Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Saturday that the Department of Posts is working on restructuring the business process to move to a digital platform. He emphasised that the postal service is a public service. 

Speaking at the 50th Foundation Day celebration of the Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service, the Telecom Minister highlighted that this shift is especially important due to the growth of e-commerce, enabling the department to take a leading role in this new business area. "Our department is going to go digital. Our department is going through a business process restructuring exercise, where we will transform ourselves in the days to come into a logistics corporation, where we must become the leaders in the world, with a new business avenue that is growing in terms of e-commerce," said Scindia.

He pointed out that with 1,64,000 post offices, the Department of Posts currently has the biggest distribution network in the world. "We serve the common man...Not only officers sitting in Dak Bhawan but my grameen (rural) Dak Sewak ... who on the field goes from house to house...he is the epitome of the slogans -- Dak Sewa is a Jan Sewa," he said. According to him, the digital transformation is in line with India's overarching objectives of closing the digital divide and improving information access for all residents. India has made great progress in telecommunications, with a penetration rate of over 86%, according to the minister. He emphasised that innovation, inclusivity, and security should be the key principles for future development.

The minister also discussed how the telecommunications sector has transformed over the last 50 years and recognised the important contributions of various stakeholders. "We were dependent fully on foreign technology. We were limited to landline phones...we were used to manual switching systems and mobile technology was a very, very distant dream and in that environment, it is this cadre (IP&TAFS) that has formed the very backbone of our telecom sector, strengthening us financially and empowering us to look at new fields of development," Scindia remarked.

He mentioned that the country is making a big leap by moving from traditional terrestrial networks to non-terrestrial networks. He also highlighted that there has been impressive growth in internet and broadband subscriptions in the country over the last ten years. "10 years ago, we had 250 million internet subscribers. Today, we have 954 million internet subscribers. Every single person in this country would only consume 1 GB of data. Today, the average GB of data consumed is 20 GB. Broadband subscribers have increased from 60 million to 924 million." 

"India followed the world in 4G, it marched with the world in 5G, and it will lead the world in 6G," Scindia reiterated his statement. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar attended the event as well.