Mangaluru : The four-day state level philatelic exhibition Karnapex 2019 inaugurated at TMA Pai Hall on Saturday October 12.
Former Lokayukta Justice Santhosh N Hegde inaugurated the state level philatelic exhibition Karnapex 2019 by lighting the lamp.
Addressing the gathering, Santhosh N Hegde said, Postal department has taken good initiative to conduct this exhibition. “This is a wonderful programme. I hope all the people get to know about philately through this event. he added.
Education boards in states across India could replicate a move by NCERT that has prescribed chapter on philately in political science for Class 12 students. Likewise, CBSE too has prescribed philately as one of the subjects for its students, noted Vishva Pavan Pati, additional director-general, department of posts. India Post has written letters to all education boards to bring on board philately as a topic of study or a subject, he noted.
In an informal chat with on the side-lines of Karnapex 2019, 12th state-level philately exhibition organised by Karnataka postal circle, Vishva said the academic move is aimed at spreading awareness about philately among students. “We are striving to reach out to potential philatelists,” he said. India Post is confident that education boards will green light its request that could see more number of students study philately in an academic set up.
For a nation that is celebrating 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a move by 69 countries to issue commemorative stamps on the father of the nation since October 2, 2018 is a heartening trend. Nine more countries have indicated their willingness to release stamps on the Mahatma, he said. India Post too has celebrated the occasion by releasing the first ever six octagonal stamps on Gandhiji to go with seven circular stamps released last year.
The Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude and Research in Stamps or Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana introduced 3-years ago too has brought 56% of school going students in to philatelic fold across India. This is remarkable in that the practice of sending hand written letters with stamps affixed to it in this digital era is a dying art, Vishva Mohan said, adding that students are given annual scholarship of up to Rs 6,000 for philately related projects.
The special letter writing scheme that gave students topics of ‘Dear Bapu, You Inspire Me,’ ‘Letter to My Motherland’ and ‘Dear Bapu, You are Immortal’ that was started three-years ago too has evoked tremendous response with India Post distributing prizes to students in different age-group categories. The move to host Karnapex during the National Postal Week (October 9 to15) will give an impetus to philately in this part of the state, he added.