Stamps of India Collectors Companion
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August 9, 2001

• Awards at PHILANIPPON 01

• New Stamps Released ? Corals, D P Mishra

• New Issue Update - Devilal Sep 25, 2001

• Philatelic Advisory Committee

• EMPIREPEX 2001

• 13^th FIAP Congress

• AIJP Meeting at Tokyo

• E-post Service Launched In Five States

• Philatelic Management Program

AWARDS AT PHILANIPPON 01
The participants from India did well at PHILANIPPON 2001 Japan World Stamp Exhibition held at Tokyo, Japan from August 1 to 7, 2001. Anil Suri of New Delhi won the 9^th GOLD in last 8 years for ?Fiscals of Cochin?. A M Mollah of Mumbai retained his LARGE VERMEIL for ?Fiscal Stamps of Indore & Jaora?. Ajay K Mittal of New Delhi got upgraded to LARGE VERMEIL for ?Indore?. Pradeep K Agrawal and Nishi Agrawal, both of Patna, won a VERMEIL each for ?Barwani? and ?India After Independence? respectively. In the Philatelic Literature class, Madhukar Deogawanka of Calcutta won LARGE SILVER for ?Brahmini Dawk? and R A Malviya won SILVER for ?Sorath Stamps & Postal History?. The only entry in Open Class by A M Mollah was withdrawn.

Dinesh C Sharma of Nauru won a VERMEIL for ?Summer Olympic Games?. Republic of Nauru is not a member of FIP and FIAP however the organizers accepted this entry. The exhibitor being an Indian national, the Jury asked Indian Commissioner to give his consent to let this exhibit be treated from India. The Indian Commissioner consented to after consulting the Immediate Past President and President Elect of Philatelic Congress of India present in the show.

Other exhibits on India at the show scored as follows: GRAND PRIZE INTERNATIONAL & LARGE GOLD WITH SPECIAL PRIZE, Yaovanee Nirandara, Thailand, ?Burma Under Indian Postal Administration 1817-1870?. GOLD, M A Sayeed, UAE, ?India 1852-55?. GOLD; Nasreen Fatima, UAE, ?India: Queen Victoria, 1855-1900?. LARGE VERMEIL, Avinash Jagtap, Switzerland, ?Handstruck Stamps of India?. LARGE VERMEIL, Akihiko Koiwa, Japan; ?Indian Campaigns?. LARGE VERMEIL, Hasse Brockenhuus Von Loewenhielm, Sweden; ?Jaipur Postal Stationery?. VERMEIL, Ferose Akhtar, UAE,         ?India Postal History 1750-1900?.

Other South Asia exhibits were as follows: Absent, Redwan Al-Karim Bhuiyan, Bangladesh, ?Provisional Period of Bangladesh?. GOLD WITH SPECIAL PRIZE, Leo Martyn, USA, ?The Development of Nepal?s Postal System?. VERMEIL, Rishi K Tulsyan, Nepal, ?Nepal 1779-1911?. LARGE SILVER (Youth Class), Bineet Chandra Jha, Nepal, ?Lord Shiva in Nepalese Philately?. SILVER (Youth Class), Shristi Nhuchhe Pradhan, Nepal, ?Postal Stationery of Nepal?. LARGE VERMEIL, Khalid Malik, ?Pakistan, In the beginning (GB)?. LARGE VERMEIL, M Arif Balgamwala, Pakistan, ?Postal Stationery Overprinted Pakistan?. LARGE SILVER, Iqbal Nanjee, Pakistan, ?History of Palestine Mail?. LARGE SILVER (Literature), M Arif Balgamwala, Pakistan, ?Pakistan Overprints 1947-1949?. VERMEIL (Youth Class), Areej Arif Balgamwala, Pakistan, ?Postal Stationery of Pakistan 1947-1967?. VERMEIL, Shigeo Shimada, Japan, ?Ceylon?. GOLD, David Springbett, UK, ?Ceylon Revenues?.

The Jury awarded the Special Prize from the Philatelic Congress of India in the memory of D N Jatia to Masaaki Oshima from Japan for his Large Gold winning exhibit ? Postal Cards of Japan 1873-1974, Cherry Blossom Issue? in the Postal Stationery Class. 

NEW STAMPS RELEASED
CORALS
Aftaab Seth, Ambassador of India in Japan released the set of 4 stamps on Corals on August 2, 2001 at Tokyo. This was the only stamp release ceremony held during PHILANIPPON 01. Gautam Gupta, Member Operations, Postal Services Board, Knud Mohr, President FIP, Peng Hian Tay President FIAP, Hiroyuki Kanai, President Japan Philatelic Federation, and other international jury members, national commissioners and collectors of India were present during the ceremony.

