India drives last-mile financial inclusion with post office modernization

India says it has rolled out an indigenous system it developed with the goal of facilitating banking services at post offices across the country.

The Advanced Postal Technology (APT) platform was developed by the Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology (CEPT) and hosted on MeghRaj 2.0 Cloud.

Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, disclosed the information in a reply to parliament, the government said in a recent news release.

Launched by the Department of Post (DoP), it is an “agile and scalable” solution which has been designed to easily adapt to future demands.

Available since August, it has already been integrated by 170,000 offices within the country’s post office network, with the services also connected to the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) Core Banking Solution (CBS). More than 25,000 post offices are a part of the CBS network

According to the minister, branch post offices have received new Android smartphones, which run the DREAM app (Digital Rural Enterprise Application for Mobile), to provide financial services. Postmen have also been given biometric devices for identity verification and authentication.

The main objective of this modernization, he says, is to strengthen service delivery, ensure better connectivity, and enhance user experience especially in rural areas where access to financial and Aadhaar-linked services is usually difficult.

With the expansion of services via the IPPB connection, post office users can also have access to services including account opening, the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), Digital Life Certificates (DLC), and insurance services through third party providers. The system has also facilitated post office account linkage, credit referral facilities, Aadhaar mobile number updates, and child Aadhaar enrolment for children under 5 years.

Other countries like the UK, U.S. and Bahrain have also taken measures to modernize their post office systems by making digital ID a part and parcel of them.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric enrollment  |  financial inclusion  |  identity verification  |  India  |  India Post