India Post to Increase the Parcel Transportation Channels

After collecting Rs.1,500 crore at the end of March 2016 in cash for delivering parcels for various e-commerce portals, including Amazon and Flipkart, the postal department now plans to have dedicated road routes for short distances and dedicated trains for longer routes to deliver parcels.

A senior department of posts (DoP) official, requesting anonymity, said B.V. Sudhakar, secretary of DoP, met officials from the ministry of railways earlier this month to explore areas to increase parcel delivery capacity, especially from e-commerce firms, through the railways.

“We are exploring various modes to deliver e-commerce parcels. We plan to buy our own vehicles for delivery through roads. Currently, we outsource and have few vehicles. Besides, we are looking towards increasing association with the railways and are in discussion with them for dedicated trains for parcels,” the official said.

The boom in the e-commerce sector has come as a lifeline for the postal department. The cash collected from e-commerce deliveries by DoP was Rs.500 crore in 2014-15, and a meagre Rs100 crore in 2013-14.

The e-commerce sector in India is expected to grow to $119 billion by 2020 with a total of 320 million shoppers, according to a report released in February by Morgan Stanley.

To be sure, India Post already has tie-up with the railways for transporting parcels and the plan is to increase the capacity in the trains to manage the load which is increasing day by day.

The postal department plans to buy 250-300 new vehicles this year and have a fleet of around 1,300 vehicles for inter-city transport and short distances outside cities.

A senior official at the ministry of railways, who also did not want to be named, said, “We have made extra parcel vans and we plan to have full parcel trains. It is under consideration but it is at an exploratory stage. We have an old association with the DoP and have a railway mail service as well. The DoP and the railways are together exploring the possibility.”

The cash-crunched Indian Railways is exploring all possible ways to increase its fare and non-fare revenues, and is also exploring external financing options to execute various projects.

In the budget of 2016, railway minister Suresh Prabhu had said that the ministry will look at liberalising parcel policies to increase non-fare revenue and it will expand its service offerings especially to cater to sectors such as e-commerce. Prabhu also had said that soon time-tabled parcel trains will be introduced.

As per the Indian Railways Statistical Publications 2014-15, the revenue from parcels and other coaching in financial year 2014-15 was Rs.3,997.89 crore.

Queries emailed to the spokespersons of the ministry of railways and the DoP on 11 August remained unanswered.

According to experts, the coming together of Indian Railways and India Post has the potential of creating a formidable logistics ecosystem.

“The big picture is that we are living in a digital age and once we have a digital platform, you can do a lot of things. It could be e-commerce, education, healthcare, etc. So in India, this is an amazing combination—the post office has last mile connectivity right to the villages and the Indian Railways has a wonderful network,” said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP.

Both are government departments and it is an absolutely fantastic combination as it can only create value for the people of India, added Joshi.

The postal department has set up 48 processing centres to handle parcels for handling the e-commerce load. Besides, it is also setting up automatic parcel centres at Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The department already has such centres in New Delhi and Kolkata.

Source: Post Bank of India

Outsourcing of pick up, booking and delivery of Speed Post, Registered Post (including Parcel) and Business and Express Parcel - instructions for implementation of the scheme

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ORDER

Source : NFPE blog

How an India Post E-Commerce Centre Works

With ecommerce platforms increasingly turning to the Indian Posts to deliver their orders to customers, the fast flourishing e-retail business has become a revenue generator for the state-run agency.  Realising the potential, the Postal Department has set up a dedicated ecommerce and parcel processing centers in the country.

Below video shows that how one such ecommerce centre works.  This will be a new experience even for India Post employees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJYuZg_Buo

We wish to inform you that CCS-REVISED PAY RULES, 2016 (as per 7th CPC) is released.

We wish to inform you that CCS-REVISED PAY RULES, 2016 (as per 7th CPC) is released.

Price Rs.120. If you require a copy, kindly send Rs.150 (including postage) by eMO/NEFT.

