Indian Postal System
Department of Posts which trades off in the name of India Post, and it is run by Government of India. The postal system is called Post office in India. Department of Posts, comes under Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Government of India.
Chief Postmaster General heads the postal circles, and the country is divided into 22 postal circles. Then each circle is broken into regions which is looked after by a Postmaster General and regions is further divided into divisions, divisions divided into subdivisions as well.
The fastest service of Postal Service of India connects the remotest places to each other and offers citizens to send across their mails at a very cheap price. Not only it serves the purpose of sending mails but along with that it has emerged as a small financial institutions which helps people in their money matters.
Host of Post Office
The method of postal service varies from one country to another, it is said that in India the postal it came up from Emperor Chandraupta Maurya who was the ruler of India between 321-297 BC, he introduced postal service in India to send confidentials messages to other rulers sitting at distant places in his empire. The other evidence found in the history of India dates back to a historian called Ziadduin Barni in his writings. He has written that Ala-ud din Khilji of Delhi Sultanate empire who was the emperor of Delhi some 700 years ago, introduced a service ‘Harakuras’ in which there used to be a horse and a person on foot ran with bells and a baton and circulated mails among other rulers of that regime. In each mile runners were changed and one runner handed over the the mail to another in subsequent distances, the mails were sent to the receivers on time.
The Mughal Emperor Babar was the one responsible for developing the regular system of horse for delivery of mails from one place to another.
At this period in history, when indigenous ways of sending mails around was at peak, a person called Monsieur De Velayer from France came up with the idea of establishing a small post office in 1653. He gave his customers tiny length papers called the ‘receipt for the payment of transport’. These pieces were to be attached to the original letters and these were to be dropped inside the post box which were later to be sent to several destinations.
On May 6, 1840 in Britain were the world’s first postage stamps were released. The portrait of Queen Victoria who was the ruler of Britain at that time was published on the stamps called Penny Black Stamp and two Penny Blue Stamp.
Initially, people were not really liking this idea and didn’t offer a great support for the idea of postal system. But later, in 1841, around 72 million Penny Black Stamps were published and issued to many people. Over the period of time, people widely accepted the idea in different countries and hence the postage stamp service came into existence. As India was one of the colonies of Britain, the idea and services circulated easily and it was the first British colony to adopt the system of postage.
In 1786, the first Post office was established in Chennai.
Similarly to the Penny black, in 1852 India released a half-anna stamp( Anna was a form of Indian currency, 16 annas make 1 rupee. On July 1, 1852, world’s first circular stamp called ‘Scinde Dawk’ was introduced.
India became a leader in exhibiting a diverse range of stamps in the world. The official or Sarkari service stamps of India in 1866. In India also multilingual stamps came into existence, for example English, Marathi, Telegu were the four languages that were initially inscribed on the stamps. As these stamps possessed monetary value, these stamps were gone through the government security presses of India.
Stamp is a matter of dignity, Mahatama Gandhi was awarded with stamps of more 43 countries around the world. Republic of South Africa is the one among those who has awarded Gandhi with over 80 stamps. It was that country where Gandhi was thrown out of the train for being dark in colour.
India not only provides conventional form of mail delivery system but along with that camels are used as a postal service Rajasthan. In Orissa pigeons are used to send mails and in Siachen dogs are used to deliver. India possesses the largest network of postal service in the world, around 153454 post offices are in India, letter boxes around 562000 and cover 6,04,341 cities and villages across the country.
Postal Services Provided in India
Having over 155000 branches of Indian Post offices in India, cover 89% in the rural areas of India. The postal services provide a prominent function in rural areas, these post offices connect villages to villages and villages to cities. These post offices provide banking facilities in rural sector as these places are devoid of financial system. The modern postal service of India is around 150 years old. In 1854 India became the first country to issue stamps. The postal services of India were brought under centralized control. 701 of post offices of Indian subcontinent were brought together when Railway Mail Service in 1854. In 1911, the flight was launched called Air Mail which carried 6500 mails, and this flight flew from Allahabad to Naini. This was the postal service flight which carried mails from one country to another.
As India got independence from British it broadened the outlook of postal services and lots of investments and efforts were put to expand the existing service of postal system. It expanded its reach to Rajasthan, Kutch and to the glaciers of ladakh and Siachen.
There are many services provided by Indian Post and Telegraph Department for people of India. There are 22 postal circles in country for providing the better services of Indian post. These circles have head post offices and regulate the working of post offices on day to day basis. Following are the postal services provided:
1. Financial services- The facilities that post office provide through its schemes of savings called Public Provident Fund(PPF), Kishan Vikas Patra and National Saving Certificates along with the the conventional schemes of postal service that perform functions of a usual bank and provide the customers schemes related to monthly income, deposits, facility of money order.
2. Mail Facilities: This facility helps you in sending a article from one place to another destination. This facility covers sending of mails, registration of mail as a security proof and insurance of mails to cover probable risks.
3. Allied Postal Services: Following are the allied facilities that are offered by Indian Postal Service.
(i) Media Post- Business firms can endorse their brands using the postcards, envelopes and through stuffs like that.
(ii) Greeting Post: You can also send greeting cards to your beloved ones on several occasions to distant places.
(iii) Speed Post: Using Speed Post service you can send the mails to your people very speedily as compared with the normal mail system.
(iv) Direct Post: You can do advertising directly with the help of addressed and unaddressed direct post.
(v) E-bill Post: You can pay your phone bills of BSNL, Airtel and other companies.
(vi) Passport Facilities: You can also make passports as Indian Post has entered into a tie up with the ministry of external affairs. So you can get passport forms, fill them and submit them for further procedures.
(vii) International Money Transfer: You can also receive remittances from other countries to India as Indian Post has collaborated with Western Union Banks.
Pincode System
PINCODE stands for Postam Index Number(PIN) which is of 6 digits issued by Post Office. On 15 August 1972, the system of PINCODE was introduced. Country is divided into 9 PIN regions in which 8 PIN regions are allocated geographically and 9 is for Army Postal Service. In the PINCODE the first digit denotes any of the main regions, second denotes the postal circle or the sub region, third denotes the district while the last 3 digits indicate the post office of delivery.
Search for PinCodes using pincodelookup tool. You can also use our India Post Android app to find pincodes.
Job Opportunities in Indian Postal Service
Candidates interested in applying for Indian Postal Service should have at least completed their graduation in the field of Science, Commerce and Humanities. It not only provides job opportunities to graduates but it also provides jobs to those candidates who have done Diplomas, or they are secondary or higher secondary (10th and 12th ) pass out, and other similar courses. Candidates who are interested in applying for Indian Postal Service can apply for their interested posts through online application. The question paper is based on to test your logical and analytical skills. Anyone applying for Indian Postal Service can apply for the posts in following branches:-
- Multi-Tasking Staff
- Mail Guard
- Postman
- Post Officer
- Postal Assistant
- Director
- Senior Hindi Translator
- Indian Postal Service Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D
- Lower Selection Grade Posts
- Stenographers
- Private Secretary
- Junior Hindi Translator
- Sorting Assistant
- Stenographers Grade II
- Typist
The eligibility criteria for different posts varies from each other depending on the nature of posts. The age limit, educational qualification and other requirements varies from one post to another. The minimum age limit to apply for the post is 18 years and maximum is 40 years. Also you should have passed 10th with at least 40% to apply for posts of Postman and Fireman.