Your addresses might now follow the path of monetary transactions. Just as the launch and popularisation, and subsequent democratisation of the UPI payments system did away with the need to remember bank account numbers and IFSC codes for money transfers, the same might happen to your addresses - courtesy India Post's new initiative 'DHRUVA.'
What is DHRUVA?
The Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address, or DHRUVA framework has been under consideration for a few months now, The Hindu reported. One of its main features DIGIPIN was rolled out in March of this year.
Through DHRUVA, India Post seeks to substitute long-form physical addresses with shorter forms like an e-mail or UPI address. Lengthy address forms will be reduced to 'name@entity' like formats.
The government hopes for participation from e-commerce platforms, where consumers have to enter long addresses nearly each time they buy something, for the product to be delivered. Instead of addresses, the DHRUVA label will give the service providers a precise location of the consumers through geographic coordinates, The Hindu reported.
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What is DIGIPIN?
A precursor to the DHRUVA framework, DIGIPIN was rolled out by India Post in March 2025, which is a ten-character representation of the latitude and longitude coordinates of a person. DIGIPIN allows pinpointing exact locations and eliminates the need to use full-length addresses.
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Will your data be safe with DHRUVA?
The Department of Posts has released a draft amendment to the Post Office Act, 2023, to introduce DHRUVA. The entire operation will run on the consent of consumers in allowing private firms to use their DHRUVA labels. Re-authorisation will be required from time to time.
The government is not planning on making the usage and incorporation of DHRUVA mandatory for private player, but believes that the uncluttered nature of the platform will be lucrative enough for them to join the program, The Hindu reported.
