutions are also offering this service, people are seen distinctly preferring the post offices to get themselves enrolled for Aadhar.

Raghavendra Rao and his friends in Bangalore, for instance, have got appointment for Aadhar enrolment at the post office in February next year. He is quoted by Bangalore Mirror in its 6 September 2011 issue mentioning that he would wait for his turn and get registered at the post office only. He and his friends do not want to go anywhere else for this purpose even if his turn may come much faster there.

Such loyalty to the Post Office is a vindication of the pro-people culture and environment nurtured and evolved at post offices over a century and a half. While people, especially those belonging to the under-privileged strata, find it intimidating to attend a bank branch or other government office, they feel at ease while transacting at the post offices. The Post Office as an institution is more deeply rooted in various local social structures than any other similar institution, whether public or private. This rich ‘bridging’ social capital is being leveraged while offering schemes such as Aadhar enrolment at post offices.

There may be some learnings here for policymakers designing programmes for improvement of wellbeing of the common people. Deeper engagement of Post Offices with delivery of social sector programmes may address several constraints associated with them.

* Director (Rural Business), India Post.

The views expressed are personal.

Karma in the Time of Turbulence -I

In the charged atmosphere at the Ramlila Maidan, in the midst of all the high decibel activity, Satish Chand, a postman from the Indra Prastha Post Office of New Delhi has quietly been delivering mail every day to none other than Anna Hazare.

It is a huge crowd, and it is in thrall. Locating anyone in the middle of all this is next to impossible. But the cell phone helps. And Satish Chand with his postman instincts efficiently guides me over the phone to himself, even as he steadily progresses through the dense gathering from the main gate at one end of the Ramlila Maidan to the raised stage at the other.

Satish has the postman bag safely clutched in his hand. Today he has letters only for one person. The addressee is seated on the elevated stage at the Maidan. He is on a protest fast, and all activity within visible distance is centred on him. His name is Anna Hazare.

“Though the fast has been on for ten days, mail started flowing in only from the third day”, says Satish, in cultured Hindi. He along with his colleague Dharam Pal has been delivering letters, registered letters, money orders and Speed Post shipments every day since then. I am unnerved by the thought being at work in the midst of such a massive gathering, and in such an emotionally charged environment. “Don’t you feel scared”, I ask, “more so since you are a uniformed government servant finding your way through a gathering which is protesting against the government?”

“No saab”, smiles Satish. His conviction is strong and simplicity, disarming. “The dakiya is welcome everywhere, even in protest marches. I just tell people I am carrying mail for Anna Hazare, and they make way for me. No one has created any problem.”

“But these are not normal working conditions”, I insist.  He thinks over and agrees. Reaching the elevated stage from the main gate itself takes 45 minutes. There are many checks and searches in between. “My work is simple, saab”, he explains. “I have to find the right addressee and hand over his mail. It makes no difference how much I have to wait, or whether I have to walk long in the sun. My duty is complete when all the mail pieces are distributed to the right recipients”. 

(Continued in Part II)

- PN Ranjit Kumar

The writer is Director (Global Business) at India Post. The views are personal.

Karma in the Time of Turbulence -II

In the charged atmosphere at the Ramlila Maidan, in the midst of all the high decibel activity, Satish Chand, a postman from the Indra Prastha Post Office of New Delhi has quietly been delivering mail every day to none other than Anna Hazare.

(Continued from Part I)

Delivering mail to individuals and groups at temporary camps is not new to the Post Office. Satish himself has distributed mail to religious and political organisations camping at Ramlila Maidan many times in the past. What is different with Anna Hazare’s event is the volume. If it was one or two dozen letters in the past, it is a few hundred every day this time. “Annaji has also been receiving many e-Post messages”, says Satish. E-Post is a hybrid mail product where the e-mail messages from sender is printed out by the Post Office and delivered as a letter. The younger followers probably find a tailor made solution in e-Post to connect with the venerable Gandhian.

“An office has been set up next to the stage, and it functions efficiently”, informs the post man. “Completing the documentation for registered letters and money orders has not been a problem”. He also reports that the flow of money orders has thinned – from about Rs.15,000 in the initial days it has declined to about Rs. 500 now.

As the crowd at the Maidan continues to respond to its leaders, our conversation gets increasingly subsumed in the noise. It would surely be difficult to ignore this build-up and this emotionally charged atmosphere, I argue. Doesn’t he get influenced when he witnesses this every day? “When I am in my uniform, my concern is only the mail in my hand”, Satish says with the same clarity of thought as before.

