India’s 2.5 lakh welltrained postmen have turned bankers, offering doorstep financial services to even the last man standing in the remotest onehorse hamlets. The ubiquitous men in brown serving in the country’s 155,000 post offices located in every nook and cranny have so far been only delivering letters and parcels but now they are making banking easy for even ordinary citizens by going round homes carrying smart handheld devices to open savings accounts, transfer money, accept cash deposits, facilitate withdrawals and what have you.

   This has become possible with Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally launching on September 1, 2018 the long-delayed India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a 100% government-owned public limited company under the Department of Posts (DoP), with 650 branches in post offices in every district of the country.

Access points

   The 180 million post office savings bank accounts with an....