government company for setting up a payments bank. In 2017, Raipur and Ranchi were set up as
      branches of IPPB.
           The Bank offers savings accounts, money transfer and insurances through third parties, bill
      and utility payments. The Bank - an initiative towards financial inclusion - is envisaged to reach
      rural and far-flung areas of the country delivering banking services at every doorstep.
      Rural Business
           Department of Posts has a predominantly rural network of 1,39,067 Post Offices in rural
      areas out of the total 1,54,965 post offices in the country. The Rural Business (RB) Division of
      the Department of Posts (DoP) has been given the mandate of leveraging the rural network
      spread across the length and breadth of country to provide accessible and affordable Financial
      and Postal services to the people in rural areas.
      Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance
           Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1st February 1884, as a welfare scheme for
      the benefit of postal employees and later extended to the employees of telegraph department in
      1888. It now covers employees of central and state governments, central and state public sector
      undertakings, universities, government aided educational institutions, nationalized banks and
      local bodies. PLI also extends the facility of insurance to defence services and para-military
      forces. Life cover through Postal Life Insurance has been extended to employees of scheduled
      commercial banks, credit co-operative societies, joint ventures having a minimum 10 per cent
      stake of central/state govt/PSUs/banks etc., universities/educational institutions affiliated to
      University Grants Commission/Central Board of Secondary Education/All India Council of
      Technical Education/Medical Council of India. Benefits of PLI are now available to
      professionals such as Doctors, Engineers, Management Consultants, Charted Accountants,
      Architects, Lawyers, Bankers etc. and to employees of listed companies of NSE (National Stock
      Exchange) and BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange)
           Starting with upper insurance limit of ₹ 4,000/-, maximum sum assured is now ₹ 50 lakh
      (Rupees fifty lakh) for all schemes. There are more than 63.69 lakh policy holders as on March
      31, 2018 with a sum of ₹ 1,22,554.08 crore assured. Premium income of Postal Life Insurance
      for the year 2017-18 was ₹ 7,499. 18 crore. Postal Life Insurance also manages a Group
      Insurance Scheme for the Extra Departmental Employees (Gramin Dak Sevaks) of the
      Department of Posts.
      Rural Postal Life Insurance
           Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) was started in 1995. The prime objective of the scheme
      is to provide insurance cover to the rural public in general and to benefit weaker sections and
      women workers of rural areas in particular and also to spread insurance awareness among the
      rural population.
           With liberalization of insurance sector, PLI and RPLI are operating in a very competitive
      market. PLI and RPLI continue to offer life insurance cover at lower premium rate and higher
      bonus. Therefore, various schemes of PLI and RPLI are very popular amongst eligible clients
      and doing well. There are more than 241.1 lakh RPLI policies as on March 31, 2018 with a sum
      of ₹ 1,16,17,428.14 crore assured.
           PLI offers 6 (six) types of plans: whole life assurance (Surakha), convertible whole life