The United Nations General Assembly, during its 36th Session held in November 1981, proclaimed the year 1983 as the 'World Communications Year'. This was done in recognition of the fundamental importance of communication infrastructure as an essential element in the economic and social development of all countries. The main objectives of the 'World Communications Year' are :-

(i) to provide opportunity for all the countries to undertake an in-depth review and analysis of their policies on communications development, and

(ii) to stimulate the accelerated  development of communications Infrastructure.

The United Nations envisages the 'World Communications Year' as the "beginning of a new era where every nation will be in a position to benefit from the services provided by equitable and harmoniously developed communication infrastructure".

The Postal and Tele-communications networks are major constituents of the communication infrastructure  and have shown a steady growth at both national and international  levels.

Today postal  services reach the  door­steps of the common man, even in remote, isolated, hilly, desert and inaccessible areas. By the end of  the year 1982, the country had 1,42,955 post offices, the majority of them being in rural areas. The postal services handle more than one thousand crore pieces of mail articles per year. Advantage has been taken of scientific and technological  developments in this  field. The Railway Mail Service rationalised and electronic introduced is being sorting introduced.

Pilot  projects  have  been  undertaken to improve rural communication system by installing fully automated  secondary area network  and  long  distance telephones, induction of  electronic switching system, digital electronic exchanges and containerized electronic exchanges. Improvement is  also being made in the working of coast stations and long distance satellite communication  system. In the international trunk service, Gateway Switching Systems  have been commissioned at Bombay, New Delhi and Madras, as a result of which direct subscriber dialing will become  available to a large number of countries in the near future.

There has  also  been a rapid  growth in both sound and television broadcasting services, an equally important ingredient of tele-communications in its wider sense. Captive communication support for public utilities and private needs, mainly employing wireless medium, has also shown significant growth.

India is actively participating in all the programmes connected with the 'World Communications Year'. During this year postal and tele-communicati on services an; being geared to serve the people in a better way and to develop worldwide communications.

The Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department is happy to issue a special postage stamp to commemorate the 'World Communications  Year'.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India