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Achievement · National Platform

India Post — National Mobility Platform

Chief Architect · Department of Post, Government of India · Rural ICT Program

Project BUILDARC was a massive business transformation initiative under the Department of Post Rural ICT program. With INR 5,000 crores invested in enterprise IT infrastructure, the missing link was the “last mile” — a secure, rugged, and ultra-affordable mobility solution to connect 170,000 remote post offices to central banking, insurance, and logistics platforms, delivering digital financial services to 400M+ citizens across rural India.

Chief ArchitectNational Scale$20 Custom HardwareAward-Winning
Impact at Scale

What the platform delivers

400M+
Citizens served
170K
Rural post offices connected
200M
Biometric identities managed
$20
Per-device hardware cost
6 mo
Delivery window
8
Hardware peripherals integrated
The Challenge

Why commercial solutions couldn't solve this

The Indian Government had invested over INR 5,000 crores in enterprise IT infrastructure — secure data centers, nationwide MPLS networks, and core banking platforms like Finacle and McCamish. But the last mile remained unserved:

  • ·The solution had to run on an ultra-low-cost $20 Freescale ARM computing board — standard enterprise mobility and device management OEMs refused to port their software
  • ·Network connectivity across rural India was highly unstable and intermittent
  • ·170,000 deployment locations were predominantly rural with zero on-site technical support
  • ·Devices would act as mobile banking points handling cash disbursements exceeding INR 5 Lakhs — requiring ATM-grade security
  • ·The entire platform had to be operationalized within a tight six-month window
What I Delivered

Five architectural pillars, built from scratch

CUSTOM EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Custom Linux kernel — Configured and loaded a modern Linux kernel, system tools, and Qt SDK onto the $20 ARM hardware
8 peripheral integrations — Biometric scanners, thermal printers, cameras, barcode scanners, GPRS/GPS modules, and secure PIN pads
Native APIs — Low-latency, reliable hardware control under strict power-management constraints
ATM-GRADE FIELD SECURITY
ANSI X9.24 compliant — ATM-grade encryption, decryption, and key management built directly into device firmware
Edge security — Financial data secured at the device level — no dependency on network connectivity for cryptographic operations
Cash handling — Protected mobile banking points managing disbursements exceeding INR 5 Lakhs per transaction
BIOMETRIC IDENTITY PLATFORM
200M identities — Biometric repository covering 20 crore customer and employee entities — roughly one-fifth the scale of Aadhaar
Hadoop + HBase — Distributed storage on Apache Hadoop cluster with HBase NoSQL for massive parallel lookups
Custom MapReduce — Optimized algorithms for identity deduplication and enrollment checks at scale
Real-time auth — Highly optimized web services enabling real-time Proof of Identity from field devices
CUSTOM MDM & SERVICE DELIVERY
OMA-compliant MDM — Custom-developed Remote Device Management platform — commercial MDM software was not viable
OTA updates — Firmware and application updates pushed over-the-air across patchy rural networks
Remote security — Selective lock/wipe for lost devices, dynamic peripheral toggling from central admin
Cross-platform — Service Delivery Platform with OAuth, API management across Linux, Windows, and Android

Cross-Platform App Framework— Designed a portable application development framework using HTML, JavaScript, CSS with custom native plugins. Applications were fully portable across Cordova-supported platforms, ensuring the entire portfolio could scale to Android, iOS, or Windows without code rewrites.

Recognition

Award-winning engineering at national scale

By bypassing commercial software limitations and engineering a bespoke stack from the ground up, BUILDARC successfully brought secure digital banking, logistics, and insurance services to millions of citizens previously cut off from mainstream digital infrastructure. The project earned the PRIMA Awards in Q3, FY 15-16— a testament to what can be achieved when agile engineering meets massive scale.

Technology Stack

Custom-built from the ground up

Embedded LinuxFreescale ARMQt SDKApache HadoopHBaseMapReduceANSI X9.24 CryptoOMA Device ManagementCordovaOAuthGPRS/GPSBiometric SystemsFinacle IntegrationMPLS NetworksOTA UpdatesCross-Platform (Linux/Android/Windows)
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