The World Philately News Dt: 02.08.2021

- August 01, 2021

A set of two Hexagonal shaped ( 1st in India) postage stamps issued on (02/August/2008) the Aldabra Giant Tortoise - one image shows the left facing and other is a front facing one / An Aldabra tortoises weighing 672 pounds ( 305 kilograms) is the world's largest free - roaming tortoise ever recorded.They are found on Aldabra Island one of the Indian Ocean.They were apparently introduced to Mauritius and Reunion Island. The Department of post also Issued four numbers of beautiful Sheetlets .

.Adwaitya ( 1750 - 22/March/2006) was a male Aldabra Giant Tortoise that lived in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata.At the time of his death in 2006 / Adwaitya was believed to be among the longest-living animals in the world.(It is believed that Adwaitya and the other three tortoise were in 1750) He may have been from Aldabra an atoll in the Seychelles. This anecdotal report has not been confirmed.The animal was one of four tortoises that lived at Robert Clive's estate at Barrackpore in the northern suburbs of Calcutta.Clive was said to have received the tortoises following his victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 , in which the British East India company defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies thereby securing India for Britain in the long run. Adwaitya was transferred to the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta in 1875 by Carl Louis Schwendler the founder of the zoo. Adwaitya lived in his enclosure in the zoo until his death on 22/March/2006 at an estimated age of 255yrs.

Courtesy : Mr Bibhuti Mohan Mohanty

Quiz

Anybody known this answer, pls type your correct answer in comment box. All the best

Pingali Venkayya (2 August 1876 – 4 July 1963) was an Indian freedom fighter. He was a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi and the designer of the flag on which the Indian national flag was based. According to The Hindu, "Pingali Venkayya was an authority in geology, agriculture and also an educationist who set up an educational institution in Machilipatnam. He, however, died in poverty in 1963 and was largely forgotten by the society."

A postage stamp was issued to commemorate him in 2009 and in 2011 it was proposed that he be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna. The decision by the Centre is yet to be taken on the proposal.

Pic Credit: @the_coinworld

For more such content subscribe to our

YouTube channel "The CoinWorld"

Facebook page "The CoinWorld"

Instagram page "@the_coinworld

Courtesy : Mr.Chandra sekar,EIPA.

Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Ba-Alawi Al-Hussainy Pookoya Thangal (4 May 1936 – 1 August 2009) was a Muslim religious leader and politician from Kerala. He was the President of the Kerala state committee of the Indian Union Muslim League and a member of the Pukkoya Thangal family.

Thangal became the president of the Kerala state committee of Indian Union Muslim League after his father's death in 1975. He remained President until his own death in 2009. He was Qazi to hundreds of mahals in Kerala. He worked with Kerala's Islamic Organisation Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama. He was the president of a numerous Islamic institutions like Jamia Nooriya Arabiya, Jamia Darussalam Al Islamiya, Nandi which are managed by Samastha. He is one of the founding members of MEA Engineering College and Markazu Tharbiyathil Islamiyya, Valancheri. He was behind the proposal to start another campus of Aligarh Muslim University in Kerala.

Acharya Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray (2 August 1861 – 16 June 1944) was an eminent Bengali chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist. He established the first modern Indian research school in chemistry (post classical age) and is regarded as the father of chemical science in India.

The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured his life and work with the first ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe. He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's first pharmaceutical company. He is the author of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of Sixteenths Century.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), was incorporated to take over the activities of erstwhile Overseas Communications Service (OCS). As a successor to former organisation providing external communications services, VSNL has completed 125 years of operation and its ninth as VSNL.

The first war of Indian Independence in 1857 forced the British to look for a safe direct link of communication to India and the answer was Submarine Telegraphy. The first submarine cable link was laid between Alexandria and Malta in 1860 and continued to expand.

Sir John Pender, the Chairman of the British India Submarine Telegraph Company, established in 1869, was the moving force behind this scheme. On June 23, 1870, he received the first cable from India and the Overseas Communication Service was open to public from the next day. This company was later taken over by the East India Telegraph Company (ETC) in 1872.

Soon thereafter when wireless communication was invented the Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was registered in India in 1923. So ETC and IRT merged to form the ‘Indian Radio and Cable Communications Company’ (IRCC). On January 1, 1947, its functions were taken over by the ‘Overseas Communications Service’, a Government department which continued till April 1986 when it was converted into a wholly Government owned Company, namely the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited.

VSNL is credited to have brought the internet into the country. After the Government of India launched Disinvestment of Public Sector Units in India, international arm of VSNL (VSNL International) was launched in 2004. VSNL was completely acquired by the Tata Group and renamed as Tata Communications on 13 February 2008