CORE BANKING SOLUTIONS IN SIX POST OFFICES OF NAGPUR REGION FROM JUNE

NAGPUR: Six post offices of Nagpur region are among the 124 offices in the country where India Post will be first implementing core banking solutions (CBS). This initiative is part of postal department efforts towards modernization of its services.

In the pilot phase, eight postal circles have been selected. They include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The six offices from Nagpur Region are Nagpur City head office (HO), Nagpur GPO; Gondia HO, Khamgaon HO, Wardha HO and Yavatmal HO. Offices coming under these HOs will be also covered under the project.

"In CBS, the small saving scheme customers would be able to conduct transactions of their accounts from any other post office which is also covered under the system. Other offices will be covered under CBS in another two more phases," Post Master General of Nagpur Region M. E. Haque said.

In Nagpur Region, the CBS is scheduled to become operational by June. According to the department officials, everything is on track. "We hope to implement the system as per schedule unless there is some glitch. TheNational Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is helping us in this process while TCS is conducting training of our employees," said Haque.

The CBC process might also prove to be the groundwork for the entry of the postal department into banking services as it has already got approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). "Definitely, this is a part of the foundation work. Among all the central government departments we have the biggest network in the country and deepest penetration in rural areas. So, we have a ready-made infrastructure for such an endeavour. But no other directive has come to us from the top in this regard," Haque said.

There are also plans to introduce ATMs, about 1000 of them, in all HOs, said Haque adding, "ATM reduces the cost of transaction for the postal department. While each counter transaction costs about Rs.25/-, ATM transaction costs Rs.10-14/- per transaction."

Source : The Times of India, 28 April, 2013