 

ACCOUNT HOLDER’S NAME	BOOK CENTRE
ACCOUNT NUMBER	04481010000244
ACCOUNT TYPE	CURRENT ACCOUNT
IFSC CODE	SYNB0000448
BANK NAME	SYNDICATE BANK
BRANCH	BASAVESHWARA ROAD, BANGALORE

Yours Sincerely,

BOOK CENTRE

32, Payappa Garden Street,

Queens Road Cross,

Shivaji Nagar,

BANGALORE - 560051

Phone: 080-41464152 &  22862152

Business hours : 10AM to 6PM

SUNDAY HOLIDAY

Day-10 - IPO Exam - MCQ - Union of India and its Territory & Citizenship (Constitution of India)

Source: PO Tools

Day - 9 - IPO Exam - Preamble (Constitution of India)

Day - 9 - IPO Exam - Preamble (Constitution of India)

Claiming tax relief on salary arrears? Don't forget to file Form 10E

Receiving salary or pension in arrears might change your tax situation. You may fear it's going to move you up a tax slab. Or tax rates may be higher in the year arrears are received as compared to the year to which they belong. To protect you from any additional tax burden, due to delay in receiving income, the tax laws allow a relief under Section 89(1). This relief can be directly claimed in your income tax return, if you have received any portion of your salary in arrears. 

The Income Tax Department has made it mandatory to file Form 10E if you want to claim relief under Section 89(1). As per Section 89(1), tax relief is provided by recalculating tax for both the years; the year in which arrears are received and the year to which the arrears pertain. Your taxes are adjusted assuming arrears were received in the year in which they were due. 

Let's understand this calculation in detail. Tax for the year in which arrears are received is calculated both inclusive as well as exclusive of arrears. The difference is the tax on additional salary, let's call it x. Now tax is computed for every year to which the arrears pertain- including as well as excluding arrears. The difference is arrived at, let's call it y. If x is more than y, relief is available to the taxpayer. 

Here are some important things to remember while claiming relief on arrears: 

• Form 10E must be filed online on the Income Tax Department website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in . Taxpayers who claimed relief last financial year but did not file Form 10E received a notice from the department for non-compliance. Your return is not processed until you submit this form. 
• You must submit Form 10E before filing your income tax return. 
• Many taxpayers are confused about which assessment year to choose while filing Form 10E. Arrears may pertain to earlier years, however, one has to choose the assessment year in which arrears have been received. For example, if arrears are received in financial year FY 2015-16, choose assessment year as AY 2016-17. 
• Form 10E has to be submitted online and no copy is required to be attached with your tax return. However, you must file and keep all documents safely in your records. 
• Your employer may ask for confirmation of submission of Form 10E before adjusting your taxes and allowing tax relief. It is not mandatory to submit this form to the employer. You can claim tax relief by filing this form at the time of submitting your tax returns. 
• Salary is usually taxable when it is due or when it actually received, whichever is earlier. Arrears are usually announced from a back date and therefore cannot be taxed when due. 

Relief under Section 89(1) is also allowed to those who receive family pension in arrears. The calculation is the same as mentioned above. Do remember this very important step while filing your returns if you have received arrears during the financial year. 

(By Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO, ClearTax.com) 

Source:-The Economic Times

Shri B. V. Sudhakar is our new Postal Director General

Shri B. V. Sudhakar is our new Director General

G Mail to be stopped w.e.f. 01.09.2016 in India Post domain

This is regarding regularizing email communications between various levels in the Indiapost VPN network. Towards implementation of the Technology Policy, the following email policy is proposed to be adopted, from 1st September 2016.

1. Email from India post email ID to all other emails are to be allowed in the Indiapost VPN Network
2. Emails from any other emails to India post mail ID is to be allowed
3. Emails of all other email service providers like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail etc will not be allowed to open in India post VPN Network

Email IDS have been provided to all offices in the country.

• All official designations (Officers) up to Sub-Divisions have already been created and communicated
• Email IDs to offices in 10 Circles, up to Single handed SPMs completed
• Email IDs to all offices in Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi circles would be circulated by 10thAugust 2016
• Email IDs to all offices in Maharashtra, Gujrat, Tamilnadu, Andhra pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab Circle would be circulated by 15th August 2016.

Hence, all officials at all levels should be informed and educated to use India post email ID for all correspondences. The email communications between circles, regions, divisions and post offices including the system administrators should be strictly implemented to use India post mail IDs alone.

This may kindly be circulated to all concerned to prepare them for using Indiapost email, as access to all other mail services would be stopped from 1st September 2016 in our network.

Yours Sincerely,

(V M Sakthivelu)

Deputy Director CEPT

dd_cept@indiapost.gov.in

7th CPC Gazette Notification and Pay rules

The Government has published the 7th CPC gazette notification. 