The corals that figure on the stamps are Acropora digitifera (Rs 4), Fungia horrida (Rs 4), Montipora acquituberculata (Rs 15) and Acropora Formosa (Rs. 45).  The first two stamps are for the Inland Letter Rate, Rs. 15 represents the Overseas Airmail Letter Rate, and Rs. 45 the Inland Express Mail Rate. The Rs. 45 stamp is the highest value commemorative stamp ever issued by India Post. Earlier in 1997 a Souvenir Sheet was issued in the denomination of Rs. 45 on Mother Teresa.

Coral reefs are among the greatest splendors of nature.  About 250 species of corals are known to exist in Indian reefs, a majority of them in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  The other areas with well-grown coral reefs are the Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kachchh and Lakshadweep.  Coral reefs provide livelihood to coastal communities by way of food and ornamental fishes, shells, algae and tourism.  Excessive human interference in the recent years has caused damage to this important ecosystem and awareness needs to be spread to prevent this. The Department of Posts strives to focus public attention on the need to conserve the delicate ecosystems of our oceans through these stamps on the Corals of India.

Ramesh Sukumar designed the stamps and Alka Sharma designed the pictorial first day postmark. An informative brochure containing write-up and technical data, priced at Rs. 2, was also brought out. Calcutta Security Printers Limited of Kanpur printed the stamps by photo-offset in four colors on matt chromo paper in the quantity of 3 Million each. The issued sheet contains 40 stamps.

The stamps, First Day Cover along with the information sheet was also made available for sale at the India Post stall at PHILANIPPON 01 besides being made available at all Philatelic Bureaus and Counters and at selected Post Offices. 

D P MISHRA
Krishna Kant, Vice President of India released a commemorative stamp on Dwarka Prasad Mishra, freedom fighter and the first Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on August 5, 2001.

The stamp is of Rs 4 denomination, the current inland letter rate. Alka Sharma designed the stamps, First day Cover, and the pictorial first day postmark. An informative brochure containing write-up and technical data, priced at Rs. 2, was also brought out. Eagle Press Private Limited of Chennai printed the stamps by photo-offset in five colors on imported un-watermarked stamp paper in the quantity of 400,000.  The issued sheet contains 40 stamps.

The stamps, First Day Cover along with the information sheet are available on sale at all Philatelic Bureaus and Counters and at selected Post Offices.

NEW ISSUE UPDATE
Date Announced: Sep 25, 2001 ? Devilal, Former Deputy Prime Minister of India

PHILATELIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The Philatelic Advisory Committee (PAC) of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India was reconstituted for a term of two years from August 2, 2001. The functions of the PAC are to advise the Government on matters pertaining to postage stamps and philately, and such other matters as may be referred to it from time to time. Its recommendations are advisory in character and will not in any way be binding on the Government.

Chairman ? Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Communications;

Co-Chairman ? Tapan Sikdar, Minister of State for Communications;

Vice Chairman ? B N Som, Secretary (Posts);

Member Secretary ? Vinod Dhamija, Deputy Director General, Philatelic Division, India Post;

Official Members ? Gautam Gupta, Member (Operations), Postal Services Board; Rekha Gupta, Joint Secretary & Financial Advisor, India Post; Navin Kumar, Joint Secretary (Coins & Currency) Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of finance; V K Jain, General Manager, India Security Press, Nashik;

Non-Official Members ? Prof Shankar Singh Vaghela, Member of Paliament (Lok Sabha); Dr. Laxmi Narayan Pandy, Member of Paliament (Lok Sabha); Manohar Kant Dhyani, Member of Paliament (Rajya Sabha); Balkavi Bairagi, Member of Paliament (Rajya Sabha); Sahadeva Sahoo, President, Philatelic Congress of India; Dilip Shah, Philatelic Congress of India; R S Gandhi, Philatelic Congress of India; G Balkrishna Das, Philatelic Congress of India; Manik Jain, Stamp Dealer; Prof. K Satchidanandan, Secretary, Sahitya Academy; Jayant Kastuar, Secretary, Sangeet Natak Academy; Sudhakar Sharma, Secretary, Lalit Kala Academy; Dr. R D Chourdhury, Director General, National Museum; Rajiv Lochan, Director, National Gallery of Modern Art; Dr. O P Kejriwal, Director, Nehru  Memorial Museum and Library; Prof. M G S Narayanan, Chairman, Indian Council of Historical Research; Sukumar Sarkar, Director General, National Archives; Dr. Darlie O Koshy, Executive Director, Natioanl Institute of Design; Prof. M Vijaymohan, Principal, College of Arts; Asoke Bose; Madhusudan Chakraborty; Brijesh Chatterjee; Prof. Jayalikshmi; Ajay Upadhyaya, Chief Editor, Dainik Hindustan; M K Razdan, Editor-In-Chief & General Manager, PTI; Neeraj Bajpai, Co-ordinator, News (English), UNI; Subimal Chowdhary; Praveer Jain, Chief Photo Editor, Indian Express.

