Displeased with postal sector, Kapil Sibal calls for reforms
New Delhi, Jun 28, 2012 (PTI)
A review meeting of the
entire Indian postal sector, chaired by Minister of Communications and IT Kapil
Sibal, has found it lagging behind its peers in other parts of the world and
called for immediate reforms.
Sibal was displeased with the unorganised nature
of Indian postal sector in general, its low contribution to GDP and
under-utilised potential to generate employment. According to ministry sources,
Sibal on the basis of cross country data presented to him remarked that
"Indian Postal Sector is unorganised and grossly undeveloped. In absence
of a forward looking policy framework, the Postal Sector in India has
failed to keep with global development".
The meeting was held in connection with finalisation of the draft cabinet note for the first detailed National Postal Policy. The data presented in the meeting suggested that global postal services are likely to reach USD 331 billion by 201.
The meeting was held in connection with finalisation of the draft cabinet note for the first detailed National Postal Policy. The data presented in the meeting suggested that global postal services are likely to reach USD 331 billion by 201.
This, however, did not incorporate the current
status or contribution of Indian postal sector due to non-availability of
authentic data. The officials told Sibal that postal sector in some European
countries' contributed between 0.6-0.9 per cent to their GDP but the
contribution of estimated Rs 15,000 crore Indian Postal sector is much lower.
In terms of employment generation, postal sector
of France
accounts for 1 per cent of total employment.
As many as 27 postal service providers in
European Union account for 0.5 per cent of the region's total employment
whereas it stood at around 0.6 million people out of 1.2 billion population in
India.
"Postal sector urgently requires
legislative, institutional and governance reforms," Sibal said. He also
asked the postal department to make provision for uniform quality standards of
services and grievance redressal mechanism at par with global best practices in
the policy.
Source: Deccan
Herald
