With the completion of the DARPAN project, which aims at digitalising rural post offices, there will be a big change in the lives of rural people, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said here on Thursday.He said 650 India Post Payments Banks (IPPBs) will start working by March 31, 2018."As you know, by 31 March, the Indian postal department will establish 650 India Post Payments Banks. This was a big challenge for us which has now reached its last phase," Sinha said at an event here."Another great challenge that the department has taken up is to connect these 650 IPPBs to the 1.5 lakh post offices in the country."The DARPAN project -- Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for a New India -- is a part of the larger IT modernisation project being undertaken by the Department of Posts at an outlay of around Rs 1,400 crore."The goal of the project is to provide a low power technology solution (information and communications technology device) to each Branch Postmaster which will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakh Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states," a statement from the Department of Posts said.It added that the primary business goal of the DARPAN project is to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve "financial inclusion" of un-banked rural population, while taking advantage of this opportunity to increase revenue traffic."As on December 15, 2017, 43,171 BOs have been migrated under the DARPAN project with the aim of financial inclusion to the rural population of the country. It is targeted to complete the project by March 2018," the statement added.