Image for illustration purposes only. | Photo credit: File
This week, the Department of Posts published a draft amendment to the Post Office Act 2023, which aims to introduce an interoperable, standardized and user-centric addressing system called Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address, or DHRUVA. The framework has been consulted on for several months, with one key element, DIGIPIN, launched in March.
DHRUVA, a senior official involved in its implementation, said it would be able to replace text addresses with email or UPI address labels such as “name@entity”, which would act as a proxy for a physical address. The government hopes to build the system as part of its digital public infrastructure initiatives and allow private firms to participate.
The department hopes to attract interest from e-commerce and gig platforms where users need to provide addresses across multiple services. On these platforms, individuals could provide a label instead of an address and authorize businesses to instantly receive the geographic coordinates and full text of their address, instead of repeatedly filling out address forms.
The draft amendment would allow the postal department to establish a non-profit entity under the supervision of the state in accordance with Section 8. This body would play a role similar to the National Payments Corporation of India, which is an association of banks managing the UPI payment system.
Based on consent
Users could authorize businesses to display their address for a period of time if they wished, after which the label would require re-authorization. According to the official, there is no compulsion in the draft amendment for private players to join and the ministry hopes the system will be convincing enough for businesses and users to sign up. Labels will be provided by address service providers and the consent architecture will be managed by Address Information Agents, or AIAs.
The DIGIPIN system is the foundation layer for this service, the official said. DIGIPIN is a ten-digit alphanumeric representation of latitude and longitude coordinates. The technology was developed to provide more accurate locations in rural areas or in cases where a textual representation of a physical address does not offer adequate information. DIGIPIN was an open source department and each DIGIPIN corresponds to roughly 14 square meters of land with a mathematical function deterministically generating a unique code. This means approximately 228 billion DIGIPINs for the Indian territory.
Published – 04 Dec 2025 20:06 IST
