“ India
Post “ morph to “ India Retail “
Context :
Under phased lifting of lockdown from 14th ,
I believe , governments ( Central + States ) , will allow following stores /
shops to keep open ( may be for only a few hours of the day ) :
Ø Veg
vendors ( individual roadside ) – Veg Markets – Milk – Grocery ( Kirana ) – Processed Food shops etc [ items essential for day-to-day
survival ]
What can we
expect ?
Ø Millions
of people running out of their homes to buy these essentials
Ø Total
flouting of “ Social Distancing “ rule , which has , so far worked for India
like a miracle
Ø Thousands
of migrant workers might rush back from villages to their city work-places
Consequences ?
Ø Rapid
spreading of Covid-19, taking us into Stage 3 / Stage 4 [ Community
transmission ]
What must be
done to prevent people from going out to buy essentials ?
Ø Deliver
essentials at the gates of their buildings. If Mohamed cannot go to mountain,
let mountain go to Mohamed. Enable these shops to deliver items to their
customers
Are they not
doing so already ?
Ø Yes,
to a very limited extent – may be up to 10 % of their sale. 90 % of their sale is across-the-counter, to
people thronging inside their shops , in close proximity of one another
Ø With
their migrant workers gone to villages, they will not be able to home-deliver even
that 10 %
What has all this to do with India Post ? How does it come in the picture ?
Ø India
Post has 155,015 post offices and 433,177 employees ( of which , I assume , 4 lakh are
postmen )
Ø Following
are the traditional businesses of India Post :
# Delivering mail
(post)
# Remitting money by money orders
# Accepting deposits under Small Savings
Schemes,
# Providing life insurance cover under Postal
Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal
Life
Insurance (RPLI)
# Providing retail services like bill
collection, sale of forms, etc
# Old age pension payments
(MGNREGS) wage disbursement.
What are you trying to suggest ?
That IP’s 4 lakh postmen double-up as Delivery Boys , to deliver essential
items to the door-steps of citizen ?
Ø You
got the idea !
These 4 lakh postmen already know ( by
heart ) , home addresses of ALL of our
1300
Million citizen – including people living in thatched huts on remote mountains
and
dry deserts .
These postmen have , in course of their job , visited EACH house
,
several times . They are the IDEAL DELIVERY
PERSONS , anywhere in the entire
world
!
But, I saw
postings in LinkedIn by Shri RaviShankar Prasadji ( Minister – MeITY ) that the
postmen are already delivering essential items to homes !
Ø True
, but miniscule . More of a photo-op for a lone postman !
So, what is your
suggestion ?
Ø Rope
in all 4 lakh postmen for home-delivery of
essential items
Ø Organize
this a project called “ India
Deliver “ ( ala “ India Post “ )
Ø India
Post to tie up ( Public Private Partnership ) with Reliance
Retail , which has , in its EcoSystem,
some 25 lakh Kirana stores and plans to tie-up with 12 million Kirana shops by
2023
How will this work ?
Ø Citizen
will place online orders ( using Reliance Retail- RR -
mobile App ) for essential items
Ø RR
will transmit this order ( giving full details including item wise prices and
buyer address / mobile no ) to :
# A Kirana shop ( Kirana shop owner’s Mobile )
, nearest to buyer’s home ( - could
be
more than one shop , if all ordered items are not available in one shop )
# A post office branch
nearest to buyer’s home ( on a postman’s mobile )
Ø RR
will transmit ( on Buyer’s mobile App ), details of the concerned Kirana shop
and the concerned Postman, indicating approx. “ Time of Delivery “
Ø Postman
will visit the concerned Kirana Shop , pick-up the items and deliver to
customer
Ø Every,
# “ Pick-up Transaction
“ ( between
postman and Kirana Shop ), and
# “ Delivery
Transaction “ ( between
postman and customer ) ,
will get automatically recorded when
respective Mobile Phones are made to touch
each
other ( using BlueTooth /
NFC and BlockChain technology ) and
# Customer’s
bank account will get debited ,
# Kirana shop’s bank account will get credited
Ø Concerned
Post Office will get credited with 2 % commission ( on purchase value ) , out of
which, it will pass on half to the postman concerned, if the delivery gets made
within 6 hours of order placement . This will act as a Monetary Incentive for
the postman concerned
How many home-deliveries
can a postman make in a working day ?
Ø Assuming
that all the 3 parties ( Customer – Kirana Shop – Post Office branch
) are located within a radius of 1 Km. , I suppose a postman can make 4
deliveries / hour ( 32 / day )
Ø IAMAI
writes :
“ E-commerce services
are the only means to ensure social distancing while still maintaining economic
operations in the country.
For every one e-commerce delivery person, the
country can help 350 people avoid a trip to a physical retail outlet daily.
Therefore, a fully functional e-commerce
delivery chain is the best means to ensure social distancing and ensuring a
restricted congregation of the population"
What Next ?
Ø Over
the past few years, services rendered by India Post are being taken over by
Private sector . This competition is causing huge losses to India Post
Ø India
Post cannot shut down , rendering 4.4 lakh persons jobless
Ø India
Post must ask itself : What business are we in ? Then re-invent itself
Ø India
Post will have no takers should govt decide to privatize it
Ø To
justify its existence , only solution is what I have suggested above
Ø I
urge Shri RaviShankar Prasadji / Shri Piyush Goyalji to consider my suggestion –
if not for survival of India Post, then for containing Corona spread
This is a
golden opportunity ( Silver lining to a Dark cloud )
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
12 April
2020
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