CLICK HERE FOR PAY RULES 

CLICK HERE FOR RESOULTION 


Source:http://karnatakacoc.blogspot.in/2016/07/7th-cpc-gazette-notification.html?m=1

e-gazette Notification regarding 7CPC issued 25.07.2016

e-gazette Notification regarding 7CPC issued 25.07.2016 : Download

Source : http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2016/170924.pdf

Courtesy : SA Post

NASA's New Horizons postage stamp enters Guinness Book of World Records!

Image courtesy: NASA/Dan Afzal/U.S. Postal Service

New Delhi: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is currently administering a probe in and around Pluto and for those of you who are unaware, it is also carrying a 1991 “Pluto Not Yet Explored” postage stamp.

Yesterday, July 19, NASA proudly announced that the stamp in question has earned a Guinness Book of World Record honour for the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp!

Jimmy Coggins, official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, during a presentation ceremony on July 19 in the Hall of Flags at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said, “Our mission is to make the amazing official,” as reported by NASA.

Well, it certainly seems like they have! As per NASA, the 29-cent “Pluto Not Yet Explored” stamp became a rallying cry for the New Horizons mission team, which affixed it on the spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Florida, prior to launch on Jan. 19, 2006. The stamp hitched a ride of more than 3.2 billion miles to Pluto, reaching the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015, bringing humanity its first breathtaking close-ups of the mysterious world.

However, the stamp was cancelled last July when New Horizons flew past Pluto.

The “Pluto Not Yet Explored” stamp is now 274-million miles (441-million kilometers) beyond Pluto, in a quest of sorts, it seems, to break its own record.

8500 post offices will turn into e-Centers by June next year

State Minister for Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Thursday said the government would turn 8,500 post offices into e-centres by June, 2017 to disseminate information and communication technology services to the rural people across the country. He said this on behalf of State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Begum Tarana Halim while replying to a starred question from treasury bench member Sukumar Ranjan Ghosh in the House.

The government has undertaken a project named Post E-Centre for the Rural Community to turn the post offices into e-centers, he said adding, these e-centers would minimize the digital divide between cities and villages, create employment facilities in villages and develop information and technology based skilled manpower.

He said after completing the project, the people would get more updated facilities from post offices and they would be able to track and trace their letters sitting at home. The people would also be able to use cash, postal cash cards or electronic money transfer service (EMTS) and to pay their e-commerce bills through the services, Palak said. Meanwhile, establishment of the ICT based rural post offices has been completed and such 1,000 more offices will be established by June 2017, he added.

