DARPAN PROJECT: in English

DARPAN:

For more than 150 years, the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s socio‐economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The Department of Posts also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement and old age pension payments. With 1.5 lakh Post Offices (approximately) , the Department of Posts has the most widely distributed postal network in the world. 2. Trends such as urbanisation, increased demand for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker sections and the rural sector, have opened up new opportunities for the Department of Posts, which in turn has necessitated development of new processes and supporting technology. The Department of Posts is also faced with twin challenges of increasing competition and continuing advances in communication technology, especially in mobile telephony and the Internet. In order to provide the best‐in‐class customer service, deliver new services and improve operational efficiencies, the Department of Posts has undertaken an end to end IT modernization project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and technologies. The IT modernisation project intends to achieve the following: I. Wider reach to the Indian populace through more customer interaction channels II. Better customer service III. Growth through new lines of business IV. IT enablement of business processes and support functions 3. As a part of IT modernization project, the Department of Posts (DoP) has carried out business process reengineering across various functional areas and has created To‐Be processes that will enable it to achieve these objectives. As an achievement, Department of Posts has established 991 ATMs across the country, which are interoperable with other banks and the common people has directly benefited with the wide network of Department of Posts especially in rural areas. Till now, 1,12,85,217 transactions have been carried out on the DOP’s ATMs out of which 70,24,214 transactions have been done by the non‐DOP customers. Department of Posts is the only Government player in this space. 4. The DARPAN – “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project is a part of the larger IT modernisation project being undertaken by the Department of Posts with a project outlay of Rs. 1400 Cr (approximately). The goal of the project is to provide a low power technology solution (Information and Communications Technology Device) to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states. 5. The primary business goal of the DARPAN project is to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve “financial inclusion” of un‐banked rural population, while taking advantage of this opportunity to increase revenue traffic. The Project has the potential to make a significant contribution to these goals. The project shall increase the rural reach of the Department of Posts and enable Branch Offices (rural Post Offices) BOs to increase traffic of all financial remittances, savings accounts, Rural Postal Life Insurance, and Cash Certificates; improve mail operations processes by allowing for automated booking and delivery of accountable article; increase revenue using retail post business; provide third party applications; and make disbursements for social security schemes such as MGNREGS. 6. As on 15.12.2017, 43171 Branch Post Offices (Rural Post Offices) have been migrated under the “DARPAN” project with the aim of financial inclusion of Rural population of the country. It is targeted to complete the project by March’2018.

Frequent Asked Questions & Answers

Q1. What is DARPAN Project?

Ans. The Rural Information Communication Technology (RICT) Project is a part of the larger IT modernisation project, India Post 2012, being undertaken by the Department of Posts. The RICT Project is named as DARPAN - Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for a New India.

Q2. What is the goal of DARPAN Project?

Ans. The goal of DARPAN Project is to provide a low power technology solution (ICT Device) to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakh Extra Departmental Post Offices (EDOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers. The primary business goal of the DARPAN Project is to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve “financial inclusion” of un-banked rural population, while taking advantage of this opportunity to increase revenue traffic.

Q3. What is the vision of DARPAN Project?

Ans. The vision of DARPAN Project is as under: a. To increase the rural reach of the Department of Posts and enable EDOs to increase traffic of all financial remittances, savings accounts, Rural Postal Life Insurance, and Cash Certificates; b. Improve mail operations processes by allowing for automated booking and delivery of accountable article; increase revenue using retail post business; c. Provide third party applications a platform for rural reach; d. Make disbursements for social security schemes such as MGNREGS etc.

Q4. How far we have reached till now?

Ans. As of now the DARPAN Project have been successfully rolled out in 43171 BO’s across the country as on date and offering core banking services (CBS) and Electronic Money Order (eMO) across the length and breadth of the country in would be rolled out in 1.29 lakhs locations.

Q5. What are the services offered to the citizens of India by this project?

Ans. Services offered are as under: A. Core Banking Services (CBS): DARPAN Project CBS Client application of rural BOs is the frontend solution of the Finacle rolled out in the Account offices for Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) operations of the DOP. As part of DARPAN Project, the CBS client applications have been rolled out in BOs where ever Rural System Integration (RSI) solution have gone live. The DARPAN Project CBS Client application version 1.3.1 is being implemented, which covers the following 1. Cash Deposits in SB and RD 2. Withdrawal from SB 3. New Account Opening for SB/RD/TD 4. Higher value Withdrawal 5. Mini Statement 6. Aadhar Seeding 7. Daily Transaction report This application is used for the disbursement of social security benefits to the needy across the country such as MGREGS, Old age Pension, DBT etc. Overall 35626 BOs are doing CBS transactions out of the 40455 BOs roll out till 6-12-17. Other BOs could not do CBS transactions due to various reasons including poor connectivity at the Bos. Roll out BOs have done 16.82 million Transaction involving Rs.20 billion average amounts involved per transaction is Rs1189/- B. Electronic Money Order (eMO): money order delivery is made easy and quick and the volume is increasing on eMO through devices.

Q6. How the citizens would be benefitted from this project?

Ans: Benefits to the citizens: a. Provide banking solutions to the un-bank rural population b. CBS solutions – deposit and withdraw from anywhere c. Ease of deposit and withdrawal and real-time account update d. Rural postal life insurance would be available to the citizens in last mile of the country e. Other postal services as eMO just in hours (online Bos) in any part of the country f. Disbursal of govt. schemes as MNREGS, Old age Pension g. Any other government schemes in future h. Speed post booking from their next door

Q7. How can we align this project with the government mission of “Digital India”?

Ans: “The vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy” DARPAN Project supports the vision by providing the financial services and citizens benefit schemes as old age pension, MNREGS etc. digitally to the citizens in the last mile of the country through the applications like CBS, Micro ATM, eMO and many more.

Q.8 What Next?

Ans : Upcoming services: Future Services Status 1. Mail Operations, speed post booking and delivery, registered article booking and Under live testing into the field 2. Aadhar enabled payment, Deposits, transfers and bill payments advanced phase and would available soon 3. The DOP card based Payment as Micro ATM, Deposits, transfers and bill payment Would be available soon 4. Postal Life Insurance – new policy and renewal Under final stage of testing 5. Post Bank Application Under advanced stage of development 6. Point of Sale – Stamps and other postal article Under final testing and would be available soon

Q9. What are the challenges faced during this project and what are the achievements?

Ans: Different Challenges were in the way of achieving the goal but with the dedicated hard work from a team of Government officials, Industry experts, consultants and technology vendors have overcome these and made a great achievement such as: Challenges Achievement 1. Connectivity Major challenges going to the rural part of the country Connectivity was provided by private mobile operators Transaction happening in approx. 80% of the successful rolled out location More than 17 million transactions so far and increasing INR 20 billion by value INR 1189 average per transaction 2. Training Department have trainers from its officials Online training setup available at any time Training provided to the BPM in their local languages for better understanding 3. Awareness Running multiple drives to spread awareness Handholding support for ease of using the technology Classroom and orientation programmes Citizen awareness programmes advertisements 4. Power Situation Power situation is not uniform throughout the rural India Solar Solution with UPS have been provided to 75% of the BPM where the power situation is below average Additional battery with separate charging module BPM can work with 2 batteries for 3 days 5. Speed and Registered Post to the villages Speed post and registered post can now be booked from the next door Real time tracking can also be provided through RICT devices (in future) Real time tracking is available online Logistics companies have started availing the benefit of India post network and adding revenue