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
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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
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1 Comments
Very nice
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