Outsourcing to India's postmen

India’s neighborhood ‘dakiya’ (postman) has found himself a new role as outsourcing investigator. Citibank, GE Money, Reliance Infocomm, and Tata Indicom have tapped India Post to handle the verification process of potential customers’ address.

These outsourced arrangements are estimated to fetch up to Rs 3,000 core for India Post to play Nancy Drew to the tune of The Carpenters’ Postman. Included in the line up of new responsibilities are address verification of credit card applicants and customers of post-paid phone plans, on top of the conventional direct mailing services for target customers in select areas.

A senior India Post official points out, “We have a network of 155,000 post offices in every nook and corner of the country, which can be used for carrying out outsourcing work of this scale. Of this total, 137,043 are in rural areas and 16,411 are in urban areas. Besides, our postmen know each and every person in their respective areas.”

This aims to eradicate problems involving the use of fake addresses by unscrupulous individuals out to dupe companies by taking out loans or starting accounts. The companies are counting on the local postmen’s ‘vast experience and contacts’ covered in their beats, each one covering about 250 households.

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