General Postal Union, the precurser of Universal Postal Union, was formed in 1874 with twenty-two member countries. It has since grown into a world organisation with about 150 member countries forming a single postal territory, for the purpose of reciprocal exchange of later post items. The Congress, the Executive Council, the Consultative Council for Postal Studies and the International Bureau togather constitute the main organs of the UPU. The Congress is the supreme authority of the UPU. The Executive Council ensures the continuity of the Union's work between Congresses and to some extent supervises the activities of the International Bureau which is the Secretariate of the Union at Berne. The Consultative Council for postal Studies is responsible for looking into the problems arising in the technical, operational and economic fields of postal services.

The UPU is celebrating its centenary this year. The establishment of the Union has made it possible to standardise the basic charges applied to the postal items. Thus, the rates of postage for international mail paid by users all over the world are uniformly fixed to great extent. Post knows no barrier of territory. Today a letter reaches the addressee egardless of his nationality social status, political view, religion or race. Distance no longer count, for mail is flown from one continent to another with geat sped. India is one of the oldst members of the UPU, having became a member as early as in 1978.

Since then it has been associating itself intimately with the activities of the Union, particularly in the domain of technical assistance to developing contries. The Indian P & T Department is happy to mark the centenary of the UPU by the issue of a set of three postage stamps.

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