All India Postal Employees Union, Group-C, Odisha Circle: November 2021

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Union Minister Dr Jitendra launches unique Face Recognition Technology for Pensioners, says it will bring Ease of Living for the retired and elderly citizens

Technology to benefit 68 lakh Central Government Pensioners and Crores of Pensioners from EPFO and State Governments: Dr Jitendra Singh

Posted On: 29 NOV 2021 4:26PM by PIB Delhi

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today launched unique Face Recognition Technology for Pensioners and said, this will bring ease of living for the retired and the elderly citizens.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Face Recognition Technique of giving Life Certificate is a historic and far reaching reform, since it will touch the lives of not only 68 lakh Central Government Pensioners but also Crores of Pensioners who fall outside the jurisdiction of this Department such as EPFO, State Government Pensioners etc. He thanked National Infomatics Center (NIC), the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology as well as UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) for devising this technology and making such an initiative of Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare possible.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always sought "ease of living" for all sections of society including the retirees and pensioners who are the nation's assets with all their experience and long years of service rendered by them. He also reiterated that during the Corona pandemic too, the Department of Pension brought about several reforms for release of provisional pension/family pension.

The Minister said that the Department of Pension has been extensively using technology to achieve this end, be it introduction of Digital Life Certificate, introduction of an intelligent common software “Bhavishya” for all Government of India Ministries for processing Pension cases. He said, the effort in issuing Electronic PPOs and pushing the same in Digi locker is a huge step towards Ease of Living and transparency. He said, the Department has also been bringing out e-booklets for Pensioner awareness and carrying out an Awareness campaign on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and other social media. The informative films on social media have become quite popular showing a record number of hits, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Grievance redressal portal CPENGRAMS along with a Call-centre is another example of digitization. He said, at the behest of the Prime Minister, the Department also started a portal entitled “Anubhav” to show-case the experiences in Government of retiring officials which has now become a huge resource base for us. The Department not only introduced the concept of Pension Adalats but has leveraged technology to hold digital Adalats through video-conferencing.

Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that the Department of Pension had started the system of registering Pensioners’ Associations in different cities and with around 46 registered Associations in different cities, the Department has been able to strengthen its hands in being able to reach the grass-root level of the Pensioners for helping them as well as taking help from them in spreading awareness of the Pension Policy Reforms. He added that recently the Department brought out NPS Service-related Rules as well as Gratuity Rules for officials covered under NPS. The Minister hoped that the mammoth task of Review & Rationalisation of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 has reached the final stages and shall be released shortly.

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The UN specialized agency for the postal sector began work on its new strategy and business plan during sessions of its Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council.

It was the first regular gathering of the two decision-making bodies following the completion of the Universal Postal Congress held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, this past August, which set the course for the organization’s work until 2025.

Opening the meeting of the Council of Administration (CA), the Union’s supervisory body, Director General Bishar A. Hussein noted the “tumultuous period” facing the organization, encouraging CA members to work swiftly on making the Union’s work more efficient and effective.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced posts to be creative, adaptive, and innovative. It is against this background that CA plays a key role by addressing challenging questions of the UPU,” he said.

The session was the first for incoming CA Chair, Côte d’Ivoire, represented by La Poste Côte d’Ivoire CEO Isaac Gnamba-Yao, and POC Chair, France, represented by La Poste France Director of European/International Relations, Jean-Paul Forceville.

On his hopes for the Council’s first session, Mr. Gnamba-Yao said, “I think it is important we maintain the spirit of Abidjan. And we ensure that every voice is made to count in order to ensure that there is no ‘us and them’ between developed and developing countries. We must work together to implement the initial activities on what is going to be a long road to 2025.”

For his part, Mr. Forceville added, “Your contributions to the work of the POC are essential and, in close collaboration with the vice-chairs, I’ll ensure that you are heard and I’ll try to ensure that you participate actively in the work of the POC.”

“It’s vital that work get started quickly because the sector is changing so quickly … and UPU needs to be in a position to keep pace with those changes. The stakes are indeed very high,” he said.

Opening up

A key topic addressed by the CA was the opening of the organization to wider postal sector players. Members agreed to establish a task force that will study the matter in 2022, ahead of the 2023 Extraordinary Congress that will take decisions on plans for the opening.

Currently, postal operators designated by governments are the only players with full access to UPU products and services and are the only ones allowed to participate in the organization’s decision-making processes. However, non-designated are increasing their share in growing markets, such as express services and parcels and posts are needing to work with an increasing number of partners outside of the UPU’s membership.

The Council will also oversee work on the Union’s governance and management, postal policy and regulation, strategy implementation, postal economics, market research, development cooperation and technical assistance.

Exchanging data

The POC set forward a plan to tackle a number of matters aimed at modernizing technical and operational aspects of the business, including the exchange of electronic advance data (EAD) to meet security and customs regulatory requirements.

The UPU developed what is known as the “Global Postal Model” in response to the emerging EAD requirements across the global postal supply chain and help posts meet the needs associated with global e-commerce. Work over the previous four-year cycle helped ensure countries could meet new regulations coming into force internationally in 2020-21.

This cycle will see the POC the continuation of work on advancing the quality and compliance of EAD exchanges to improve global postal security, tackling any remaining issues hindering global uptake of the technology – namely, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing regulatory changes, and operational disparities between regions.

Apart from EAD, the POC will be responsible for tackling the Union’s work on various aspects of global e-commerce, physical services, the postal supply chain, postal financial services, markets development and innovation.

The POC met 22 to 24 November, while countries gathered for the CA on 25 and 26 November. The next sessions will be held 9 through 20 May 2022.