What is Rural Information and Communication Technology (RICT)?
The Rural Information Communication Technology (RICT) Project is a part of the larger IT modernisation project, India Post 2012, being undertaken by the Department of Posts. The RICT Project is named as DARPAN - Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for a new India.
Goals of DARPAN
The primary business goal of the DARPAN Project is to improve the quality of service, add value to services, and achieve “financial inclusion” of un-banked rural population, while taking advantage of this opportunity to increase revenue traffic.
The DARPAN Project covers the following in rural areas from now onwards. Previously it was done through BPMs manually. After introducing DARPAN, all these transactions are done through RICT device.
- Cash Deposits in SB and RD
- Withdrawal from SB
- New Account Opening for SB/RD/TD
- Higher value Withdrawal
- Mini Statement
- Aadhar Seeding
- Daily Transaction report
Benefits of DARPAN
These are the following benfits of DARPAN.
- Providing banking solutions to the un-banked rural population.
- CBS solutions – deposit and withdraw from anywhere.
- Ease of deposit and withdrawal and real-time account update.
- Rural postal life insurance would be available to the citizens in last mile of the country.
- Other postal services such as eMO transactions just in hours (online Bos) in any part of the country.
- Disbursal of govt. schemes as MNREGS, Old age Pension etc.
- Any other government schemes in future.
- Speed post booking from their next door.
Challenges
| Challenges | Achievements |
|---|---|
| Connectivity | Major challenges going to the rural part of the country Connectivity was provided by private mobile operators Transaction happening in approx. 80% of the successful rolled out location More than 17 million transactions so far and increasing INR 20 billion by value INR 1189 average per transaction. |
| Power Situation | Power situation is not uniform throughout the rural India Solar Solution with UPS have been provided to 75% of the BPM where the power situation is below average Additional battery with separate charging module BPM can work with 2 batteries for 3 days. |
Upcoming services
| Future Services | Status |
|---|---|
| Mail Operations, speed post booking and delivery, registered article booking and | Under live testing into the field. |
| Aadhar enabled payment, Deposits, transfers and bill payments | Advanced phase and would be available soon. |
| The DOP card based Payment as Micro ATM, Deposits, transfers and bill payment | Would be available soon. |
| Postal Life Insurance – new policy and renewal | Under final stage of testing |
| Post Bank Application | Under advanced stage of development |
| Point of Sale – Stamps and other postal article | Under final testing and would be available soon |
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