{"id":202444,"date":"2022-08-29T14:10:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T08:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=202444"},"modified":"2022-08-29T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T10:41:19","slug":"pin-code-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pin-code-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"PIN code @50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article\u202f \u201cPIN code @50 years\u201d<\/strong>\u202fpublished in\u202fThe Hindu<\/strong>\u202fon \u202f29th<\/sup>\u202fAugust 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 \u2013 e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the achievements of the postal code.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: India Post introduced a six-digit Postal Index Number (PIN) code on August 15, 1972. The idea was to give a unique identity to all physical addresses of the country in terms of the delivery jurisdiction of the post offices.<\/p>\n

It is time to analyse the system’s progress in achieving its purpose in the last 50 years.<\/p>\n

Postal code in other countries<\/h5>\n

The postal code is known differently in different countries. For example, postcode, zip code, etc. It is an alpha-numeric or numeric number that is included in the postal address for easy identification of the sorting district and the addressee\u2019s delivery post office.<\/p>\n

The codes were introduced nationwide in Germany in the year 1944, Singapore (1950), Argentina (1958), the U.S. (1963), Switzerland (1964), India (1972), and the U.K. (1974).<\/p>\n

The Universal Postal Union<\/a><\/strong> says that 160 countries of the world have so far introduced postal codes.<\/p>\n

Postal code in India<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Must read: Explained: History of the PIN code, which turns 50 this Independence Day<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The PIN code helps in taking a piece of mail to the addressee\u2019s post office. The delivery jurisdiction of the post office is normally divided into beats and there is a postman assigned to each beat.<\/p>\n

What are the advantages of the postal code?<\/h5>\n

a)<\/strong> The postal code revolutionised the system of manual postal sorting<\/strong> as the sorters are not required to keep in memory the locations of thousands of post offices.<\/p>\n

b)<\/strong> PIN-coded mails in India started improving after the introduction of computerised billing by utility service<\/strong> providers and the launching of KYC norms by banks, where providing complete and accurate addresses is mandatory.<\/p>\n

c)<\/strong> Though the code was originally designed to help postal operations, today it is used by couriers, e-commerce players and various other service providers<\/strong> as a means of locational identification of a person.<\/p>\n

What are the concerns surrounding the postal code?<\/h5>\n

The government made efforts to educate the citizens to write the PIN code of the addressee in the mail. Even after five decades, a)<\/strong> a substantial volume of mail in India is not PIN-coded<\/strong>, b)<\/strong> beat sorting<\/strong> at the post office is done manually<\/strong> in India.<\/p>\n

The code may not be operationally relevant in the new role of a post office. This includes, 1) Personal mail has almost vanished<\/strong> after the revolution of mobile telephony in the last two decades, 2)<\/strong> The postal system at present transport only documents and e-commerce parcels, but it is facing stiff competition from couriers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What should be done to improve the postal code system?<\/h5>\n

Integrating the beat code with the six-digit PIN code<\/strong>: This can facilitate the PIN code not only identifying the addressee\u2019s post office but also the concerned beat.<\/p>\n

Improve connectivity with postman<\/strong>: The post office makes the mobile number of the delivery person of the beat available. This can facilitate citizens to leave instructions regarding their convenience in taking delivery.<\/p>\n

The utilisation of machines<\/strong>: The letter sorting machines, flat sorting machines (handling packets) and parcel sorting machines have a tremendous capacity for sorting in a day. This has to be utilised effectively.<\/p>\n

Centralise the parcel delivery centres and mechanise the beats<\/strong>: The logistic system associated with the e-commerce parcels is intrinsically different from that of handling personal mails. The postman does not need a vehicle for delivery of fewer e-commerce parcels. This should be done with centralised parcel delivery centres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post is based on the article\u202f \u201cPIN code @50 years\u201d\u202fpublished in\u202fThe Hindu\u202fon \u202f29th\u202fAugust 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential. Relevance: About the achievements of the postal code. News: India Post introduced a six-digit Postal Index Number (PIN) code on August 15, 1972. The idea was to give… Continue reading PIN code @50 years<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-202444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704871622},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}