Hon’ble Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha today launched here the DARPAN-PLI App, which will help in collection of premium for PLI and RPLI policies at Branch Post Offices anywhere in India, with online updation of the policies. Further, with launch of this App, indexing of maturity claims in respect of PLI and RPLI polices can be done at Branch Post Office itself, upon which the insurant will immediately be provided with the request number for further references. Shri Sinha said that these two initiatives will help Department of Posts in providing better after-sales service to customers of PLI and RPLI, particularly those living in rural areas of the country.Shri Sinha said, with a view to achieve total digitisation of postal operations in the country, under the IT Modernisation Plan, Department of Posts has launched DIGITAL ADVANCEMENT OF RURAL POST OFFICE FOR A NEW INDIA (DARPAN) Project, which aims at connecting all 1.29 lakh Rural Branch Post Offices in the country to enable them to do online Postal and Financial Transactions. Hand held devices with SIM connectivity and solar power backup are being installed in all Branch Post Offices in the Country. The total Project cost is more than Rs.1300 crores. 61,941 Branch Post Offices have been rolled out under DARPAN Project as on 11th April 2018.The Hand-held devices installed under DARPAN Project will ensure improvement in the quality of Postal services being offered in remote rural areas. Customers in these areas can now avail the facility of online Core Banking, booking of Registered and Speed Post articles, booking of Money Orders, deposit of Postal Life Insurance / Rural Postal Life Insurance premium and indexing of PLI / RPLI maturity claims through hand-held devices being used at branch post offices.