Dear Comrades,
Mahatma Gandhi made khadi one of the symbols of freedom struggle and now the postal department is all set to release a stamp on the fabric for the first time.
The stamp, which will cost Rs 100, will be released in February here when the capital hosts the World Philatelic Exhibition after a gap of 13 years.
"We wanted to experiment with clothes. We thought of silk and khadi. We chose khadi as silk was used by other countries to print stamps. Khadi is associated with Mahatma Gandhi and our freedom struggle," Harpreet Singh, Director of INDIPEX 2011 World Philatelic Exhibition, told PTI.
He said they will be printing limited numbers of the stamp and it will be sold initially in Delhi before distributing it in other cities of the country. It is not the stamp on khadi alone that will attract eye-balls at the exhibition but a personalised stamp option, "My Stamp".
"We have several kinds of stamp templates from which people can choose and then their photograph can be printed alongside the stamp. It will serve as a philatelic memento, which could be used as a greeting card as well," Singh said.
Organised by India Post, Government of India, the exhibition is an attempt to promote interaction between stamp collectors, dealers, philatelic journalists and publishers, designers and security printers, and postal administration.
Some rare and as old as 200-years-old stamps on themes like history, science, culture and environment arranged in the form of a story by individuals from India and 70 other nations will be displayed at the show from February 12 to 18.
"After 13 years, India is playing host to this exhibition. It is different from the previous exhibitions in India because of its scale of participation, individually as well as country-wise," Subash Chandra Barmma, General Manager INDIPEX 2011 World Philatelic Exhibition, said. Over 500 foreign delegates and about 5000 school children and stamp buffs will participate in the exhibition.
The exhibition, which will be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil on February 12 at Pragati Maidan, will see the participation of over 100 individuals from India. India hosted the first international philatelic exhibition on a small scale in 1954, as part of the centenary celebrations of the Indian postages stamp. The next time India hosted the exhibition was in 1973 followed by 1980 and 1989.
The last international exhibition that India hosted was in 1997. 2011 INDIPEX exhibition coincides with the centenary celebrations of the first airmail flight in India between Allahabad and Naini on February 18, 1911.
New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI)
MSN News, 19/12/2010
