India Post: Even with social obligation, it could be profitable
Bhanu Pande & Souvik Sanyal,ET Bureau,Mar 7, 2011, 03.08am IST
For an entity that is in the delivery business, speed in decision-making is not a strength of the department of post. From idea to implementation, the department has taken 16 years to computerise and connect all its 155,000 branches; it's taken 10 years to enter the business of managing the movement of goods for companies.Most recently, it's taken four years just to commission a feasibility study for its biggest transformation yet, becoming a bank.In the last 15 years, as electronic modes of communication have trampled on physical forms, the department has tried to change, only to give into its worst self, and continue down the road of irrelevance and mounting losses. In 2009-10, it lost Rs 6,641 crore, on revenues of Rs 6,266 crore. In other words, to earn one rupee in revenues, it spent Rs 2. In 1997-98, it gave itself a new, contemporary and meaningful identity: India Post.
Source : Economic Times