Source : http://dailyasianage.com/

Cyber Attacks Continue and Global Banking Sector in Anxiety

Cyber Attacks Continue and Global Banking Sector in Anxiety Posted: 24 Jul 2016 05:56 AM PDT A series of spectacular cyber-attacks against banks, resulting in the theft of tens of millions of dollars, has heightened fears for an industry becoming an increasingly attractive target for hackers. Banks in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam and Ecuador have been victimized over the past year in the attacks on the global interbank service known as SWIFT, and some analysts expect more attacks to become public. After news of the $81 million heist from Bangladesh's central bank became public in May, SWIFT said the incident was "not a single occurrence, but part of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks." Since then, officials said banks have also been hit in the Philippines and Vietnam. Meanwhile Ecuador's Banco del Austro claimed in a lawsuit that hackers made off with more than $9 million through fraudulent SWIFT transfer requests. Cyber security specialists say these attacks are likely just the tip of the iceberg, and expect more revelations. "Cyber criminals are no longer targeting grandmothers at home for small amounts, but going directly where the money is," said Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a researcher with the security firm Kaspersky. Guerrero-Saade said it's not clear where the attacks are coming from, but that the hackers are using techniques similar to those developed for cyber espionage. "I don't think this implies it's nation-states, it's more of an evolution," the analyst said. "It's criminal actors taking on some of those techniques." Kaspersky researchers last year uncovered a hacker group which targeted banks in Eastern Europe, estimating losses totaling up to $1 billion. Dan Guido, cofounder of the security firm Trail of Bits and hacker-in-residence at New York University's engineering school, said the recent security breaches are not surprising. "I didn't think it would take this long," Guido said. "There are a large number of attacks like this possible if someone has the resources to do it." Guido said a relatively small team of determined hackers could carry out the kind of hacks that went through SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a Brussels-based network which is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries. The blame, Guido said, rests squarely with SWIFT for failing to bolster its software or require more secure hardware. "It's clearly within their control to have prevented incidents like this," Guido said. "They could have had more aggressive security requirements, they could have had protective hardware." On July 11, SWIFT announced it had hired cyber security firms BAE Systems and Fox-IT while creating its own security intelligence team in an effort to thwart attacks. In the United States, concerns have been raised among officials, industry leaders and lawmakers about potential threats to banks from hackers. Data breaches in the past affected some tens of millions of JPMorgan Chase customers, and accounts from financial giant Morgan Stanley. And a congressional report in June found "major data breaches" at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Senator Tom Carper last month asked the Department of Homeland Security for a briefing for an investigation into vulnerabilities of the US financial system. The American Bankers Association in July joined with other financial and security organizations to warn of possible risks. "While recent events targeted national financial institutions with access to a global payment network, financial institutions should assess the risk of all critical systems to ensure appropriate controls are in place," said the warning, calling for a series of new controls and safeguards against cyber-attacks. Christiaan Beek of Intel's McAfee Labs said the hackers that targeted SWIFT were well organized and resourceful. "We can see that the attackers have done their reconnaissance properly and may have used an insider to get the details they needed to prepare their attack," Beek said in a blog post. "The attackers have a very good understanding of the SWIFT messaging system and how to manipulate the system to prevent the detection of their fraudulent attempts of transferring the money." Researchers at the security firm Symantec concluded that malware used in the bank hacks shared code with that used in the massive 2014 cyber attack against Sony Pictures. Guido said it is entirely plausible that US banks could face similar attacks. "I don't see why it can't happen here," he said. "There are a lot of smaller banks that don't have expertise and guidance to protect their interconnections." Guerrero-Saade said a key part of staying ahead of hackers is sharing information about threats to enable security solutions, since many companies fear disclosure would hurt their business. "Sadly most companies don't tend to be very forward looking, they think that if they don't sound the bell themselves no one will find out," he said. "It's much better for us to get ahead of this as an international community." source: Times of India

India Post to Open Payment Bank in Every District in India

India Post to Open Payment Bank in Every District in India Posted: 22 Jul 2016 11:41 AM PDT India Post expects to start the first 50 branches of its payments bank by May 2017, seeking to widen financial inclusion in the country. As per the current plan, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) - as it has been termed will eventually have 650 branches across the country. While the first set of branches will open by May, the remaining will start operations by September 2017, a top official of the Department of Posts said. The department hopes to submit a final proposal to the Reserve Bank of India by February, ahead of the March 2017 deadline, after it has the required management and technology in place, SK Sinha, secretary, Department of Posts, told . The RBI gave in-principle approval to 11 applicants in August last year, including the Department of Posts, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Airtel M Commerce Services, Fino PayTech, National Securities Depository, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and Vodafone m-pesa, for setting up payments banks. Three of the 11 entities have decided to back out, citing unviability. India Post, with a network of about 155,000 post offices, will hire almost 2,000 people for the payments bank operations. "There will be nine board members, five from outside and four internal people from the department, including the CEO," said Sinha. The department is contemplating whether it can form its own search and selection committee to appoint a CEO or rely on the standard procedure followed by public sector banks for top-level appointments. The department has written to state-owned banks seeking nominations. Sinha said the State Bank of India has responded with some names. "For the next rung of leadership such as the chief financial officer, chief operating officer and chief technology officer, we are forming an internal committee," he said. The government has approved Rs 400 crore equity and Rs 400 crore grant for IPPB. Alibaba-backed Paytm is the other or payments frontrunner for payments banks in India and has drawn up a largely branchless model. Sinha said that India Post is looking at catering to the unbanked population of the country with the idea of opening one branch in almost every district of the country. "Most of the other players may not be even thin king of the areas that we want to service," said Sinha. The plan is to have most of the banking features such as money transfer and internet banking, apart from offering credit (in partnership with other banks or institutions), along with financial products such as mutual funds. Sinha is betting big on the government's direct benefits transfer scheme to drive transactions, with welfare payments being deposited in the bank accounts of consumers. updates from Post Bank of India.