Rural Post
Offices to provide online services: Ravi Shankar Prasad-MoC - NEWS
KOLKATA: Union Minister
for Information and Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad said
rural post offices across the country will also function as common service
centres (CSCs) providing e-services.
He said this
while asserting that the Postal Department had a crucial role to play in
bringing in digital revolution in the country.
"Our
vision of digital India is to ensure that from a mason to barber to a tyre
puncture repairer, all can access newer avenues of growth using communications
equipment like a smart phone," said Prasad while inaugurating the revamped
building of Bhowanipore post office here.
"We are
also committed to developing e-commerce, e-education and e-health. This is the
larger vision of digital India. And in this digital India initiative, Rural
Post Offices have a very crucial role to play.
"We have
decided that all the 1.30 lakh rural post offices should also become common
service centres (CSCs) to further provide services," the Minister added.
Implemented
under the National e-Governance Plan and formulated by the Department of
Electronics and Information Technology, the CSCs are ICT-enabled front end
service delivery points at the village-level for delivery of government,
financial, social and private sector services in the areas of agriculture,
health, education, entertainment, FMCG products, banking, insurance, pension,
utility payments etc.
Prasad said he
expected the Reserve Bank of India to grant payment license to the proposed
Post Bank of India by July.
"We expect
to get the RBI nod by July. With 1,54,000 post offices the new initiative will
usher in a financial revolution across the country," he said.
Hailing the
services by the Postal Department, Prasad said it has done a business of Rs.500
crore in the year in e-commerce besides opening over 52 lakh Accounts under the
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna receiving over Rs.1,000 in deposits.
"Whatever,
be the decline in services, people still respect the Indian Railways and the
Postal Services. I urge you all to build upon that respect and contribute
towards the growth of the country," said Prasad, urging the employees to
contribute towards the Government's initiative to modernise the Postal
Department.
Prasad also
said state-run BSNL was also on the road to recovery.
"Now BSNL
is running into losses in excess of Rs 8,000 crore. But in 2004, it earned a
profit of Rs 10,000 crore. So we decided to revive it ... BSNL already has
added 47 lakh new customers and its revenue has risen by 2%," he said.
The minister
also said there would be 100 crore mobile connections in the country in next
few years.
"In a
country with a population of 125 crore, we now nearly 101 crore phone
connections of which 98 crore are mobile phones. In the coming few years, we
will have over 100 crore mobile phone connectivity across the country,"
Prasad said.
"Studies show that a country with more broadband
connections has greater impact on the GDP growth.
"So we are
bringing national optical fibre network connecting over 2.5 lakh gram
panchayats across the country, we are bringing in broadband revolution,"
he added
//copy//Source : The Times of India
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