“Postal services are relevant everywhere, but not as much as they are in rural areas. We want to provide better services to the aam aadmi, and the gram sevaks,” he said while speaking at the GPO building in South Mumbai.

The staffers in the rural areas were not rewarded as well as they should have been. Under the guidance of Jyotiraditya Scindia (Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology) a scheme called ‘Project Arrow’ has been introduced, whereby the postal services in rural areas will be modernised and services for gram sevaks will be improved considerably, he said.

“The plan will be executed in two phases. The first phase will start with 50 post offices in 10 postal circles and will extend to 450 more after August 15, 2008,” said Bali, adding that the cost of Project Arrow would be roughly around Rs 15 crore and would possibly exceed fund allocations.

“We want to make the postal service even more reliable and we are looking for a long-term change in the system,” said Bali, adding that there would also be introduction of international money-order services, among other things. Project Arrow will focus on ‘getting the core right’ and ‘modernising the look and feel’ of the postal service system. Bali also said that when it came to the makeover that India Post would soon be undergoing, they would make sure that it would not be radical, but a gradual change. “Changing brand identity is not easy, because there is so much recognition regarding the post as it is,” he said.