Amritpex 2023 was organised by the Department of Posts
in consultation with the Ministry of Culture and Philatelic Congress of India
(PCI) and designed and crafted as a visual and interactive treat for children
and youth. The exhibition brought to the front the rich culture, heritage,
history, nature, wildlife and achievements of India through stamps, letter
writing and virtual displays. The exhibition was also an opportunity for the
winners to participate in various International Philatelic exhibitions and
showcase their collections. The exhibition was held in New Delhi was curated
with more than 20,000 exhibits from 500 philatelists in both competitive and
invitee class. A special section was dedicated to five themes of Azadi Ka Amrit
Mahotsav in which more than 200 philatelic frames were displayed on ‘Stories of
unsung heroes and freedom’, ‘Youth Power (Yuva Shakti)’, ‘Women Power (Nari
Shakti)’, ‘India’s rich reserve of
nature and wildlife’ and ‘Celebrating India’s unity in diversity’.
An exhibition
highlighting the transformative journey of India Post was also showcased during
the event. Live counters of new Digital Services of India Post, interactive
human stories of postal services impacting the lives of common man, celebrating
the vocal of local and unsung heroes and a G20 Pavilion highlighting philately
as a tool for soft diplomacy, were the major attractions of the exhibition.
During the five-day exhibition, a number
of workshops, seminars, panel discussions and cultural events and activities
for children, release of commemorative postage stamps, release of special
covers and picture postcards were organised. The exhibition saw participation of
more than 25,000 children and stamp lovers from all over India converged for
the Amritpex 2023. The virtual reality gallery narrating the idea of New India
through various stamps was a big hit among the children and other visitors.
During the opening ceremony, a
commemorative postage stamp was released on ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. The
Prime Minister through his Twitter handle appreciated the record of ‘Securing
the future of more than 10 lakh girl child through opening of Sukanya Samriddhi
accounts in various post of two days’, an initiative of the Department. The
department released a series of special covers on Nari Shakti, Yuva Shakti,
International Year of Millets 2023, Nature and Wildlife of India and Unsung
Heroes. A set of picture postcards ‘Flavours of Delhi’ were also released
during the event.
The Department of
Posts, Union Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Union
Ministry of Culture, Government of India, planned a ‘Time Capsule: Share Your
Vision of India @2047’ concept for ‘Amritpex 2023’ Prof Vikrant Karra and Prof
Jayant Jain from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at IIT
Delhi assisted the Department of Posts with the design, analysis, and
fabrication of the state-of-the-art time capsule. “The time capsule structure
is made of stainless steel, weighs around 75 kg, has a height of 100 cm and a
base diameter of 70 cm, and can store letters or postcards in excess of 750 in
number. The design is futuristic, mechanically superior, and protective of
environmental degradation,” said Prof Vikrant Karra. The time capsule will
capture what the citizens of India think today and how they visualise the
country’s future. The capsule will be revisited in 2047 to see how things
turned out compared to what the public envisioned.
A set of 8 sets were
issued on ‘Bridal Costumes of India’ in the presence of Shovana Narayan, a
renowned kathak dancer. A souvenir sheet of 12 commemorative postage stamps on
‘Geographical Indications: Agricultural Goods’ was released as a salute to India’s
collective and intellectual heritage and enhancing its role in popularizing GI
products in the country. A special cover to commemorate the ‘International Year
of Millets 2023’ was released.
On the concluding day, a number of
cultural programs including Dak Ghar Play by National School of Drama, Dance
performance by Bal Bhawan, Kavi Sammelan by Jashan e Adab, Sitar performance by
Utsad Shujaat Khan, and Ballimaran project by Piyush Mishra were the main crowd
pullers. A puppet show and youth parliament were other major attractions of
Amritpex 2023.
An international round table and panel
discussion on ‘Postal Services: A tool for global socio-economic development
and connect’ was conducted. Jean-Paul Forceville, director, European and
International Relations, La Poste, France, Dr Vinaya Prakash Singh, Secretary
General, Asia Paci Postal Union, Vineet Pandey, secretary, Department of Posts
and Muktesh K. Pardeshi, OSD (G20 Operations), Ministry of External Affairs,
participated in this round table at Delhi. Representatives of Canada Post, Post
Fiji, USPS, UPU, attended the round table discussion digitally. It came out
during the discussion that the postal network has an important role in
financial inclusion and logistics and supply chain management. Postal services
across the countries should partner with each other in areas of capacity
building, digitization of postal networks, and philately to effectively play
their role in national development. The recommendations of this workshop will
be shared with G20 group and UPU for further deliberations and implementation.
More than 250
participants of Amritpex received awards under various categories. Champions
Trophy was awarded to Piyush Khaitan. gold medal was awarded to Damyanti
Pittie, Santhosh MS, Rajesh Jhunjhunwala, Narendra Saboo, Ananya Kasaravalli
and KS Mohan. EP James was awarded the Secretary’s trophy and Poorva Bansal was
awarded DG’s trophy.
Representing Goa were members of Goa
Philatelic and Numismatic Society. Five exhibits qualified for the National
Level Philatelic Exhibition and all were awarded with various medal. Rolando de
Melo –won a large silver medal for ‘Portuguese India Philately’, a silver medal
for ‘Philately with a Goan Connect (Catalogue)’ and a bronze medal for
‘Lighthouses of India and the World’. Dr Ramesh Kumar won a silver medal for
‘Cochin State Postal History’ and Shaikh Samiruddin won a silver medal for
‘French India Philately’.
All the activities of Amritpex 2023 were
made digitally available to netizens through various social media platforms.
More than 6.5 Million netizens were informed and engaged digitally with
Amritpex 2023.
In the closing ceremony, Director General
Postal Services, Alok Sharma highlighted the emerging role of post offices in
nation building through digitization of its services and increasing the bouquet
of G2C services especially for the last mile users. He also thanked the
Philatelic Congress of India for the conduct of Amritpex 2023. He congratulated
the entire postal team for the grand success and highlighted the special
efforts of Manju Kumar, CPMG Delhi and Chairperson of the Organizing Committee
and Sunil Sharma, DDG Philately, who spearheaded the whole event and
coordinated with various ministries and other key stakeholders.
