In yet another step towards modernising India's postal services, Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday launched ‘e-post office', the e-commerce portal of India Post that will provide various postal services online.
“Earlier, consumers used to go to service providers but now services providers are going to consumers…this is the future of the 21st century. The portal will enable customers to transact postal business any time and from anywhere through Internet and by using either debit card or credit card,” Mr. Sibal said after launching the portal here.
“We have now taken post offices to every citizen of the country through Internet. This portal will be [the] e-commerce portal for the Department of Posts (DoP). Products of small-scale sector and handicrafts will also be sold through this portal,” Mr. Sibal added.
Content in English
According to Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot, though the content of the portal was in English now, soon the content would be made available in regional languages also so that more people can avail the benefits from this initiative. “This initiative will make every laptop and personal computer a post office,” he added.
DoP Secretary Radhika Doraiswamy said initially, this portal would provide electronic money order, instant money order, sale of philatelic stamps, postal information, tracking of express and international shipments, PIN code search, and registration of feedback and complaints online.
“India Post would bring its other services online in the next phase of e-post office project. We have collaborated with agencies in the public and private sector to make the e-post office a reality. Concrete plans are in place to scale up the portal to a full-fledged e-marketplace, which would offer a wide range of postal and non-postal products,” she added.
