In these days of overnight courier & internet connectivity, one is tempted to raise questions on the raison d’etre of our humble neighbourhood postman. With nearly 12.5 billion INR in losses in 2006-07, do we really need such white elephants, when snail-mail has been overtaken by emails, villages are being connected, and business mailers do not trust the local ‘dakiya’ but prefer giving custom to courier companies? Is the Indian Post yet another national ‘institution’ whose socialistic objectives override (nay, obviate) any commercial objectives? A closer look at the Indian Post reveals certain interesting facets. Not just post The name belies the multiple roles Indian Post carries out India. It may gall Mr. Kamath to know that the largest retail banking network in India is, well, Indian Post: with 1.6 lac branches & 170 million account holders, the total quantum of savings deposits in PO.s across the country amount to nearly 7% of India’s GDP, or twice the size of all other banks put together! An interesting comparison is with the Well Fargo Company of the US of A, which, coincidentally, also started some 150 years ago, and was similarly into the twin areas of express post and banking. The shotgun riders accompanying mail coaches have long since ridden into the sunset, along with the express service. However, the bank that remains (made famous in recent times by agreeing to buy troubled Wachovia) has always been perceived as staid and risk-averse, and is now being feted for precisely these reasons in this age of financial market metldowns. In a ‘flight to quality’, deposit rates have surged to all time highs- much like the savings deposits in Indian Post Offices! To millions of investors licking the wounds left by the market meltdown, the saving grace is the assurance that nearly 3.5 trillion INR left in the safekeeping of the post office is in safe hands. Similarly, the Indian Post is significant disseminator of insurance, with the Rural Postal Life Insurance scheme having one of the largest subscriptions across the country. Ditto with money orders, money remittances, etc- infact the humble post office is morphing into a one-stop shop for providing a range of financial services in areas where independent bank operation viability is ruled out. But apart from the logistics of money, do possibilities exist for further sweating our postal assets? A reach like no other With nearly 160,000 post offices dotting the landscape, Indian Post is the largest postal system in the world. From humble city PO.s sulking in the shadow of glass-n-steel behemoths to being the only concrete edifice in back of the beyond villages, the Indian Post may take its time reaching, but it eventually gets its way to within 2.5 sq.km of every Indian alive. And we are talking 1.1 billion people, and counting. Plug this reach into your company’s distribution network, and you have window for potentially reaching all of India! The network of various post offices, branches & GPOs may be used for collecting/ distributing a range of products, ranging from mobile SIM cards (talk about added benefits of address verification, bill collection, and even payment link to savings accounts), airline/ rail tickets, bill payment- collections for electricity, cable, and other amenities. The immense reach (and security of operations) have made the post offices the disbursement point for certified gold coins being peddled by Reliance Money- a pilot of a 100 outlets across 4 states to start with. In essence, the extant postal system gives retailers an opportunity explore a wider geographic footprint & test out new ideas & products fast (with minimum/ no setup time) and without investments in supply chain- by outsourcing a significant part of it to the local trusted postman. Imagining service retailers like financial institutions & private insurance companies to harness the postal reach is possible-one can stretch it to imagine other service providers (phone, cable, airlines) & physical goods retailers (mail-order companies, DTH services, specialist magazines, etc). The security of the PO buildings can also possibly house physical assets, like ATMs, etc. Apart from business utilizing the end-nodes, offcourse, the network can also be utilized for handling business mail, express services, and small cargo/ parcels. Incidentally, the small cargo business is a not so small fraction of the 700 billion INR logistics market. Apart from benefiting industry, such linkages will be symbiotic in nature- it will allow the postal system to cross-subsidize the 50p postcards (which cost Rs6.50 to deliver) with more lucrative revenue streams. Already, competition postcards, insurance, etc are the most profitable amongst the post office services –sweating the postal system’s network assets more may aid many businesses expand reach without breaking a sweat. The giant is waking up, with no little prodding by the Minister A.Raja (more in the news for spectrum allocations than his complete spectrum of initiatives as Minister for Communications & IT). The question is- is your business reaching out to it?