The brief chat over, Satish resumes his journey along the line of his duty. As I wade my way back through the sea of Anna’s supporters, my thoughts go to the karmic bonds that link people to other people and to institutions. Satish Chand has grasped the essence of his trade - the Post Office is all about simple tasks done the right way.

- PN Ranjit Kumar

The writer works as Director (Global Business) at India Post. The views are personal.

Art Project on Posting Your eMail

A global voluntary initiative that propagates the strength of the written word over its digital counterpart

I long to receive a three page, heart-rending, soppy letter, filled with words carefully chosen and eternal.

- Bobbie Ann Pimm (American writer)

It is not nostalgia alone that makes us long for that elusive letter – it is also the feeling of warmth that it evokes, its ability to revive all those soft emotions of connecting with someone your own.

Ivan Cash, a 25-year old entrepreneur from San Francisco and lover of this quaint, old school form of communication, recently decided to spread the message of the hand-written letter far and wide. The result is a start-up, which is creating waves ironically in cyberspace, called Snail Mail My Email (SMME). A free transcription service, SMME takes your e-mail messages (subject to a word limit of 100), writes them down in manuscript and sends it on to the receiver, free of cost. Snail Mail My Email describes itself as an interactive community art project which seeks to share the warm-fuzzy feeling of receiving a personalized letter as well as to inspire people to send their own snail mail.Cash has the support of a global network of volunteers and the project will run for a one month period from July 15 to August 15.

We live in a world where the invisible information highway seems to have all but evicted the good old letter from everyday life. The folded paper in the envelope, carrying “words carefully chosen and eternal”, may be the next best thing to a loved one turning up at the door in person, but only very few of us either write or receive letters today. Is letter writing a lost art already?

Luckily many people like Cash still believe in the value of the written word over its digital counterpart, and they initiate efforts to ensure the survival of this art. Civil Society projects, school initiatives and art projects have taken place in different parts of the world. The public response to these efforts, like in the case of SMME, has always been warm and spontaneous. The art of the personal letter may be endangered, but is certainly not dead.

The letter is a beautiful expression of emotions, and an evolved representation of human nature. When you write a letter, you probably make someone’s day. The SMME project and other letter-writing initiatives, therefore, need all the support they can get.

How to join Snail Mail My Email: Anyone with internet access can partake SMME  by simply sending an email, after which the very same message will be handwritten and physically mailed to the chosen recipient anywhere in the world, completely free of charge. For details log on to http://snailmailmyemail.org/

A Home for India's Philatelic Heritage

Lekhika: Replica of one of the earliest 

depictions of letter writing in Indian culture. 

From a stone carving at Konark, Orissa. 

The renovated National Philatelic Museum (NPM) at New Delhi will be inaugurated on 11^th July, 2011.

Postage stamps represent a steady stream of communication from a nation, espousing its views on a variety of subjects in various pictorial formats. They are described as paper ambassadors of the issuing country, and have considerable socio-cultural relevance. The National Philatelic Museum brings forward selected stamps and other philatelic material for public viewing through carefully constructed exhibits, displays and models.

A museum is a community asset. The NPM has been redesigned keeping this in view. It is an interactive space devoted to philately, the art and science of collecting stamps. Philately transforms itself into a vehicle here, one that enables the young and the old to travel through the avenues of India’s rich history, culture, national achievements and natural wealth. The Museum has bays dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, past Prime Ministers of India and leaders of the freedom struggle. The displays also include themes like Science and Technology, Wildlife and Transport. There are glimpses of philately from other countries and displays from the Army Postal Service. There are relics, models and pictures representing postal life over the centuries.

NPM has an amphitheatre for talk shows and presentations, a reference library, a souvenir shop and an artist’s corner where stamp designers give live demonstrations. 

Village post office: A diorama from NPM

The Museum, thus, will hold enough attraction for the veteran collector as well as the curious visitor. Philately, it is hoped, will come alive here, enabling people to explore, learn, get inspired and find enjoyment.

Location:   At the ground floor, Dak Bhawan, Patel Chowk, Ashoka Road, New Delhi.

Timings:   Monday-Friday, 10.00 AM to 5.00 PM. Visits of school groups possible on Saturdays, on request