What it does: The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications. The Postal Service Board, the apex management body of the Department, comprises the Chairman and six Members. The six members of the Board hold portfolios of Personnel, Operations, Technology, Postal Life Insurance, Banking & DBT, and Planning respectively. The Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor to the Department is a permanent invitee to the Board. The Board is assisted by a senior staff officer of the Directorate as Secretary to the Board. Deputy Directors General, Directors, and Assistant Directors General provide the necessary functional support for the Board at the Headquarters.
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 social-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 DoP also acts as an agent for the 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.
Mission
Vision: India Post's products and services will be the customer's first choice.
Size and presence: Employees – 4,16,083.
The whole country has been divided into 23 postal circles, each Circle is a co-terminus with a State. Each of these Circles is headed by a Chief Postmaster General. Each Circle is further divided into Regions comprising field units, called Divisions (Postal / RMS Divisions). Each Region is headed by a Postmaster General. With more than 1,55,000 post offices, the DoP has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.
Best known for: Postal delivery of letters, parcels nationally and internationally, postal savings, banking services, postal insurance, business logistics, armed postal service, philately, data collection.
Generally called "the Post Office" in India, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into service under the Crown in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates (universal service) and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon the 1837 Post Office act which introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position of Director General of Post for the whole country.