June 25, 2010

Queen's Baton Relay - Commonwealth Games-2010

The Queen's Baton Relay is one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games, in having been the curtain-raiser to every games since Cardiff in 1958. The relay symbolism the gathering of  people from across the Commonwealth at the four-yearly festival of sport and culture.
Over the years, the Queen's Baton Relay has evolved into a powerful symbol of the unity and  diversity of the Commonwealth of Nations. With each games the tradition grows in scale and  significance - including more nations, involving more participants and generating more excitement  than ever before, but the Delhi 2010 Baton's journey is planned to be the biggest yet. It is set to  be the longest and most technologically advance of the Baton Relays to date.

The Baton has been designed by Michael Foley, a graduate of the National Institute of Design. It is  a triangular section of aluminum twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils  collected from all regions of India. The Coloured soils are a first for the styling of a Queen's  Baton. A jewel encrusted box has been used to house the Queen's message, which was laser-engraved  onto a miniature 18 carat gold leaf-representative of the ancient Indian Patras. The Queen's baton is economically contoured for ease of use. It is 664MM high, 34MM wide at base, and 86MM wide at  the top and weighs 1,900 grams.

The Queen's baton has a number of technological features including:

* The ability to capture images and sound.
* Global positioning system (GPS) technology so the baton's location can be tracked.
* Embedded light emitting diodes(LEDs) which will change into the colours of a country’s flag whilst in that country.
* A text messaging capability so that people can send messages of congratulations and encouragements  to the Baton bearers throughout the relay.

The Queen's baton was launched on 29th October 2009 at Buckingham Palace in London, with Her  Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handing the Baton to Her Excellency the President of India, Smt. Prathibha Devisingh Patil. Abhinav Bindra, the Olympic air rifle champion, began the Baton's  journey with a relay around the Queen Victoria Monument.

The Queen's baton has traveled through all the Commonwealth countries and landed in India on 25th  June 2010 where it will spend 100 days touring the country.

To commemorate this historic event India Post is happy to issue a set of two commemorative postage  stamps to mark the baton's entry into India as a herald to the Commonwealth Games 2010, one  depicting the baton and the second, a proud Shera holding it with Delhi's India Gate in the  background.

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