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Postage stamp, special cover to mark Mother Teresa’s sainthood
Mumbai: A special postage stamp and an Indian Post Special Cover will mark Mother Teresa’s canonisation as a saint on September 4 at The Vatican, officials said here.
Designed by artist Alok Goyal of Kolkata, the special cover is made of special silk paper with the classic image of Mother Teresa holding a child in her arms.
It has a Rs 5 coin inserted on the cover which was minted in Kolkata in August 2010 on Mother Teresa’s birth centenary, and with a skyline of the city which was her sphere of her activity and where she founded the Missioneries of Charity in 1950.
The cover has a postage stamp issued in 2008 depicting Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King on the occasion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a crossed (cancellation) stamp bearing the legend ‘Sainthood of Mother Teresa of Kolkaka – September 2016, Sahapur, Kolkatta.’
The reverse of the cover has a registration number as only 1,200 special covers are being printed, and the Register No 91 comes from a collection of Pascal Lopes, a resident of Vasai in Palghar, who holds a Masters in Numismatics & Archaeology.
“On this historic occasion, I shall exhibit this new special cover along with my other entire collection of Mother Teresa coins and stamps from all over the world at St. Peters Church, Bandra on Sunday,” Lopes told IANS.
Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha will release a postage stamp dedicated to Mother Teresa who will canonised and proclaimed a Saint by Pope Francis on Sunday.
The stamp release will be held at Divine Child High School in Andheri east to commemorate the event being celebrated globally.
“Earlier, in 1980, the Indian Posts had created history when it released a stamp on Mother Teresa when she was alive – making her (then) the first and only personality to be so uniquely honoured,” said Lopes.
On International Women’s Day 2007, the Indian Posts had released a Special Postcard featuring great Indian legends like Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, M. S. Subbalakshmi and others.
Another major event will be held in adjoining Palghar’s Virar town where a church will be rechristened as ‘Saint Mother Teresa Church’ on Sunday evening in the presence of over 5,000 people.
Mother Teresa had visited the Vasai Diocese – in which Virar is situated – with a Christian population of 137,000 in April 1986, and this is said to be the only church in India to be named after her.
Similar special masses and celebrations are planned on Sunday in churches of Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Nashik and other cities in Maharashtra which have significant Christian pockets.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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