EMPIREPEX 2001
The Empire of India Philatelic Society, Mumbai is organizing the next national show at Nashik from December 22 to 26, 2001 to mark its Diamond Jubilee. EMPIREPEX 2001 is being held under the patronage of the Philatelic Congress of India and with the support of India Post, other philatelists and philatelic societies.

This will be the third national exhibition being organized by the philatelists in India. India Post organized six nationals between 1970 and 1993. Taking in to account the nationals organized before 1970 and later, we reckon this to be the 13^th national philatelic show of India. Our list of nationals is as follows: Dijupex-57, Napex-65, Inpex-70, Copex-72, Plajupex-72, Inpex-75, Inpex-77, Inpex-82, Inpex-86, Inpex-93, Centipex-97, and Millepex-2000.

The Organizing and other Committees are being formed at present. B N Som, Director General of India Post, Chairman of Postal Services Board, Secretary (Posts) to the Government of India in the Ministry of Communications, Trustee of Universal Postal Union?s ?Quality of Service Fund?, and the Chairman of World Association for Development of Philately has accepted the invitation to be a member of the Committee of Honor.

The first joint meeting of the Organizing and other Committees will be held on August 26, 2001 at the Conference Hall, 1^st Floor, General Post Office, Mumbai.

13^TH FIAP CONGRESS
M G Pittie, Immediate Past President of Philatelic Congress of India and longtime Secretary General of the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately (FIAP) was elected as one of the two Vice Presidents of FIAP at the thirteenth FIAP Congress held at Tokyo, Japan on August 6, 2001.

Following is the result of the elections held at the Congress: President ? Surajit Gongvatana (Thailand), Vice President ? M G Piitie (India), Vice President ? William Kwan (Hong Kong), Secretary General ? Malcolm Groom (Australia), Treasurer - Ng (Singapore), Committee Members ? Liu (China), Michael Ho (Chinese Taipei), V T Nathan (Malaysia), Sukarno (Indonesia), Moriyoshi Harada (Japan), Bryan Ogier (New Zealand), Chang Se Young (Korea), A Khoory (UAE), Mario Que (Philippines).

AIJP MEETING AT TOKYO
International Association of Philatelic Journalists (AIJP) held a meeting at Tokyo, Japan on August 6, 2001 during PHILANIPPON 01. Otto Hornung RDP, the President and Charles Peterson, Vice President were present among others.

E-POST SERVICE LAUNCHED IN FIVE STATES
The Minister of Communications, Ram Vilas Paswan launched the e-Post service of the Department of Posts (DoP) on August 2, 2001 at New Delhi. This new service will be available initially in the five States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Kerala and Maharashtra and would be extended to the rest of the country later.

Paswan said that the benefits of new technology should reach people living in far off and inaccessible places. He said that the India Post should extend the e-Post facility to all part of the country in due course. Paswan said that the Department has launched a number of new services including Greeting Post, quick money transfer and instant money order, which will benefit the consumer. The Minister of State for Communications Tapan Sikdar urged the Department to extend the facility of e-Post to jawans serving in the border areas of the country.

The basic concept of e-Post is the facilitation provided to a user to send messages without going to the Post Office. The messages are sent through Internet and delivered at the doorstep of the addressee within a few hours. This service can be used to send mail from anywhere in the world to anywhere in India. Any user without having access to the computer/internet can also send messages using this facility.

To use e-Post service, a person has to register on http://www.indianpostoffice.net/ and pay using either a pre-paid card or a credit card. Account will be created for the user and the amount credited therein. Alternatively, the sender can walk into any of the designated 200 e-Post centers in the five States and offer his message/document which can be scanned and sent through electronic means. These letters are received at the destination post office that will print it and get it delivered at the doorstep of the recipient. The pre-paid cards will be available at selected Post Offices all over the country in fixed denominations of Rs.250, Rs.500, Rs.2000, Rs.5, 000 and Rs.10, 000.

PHILATELIC MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
The apex training institute of India Post organized a Philatelic Management Program for the officers from July 30 to August 3, 2001. The objectives of the Program were to focus on promotional activities in philately after assessing the business options, customer requirements, and marketing strategies. Vishnu Saksena, Philatelic Consultant to India Post, Vinod Dhamija, Deputy Director General & P N Ranjit Kumar, Assistant Director General from Philatelic Division of India Post HQ, and Pulak Gupta, philatelist were some of the speakers at the Program.

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