New Delhi:
Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India Post with
the world's largest postal network is best suited to offer delivery services to
e-commerce firms.
Mr Prasad, who met Probationers
of the 2013 batch of the Indian Postal Service here, said there is a need to
expose young officers to the latest developments and emerging trends in the
postal and logistics sectors.
The minister highlighted that the Digital India project, which aims to
make broadband facility available in every village across the country, would
drive up e-commerce business in villages.
With its unparalleled rural reach, India Post would be best suited to
offer delivery services to e-commerce players, he added.
India Post has over 1.55 lakh post offices of which more than 1.39 lakh
are in the rural areas. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.21
sq. km and a population of 7,175 people.
According to market analysts, last-mile delivery of products ordered by
online shoppers will figure as one of the major deciding factors for e-commerce
firms like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, etc.
Firms are already offering one-day delivery and this will further
intensify with firms investing hugely in logistics to ramp up their delivery
system.
The opportunity in back-end logistics for online shopping segment is
estimated to be about Rs. 3,500-4,000 crore, a major part of which is
last mile delivery.
According to a joint study by consultancy firm PwC and industry body
Assocham, the size of the e-retail industry is poised to touch 10-20 billion by
2017-2020 and e-commerce firms are expected to spend up to 1.9 billion by
2017-2020 on infrastructure, logistics and warehousing.
Another report by consulting firm Technopak pegs the 2.3 billion
e-tailing market to reach 32 billion by 2020.
Mr Prasad said Post Office can also become a focal point for delivering
not only government services but also e-services to the people as in e-service
centres, apart from commercially remunerative services for corporate/private
players including conducting market surveys, information dissemination, etc
SOURCE:http://profit.ndtv.com
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