LEAKED STAMP
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Context - Commemorative stamp to honour former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao got leaked before their official release.
Details
- Union Government’s plans to issue a commemorative stamp to honour former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on his 100th birthday were rushed when the stamps got leaked before their official release.
Commemorative Stamps
- Commemorative stamps are issued for marking;
- Important events
- Prominent personalities in various fields
- Aspects of nature
- Beautiful or rare flora and fauna
- Environmental issues
- Agricultural activities
- National/international issues
- Games
- No formal release function for a stamp can be held without specific prior approval from the Department of Posts.
- These stamps are only available at Philatelic Bureaux and counters or under the Philatelic Deposit Account Scheme. They are printed in limited quantities.
Guidelines for issue of Commemorative Postage Stamps
- Proposals for the issue of Commemorative Postage Stamps may be sent by any citizen of India.
- Maximum 50 Commemorative Postage Stamps per annum shall be issued.
- Stamps on personalities shall not exceed 10% of the Annual Issue Programme.
- The annual stamp issue programme will be announced in the last week of December preceding the Calendar year of issue.
- The Annual Issue Programme shall reflect regional, cultural, and ethnic and gender balance.
- The denominations of postage stamps shall be in accordance with domestic and International postal tariffs.
- Commemorative postage stamps will be issued on;
- Subjects
- Themes
- Institutions
- Personalities
- Events that have a national or International stature or have made a national/international contribution or impact or reflect national/international areas of concern.
- Stamps on a particular subject shall issue only once, except for thematic subjects such as wildlife, environment, transport, flora fauna etc. or regular issues like Children’s Day, Philately Day, and Season’s Greetings etc.
- No stamp will be issued on a living personality.
- The personalities on whom commemorative postage stamps may be issued should be of national or international importance.
- The occasion to be commemorated must be the birth centenary or 10th /25th /50th /100th death anniversary.
- Generally, Stamps can be issued only after 10 years after an individual’s death.
- A stamp on the building, monument etc. may be issued on its centenary/125th anniversary/150th anniversary etc.
- Stamp design shall be decided by the Department of Posts.
- Religious symbols, prefixes/suffixes with the name of personalities will not be incorporated into the design.
- Once approved, the design of the stamp will not be changed.
- The Department of Posts will decide the subject matters, prohibited subjects, the procedure for proposal consideration and issue/release of a stamp, the period of sale of commemorative/special stamps and for definitive stamps and postal stationery.
P.V Narasimha Rao (1921 – 2004)
- He was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement and joined full-time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress.
- He served as an elected representative for the Andhra Pradesh state assembly from 1957 to 1977.
- He became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 and implemented land reforms and land ceiling acts strictly.
- He served as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Andhra Pradesh and managed several portfolios, most significantly Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs, in the cabinets of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
- Rao very nearly retired from politics in 1991. It was the assassination of Congress President Rajiv Gandhi that persuaded him to make a comeback.
- He was the first non-Congress person to serve as the Prime Minister for five continuous years, and also the first Prime Minister from southern India.
- His cabinet included Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister.
- He also appointed Subramanian Swamy, an opposition party member as the Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade. This has been the only instance that an opposition party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party.
- He also sent opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to represent India at the UN meeting in Geneva.
- He is often referred to as the "Father of Indian Economic Reforms".
- His achievements include;
- Guiding India through the 1991 economic crisis.
- Completing tenure with a minority government.
- Establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.
- Starting India's Look east policy.
- Reviving India's nuclear programme.
- Effectively handling and crushing insurgency in Punjab.
- Tough policy against terrorism in Kashmir.
- Opening partial diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
- On the occasion of 25 years of economic liberalisation in India, there have been several books published by authors, journalists and civil servants evaluating Rao's contributions.
- Sanjay Baru's book 1991: How P V Narasimha Rao made history.
- Jairam Ramesh's book “from the brink to back: India's 1991 story” focuses on his role in unleashing the reforms in the year 1991 as the Prime Minister of India.
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