Cabinet nods Rs 1,877-cr plans of India Post

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday approved the IT modernisation project -- Phase-II of the Department of Posts at Rs 1877.20 crore (Rs 18.77 billion).

The postal department would be floating tenders for procurement of hardware and development of software. Pilots will be held in rural and urban post offices and the final roll out will be completed by September 2012.

Creating an IT infrastructure, including establishment of data centre, networking of the post offices, integrated and modular software for all operations of the postal department have also been approved.

The project will be implemented over a three-year period starting this financial year.

CCEA also decided to increase the annual intake of students for various courses in AIIMS by 182 seats following the implementation of a 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in the prestigious institute.

"After implementation of reservation for OBCs in the institute, the annual intake in various undergraduate, postgraduate and paramedical courses will increase by 182," an official statement said.

Reservation for the OBCs will also facilitate a better health care delivery system, it said, adding that total number of seats will increase without altering the existing number of unreserved seats.

The CCEA also approved a proposal of the health ministry to access a global grant of Rs 609.91 crore (Rs 6.09 billion) to scale up counselling and testing, care and support facility for people suffering from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in India.

The Cabinet also approved the restructuring of cadres of the Military Nursing Service officers.

"The decision will reduce stagnation in the various ranks of MNS by increasing the number of select appointments and will help in retaining competent and qualified officers," a statement said.