Q.Write a detailed note on various facilities offered by Indian Postal Department.

• Financial facilities — post-office savings schemes such as PPF, Kisan Vikas Patra and National Saving Certificates, plus monthly income schemes, recurring deposits, savings accounts, time deposits and money orders.
• Mail facilities — parcel (transmission of articles), registration (security for articles) and insurance (cover for risks in transit). …

How the postal system is organised

The Indian Post and Telegraph Department provides various postal services across India. For this the country is divided into 22 postal circles, which manage the day-to-day working of the head post offices, sub-post offices and branch post offices. The facilities are broadly of two categories, plus a set of allied services.

Financial facilities

Offered through post-office savings schemes such as the Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra and National Saving Certificates, in addition to normal retail-banking functions like monthly income schemes, recurring deposits, savings accounts, time deposits and the money-order facility.

Mail facilities

• Parcel — transmission of articles from one place to another.
• Registration — to give security to the transmitted articles.
• Insurance — to provide cover for all risks while articles are in transmission by post.

Allied facilities

• Greeting post — a range of greeting cards for every occasion.
• Media post — a vehicle for Indian corporates to advertise their brand through postcards, envelopes, aerograms, telegrams and letterboxes.
• Direct post — for direct advertising; can be either addressed or unaddressed.
• International Money Transfer — in collaboration with Western Union Financial Services (USA), enabling remittance of money from 185 countries to India.
• Passport facilities — a partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs to facilitate passport applications. …