August 2007

On the occassion of the 60th Anniversary of  the Independance Day of India, Miss Kumu Gupta, resident of  Quincy-MA, in working with United States Postal Service in Washington DC has submitted a proposal on behalf of the Indian Americans in the US - launching a process for issuance of a stamp of India -which if approved, a stamp will be issued in time for the 60th Anniversary of the Republic Day of India in  January 2010. The first part of the acceptance will be known by December of this year- the reason for the long time required, is due to the processing time required by the Postal Service to select the proposal from the thousands of proposals recieved, approve, design and then issue the stamp.

This is the first attempt at such a stamp, although a proposal for a Diwali (festival of lights- biggest festival in India)  stamp was submitted a few years ago and did not get issued due to other themes in the pipeline of the US Postal Service that were more relevant to the general american theme. Miss Gupta is hopeful that this proposal stands a good chance of getting through due to a solid proposal being written drawing on the history of the first indian to be sighted in the US as early as 1624 and the immense contributions of the indian american citizens over the years, in all fields -from Astronaut to CEO's to Dr's/Engineers/Teachers. As of 2000 US Census, there were approx. 2 million american's of indian descent in the US.  The Indian American community in the US had an average annual growth rate of 7.6 percent and just between 1990 and 2000, the community had grown by 105.87 percent.

The Stamp Development Office of the USPS has passed on issuance of  a stamp of Indian theme, this go around. The reasons are not disclosed due to confidentiality reasons. Miss Kumu Gupta plans to re-submit the proposal in Dec. of this year, 2008 commerating the 60th Anniversary of the Republic Day of India on Jan. 26, 2010. In an earlier conversation with USPS, they had indicated that sometimes due to other more prevalent themes in a proposal cycle, a particular proposal gets rejected, as the primary reason - and that's what re submitting, might get it approved in the 2nd go around. In the meantime, Miss Gupta, will work with the postal service in Boston for issuance of a 'pictoral postal stamp' which is a postmarked stamp on every piece of mail that goes out of the post office, for the upcoming Independance day of India on August 15, 2008. This, as told by USPS, stands a 99% chance of being approved.

January 2008

|