After changing the currency situation in India, the government is now looking at ways to change the postal address of your house or office. The department of post, which falls under the ministry of communications, is working on a project with mapping service, MapmyIndia, to give e-locations or eLoc for every property for three postal pin code locations in the country.

The eLoc will shorten an address into a combination of six character alphanumeric code. For example, if your address goes like Block B, house number 42, Sector-18, Noida, the eLoc for this will be something like UV42B7. This code can be used on your visiting card, website, or through any other means, parallelly to the existing address. With this code, one can reach you using the precise directions through MapmyIndia, so you no longer have to get on repeated calls with the taxi driver to explain endlessly to take a right and not left.

Now what makes this arrangement tricky is that the eLoc can provide possibilities of linking the address to other information such as property title and ownership, property tax records, information on utilities like electricity, water, and gas; essentially all the aspects which are linked via Aadhaar, ET reports.

The project is currently approved for two postal pin codes in Delhi, and one in Noida. Now, based on the analysis, it is likely to be expanded to other codes as well. “The results of the proof of concept may be utilized by the department towards developing a digital address format that would suit the purpose for a national-level project rollout,” says a letter signed by additional director-general (mail operations) Abhishek Kumar Singh and sent to MapmyIndia on September 27. 

The e-linkage of the address is aimed at easing up the complex address while also providing the option to link it to other amenities and services. MapmyIndia MD Rakesh Verma is quoted as saying in the report as, “eLoc will help travelers and commuters search, share and navigate to a destination’s exact doorstep far more easily and quickly. It will also reduce time, money, fuel wastage and expenses for businesses in the e-commerce, transportation, logistics and field operations domains”.

The objective of the project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a digital addressing system. With a trove of information linked to an individual’s residential or work address, there is a possibility of misuse. However, the department said the “data or reports, or any other documents generated/created in any electronic or physical form, during the course of the proof of concept”, shall remain with the department, restricting its use for any commercial purpose. 

Although only three postal codes have been identified for digital addresses, there as millions of addresses within the ambit. The postal department will be assisting in the mapping and linking process. It will share the data on maps, verification of the information related to mapping of physical address with the digital addresses and facilitating interactions with their ground staff. Meanwhile, MapmyIndia claimed that it already has an exhaustive digital address database that includes over 2 crore eLocs of individuals, businesses and government set-ups. In addition to the postal department and MapmyIndia, ISRO will also be using its national satellite imagery service ‘Bhuvan’ to provide effective mapping coordinates for the project.

The telecom department (DoT) looks to finalize the new telecom policy by February and would release its draft by December-end for public comments, Union minister Manoj Sinha said.

“We are trying to bring new telecom policy by February. For this the working group has started the process. We expect high level committee working on it to finalise draft by end of December and place it for public comments,” the Communications Minister told reporters.

He said the government expects to complete the first phase of BharatNet project to connect 1 lakh village panchayats to high-speed broadband by the end of November. “Over 75,000-gram panchayats (GPs) are ready with broadband services and all 1 lakh panchayats will be ready for broadband services by end of this month. Every month we are installing equipment in 8,000-9,000 panchayats. The whole project has been executed using domestically developed equipment,” Sinha said.

The minister said that the government is considering various models for rolling out the second phase of the BharatNet project that will cover the remaining 1.5 lakh GPs involving laying of 2.63 lakh kilometres of optical fibres.  He said that BharatNet project will lead to the generation of at least 5 lakh jobs once it is rolled out in all panchayats. “Airtel has shown interest in 10,000 GPs for taking 1 Gbps connectivity on lease while Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea are interested in taking 100 Mbps connectivity on lease in about 30,000, 2,000 and 1,000 GPs respectively,” Sinha said.

The government will charge low rate to telecom operators for providing broadband service under the BharatNet project. The annual charges will vary from Rs. 700 per megabit per second (Mbps) broadband connection for up to 10 Mbps and Rs. 200 per Mbps for 1 Gbps for asymmetrical bandwidth (different download and upload speeds) for services between block to GPs. However, for symmetrical bandwidth between block to GP, the telecom ministry will charge Rs. 1,000 per Mbps up to 10mbps, and Rs. 500 per Mbps for 100mbps per annum. 

There will be no limit on the quantum of data used or the number of connections that telecom operators can sell using BharatNet infrastructure, an official said. Governments of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana had submitted their own models for rolling out broadband networks in the states which the minister said has been approved by the telecom commission. The government will provide total fund of Rs. 10,740 crore to these states for the project.

“We will sign memorandums of understanding with all the states which have submitted their detailed project report in 10 days,” Sinha said. 

BSNL has been given the task to roll out BharatNet project in Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim. Power Grid has been awarded Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Uttarakhand. The minister said the Department of Telecom will also issue approvals to BSNL for rolling out telecom network in North East before November 15. BSNL has selected Vihaan Networks and Himachal Futuristic Communications for rolling out the project. Talking about linking Aadhaar with a mobile phone number for verification, DoT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said the government will not disconnect mobile connections of people who do not have the UIDAI number.

She said the department is waiting for the Supreme Court judgement on Aadhaar issue to decide on the action to be taken in cases where people have Aadhaar but do not want to link it with their mobile number. “We are also working on alternatives for people who are abroad (to help them link their mobile number with Aadhaar),” Sundararajan said.