Turning around India post and comparisons with La Poste of France

Abstract

India Post is the world’s largest postal network with more than 150,000 post offices and a post office to serve every 20 sq. km area on average and more than 130,000 of these in the rural areas. But in spite of its wide distribution network, India Post has been making losses consistently over the years. India Post also has a huge work force with about 485,000 employees of whom 275,000 are Gramin Dak Sewaks. These Gramin Dak Sewaks take care of the last mile delivery. India Post also has a diverse product mix ranging from the regular mail services such as post cards and speed post to financial products such as Post Office Savings Bank accounts, insurance, mutual fund and money orders. Our project study on India Post comprised of both research and in-depth analysis using secondary data sources as well as primary research by interviewing senior officials of India Post. These interactions helped us understand the problems better as well as validate our understanding of the causes of the same. We have structured our analysis to broadly cover four major areas, viz. Financials, Operations, IT and Marketing. We have also arrived at recommendations for all of these areas taking into consideration the key challenges and issues that India Post currently faces. A detailed study of the French postal service, La Poste, gave us insights on the solutions that India Post can explore for its problems which might help it improve its operational efficiency and product mix. La Poste is also considered one of the better managed postal networks in the world and has had strong financial performance over the past few years and has had a strong focus on quality. An analysis of the best practices of La Poste will provide India Post pointers on how it can improve its operations and services. The summary of the interaction with the senior officials of India Post is attached in the Appendix.