Today's ET shows what I had been suspecting all along. The Indian Post Office is a dying phenomenon. Far gone are the days when we we waited for the postman with bated bath to bring us news of IIT admission, someone's job or wedding or a new arrival. Gone too the days when we had so much pleasure going and buying lovely postage stamps with lovely pictures of famous people or lovely art. Gone too perhaps the postal savings scheme and such. The PIN code we proudly show in everything called our postal address, is more like an epitaph to a dead institution.
When I lived in Germany, Australia and Singapore, when I used the US Post, I saw how cheerful those places were. They sold a lot of useful things, apart from postal stationery. They sold packing boxes and prepaid speed post envelopes. Hardy covers that would proudly withstand the ravages of transport and proudly declare where their trip began, when delivered with your lovely handwriting to your near and dear ones far away.
When I sent a lovely book recently by speed post to Canada, at a fraction of the cost of a private courier, the Indian Post delivered it fast and safe. Even today, we can't help going and checking every day our post box at the gate for some nice surprises. Alas, we find some useless handbills for pizzas and Andhra Chicken Biriyani.
Why can't we use our national imagination to make the Indian Post Office the centre of our social life? Here are a dozen ways we can bring the glory back:
1. The Post Office handles all postal and courier parcels with guaranteed efficiency and speed at lower cost and basically becomes the first mode of delivery. Revenues will grow 10X.
2. They have door to door pick up and delivery for a convenience fee.
3. You can buy all your stationery needs.
4. You can buy school books.
5. You can do your health insurance.
6. You can do national postal savings.
7. They offer all payments online through a single gateway with a credit card tie-up with SBI.
8. They offer scanning, faxing and binding services.
9. They have community events in each locality.
10. They offer special door to door service to all senior citizens.
11. They have special school events and projects.
12. They tie up with Railways to showcase how Post and Railway are big national integrators.
By doing all this, we will be using prime-location, trusted, government real estate for doing what the government can do best to serve the community well.
