Thursday 4 December 2014

Task Force on Leveraging the Post Offices Network of the Country


            A Task force on leveraging the post offices network of the country  among others had suggested setting up of three subsidiaries as a part of a holding company under the Postal Department under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for extending services in the fields of banking, insurance and e-commerce.  The Report of the Task Force headed by former Cabinet Secretary Shri T.S.R. Subramanian was submitted to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi today.

            In all five subsidiary companies will be called Strategic Business Units (SBU)..Two other subsidiaries are for distribution of 3rd party products and services like providing e-services for general public for bill collections and providing of application forms, documents and certificates on commercial basis. Another subsidiary is for .delivery of government services like Aadhaar ration cards, Vikas patras, etc. on agency basis. It was also proposed that each SBU will have a separate  independent board to operate commercially as  a  profit  centre. Each one of the SBU over the time may go for public participation through public issue. It was proposed that a new postal law may be enacted to give statutory basis for these operations.

            After receiving the Report, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said that there will be a structured response to the recommendations of the Task Force on priority basis.  He said after  having felt the need to rediscover the potential of the postal department  in the country, he had made a request to the Prime Minister to which Shri Narendra Modi had readily responded by constituting this Task Force. He hoped that the vast connectivity of the Postal Department would be fully exploited to be a part of the e-commerce boom in the country. The Minister said that not a single employee of the postal department will be removed as a part of any reformation of the Department. He also said that there will not be undue increase in the price of the post card and other postal services that are mostly used by the poor.

            Earlier the Chairman of the Task Force Mr. Subramanian said that as banking and financial services  are not available in most of over six  lakh villages of the country, it was felt that a ‘Post Bank of India’ which is professionally organized should contribute for a financial inclusion of the rural poor.  He also hoped that there could be a creation of over five lakh new jobs over next 3-5 years.  He pointed out that State Governments are also keen on the prospects of implementation of the recommendations of this Task Force.


            The Task Force was constituted on 21st August this year  had the following members:-

1.      Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, Retd. Cabinet Secretary       -  Chairman
2.      Shri T.V. Mohandas Pai, Bangalore                             -  Member
3.      Dhri G.N. Bajpai, Mumbai Former Chairman, SEBI   -  Member
4.      Dr. Ravindra H.Dholakia, IIM, Ahmedabad               -   Member
5.      Shri R S. Sharma, Secretary (E&IT),Govt.of India      -   Member
6.      Shri L.C. Goyal, Secretary, Deptt. of Rural                 -   Member
                        Development, Govt. of India
7.      Shri Rakesh Garg, Secy. Deptt. of Telecom,G.O.I      -   Member
8.      Ms. Kavery Banerjee, Secretary, Deptt. of Posts        -    Member
9.      Shri Kamleshwar Prasad,Member (O),Deptt.of  Posts-   Member
10.  Shri Vasumitra, CPMG,Delhi Circle,Deptt.of Posts    -Member Secretary


For the full report of the Task Force pls. click the link below

Introduction of Plastic Notes

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

28-November-2014 17:16 IST
Introduction of Plastic Notes

It has been decided by the Government to introduce plastic notes in the denomination of Rs. 10/-. One billion plastic notes of the denomination of Rs. 10/- will be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The primary objective of introduction of polymer/plastic notes is to increase its life and not to combat counterfeiting. The cities selected for field train are Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

The Reserve Bank of India has informed that since the proposal is at a trial stage, the decision on replacement of currency notes with plastic notes will depend on the outcome of
field trial.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
 
Source : PIB 

Biometric Attendance System – Are the Central Government Employees Supporting or Opposing It?

On the 21st of last month, the DOPT issued an order announcing its decision to implement the new biometric attendance system linking the employee’s Aadhaar number with his/her attendance. This system, according to the order, was to soon be implemented in offices of all the Central Government departments and their various agencies.

It is well known that the system has already been implemented in all the Government-run offices in New Delhi. The order says that the system will be implemented completely before the end of this year. And, before January 26, 2015, the scheme will be expanded to other regions of the country.

BIOMETRIC ATTENDANCE SYSTEM is the procedure of registering the attendance by placing the thumb imprint on a machine which captures the imprint and records the time of entry or exit from the office. In the moderate scheme, the employee has to manually enter his/her 6-digit Aadhaar number and then confirm his/her identity by fingerprint and iris-scan.

How do the Central Government employees feel about this new system that has become the talk of the town?

As far as we could see, about 95% of the employees are not greatly affected or troubled by this new system.

Once in a while, employees tend to be late to work due to unavoidable reasons like unexpected traffic hurdles or they might have to go out for their personal work during office hours. There is no denying these facts. But the system is a major irritation for those who are habitually late to work and go out on personal business during office hours. The change of system has hardly produced any reaction from those who are regular and on time at work.

But, there are no answers to the questions raised by employees who are forced to stay back to complete their work.

Source: www.employeesnews.in