No time for security features on new notes
Posted on: 13/Nov/2016 5:30:22 PM
A senior government official has said that the new magenta Rs. 2,000 notes have all been printed at a facility in India but, barring the design, the security features remain the same as the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. Speaking to a leading daily, the official said, Since the decision to introduce the new notes was taken only six months ago, there was no time to alter the security features. Only the design has been changed but the security features remain the same as the old notes.
The official said, India imports bank note papers from European companies like Louisenthal in Germany, De la Rue in United Kingdom, Crane in Sweden and Arjo Wiggins in France and Netherlands. Currently 70 per cent of the notes are being produced in India and in the next two years, the target is to achieve 100 per cent self-reliance. The decision to print the Rs. 2,000 notes was taken six months back and the Mysuru facility was asked to produce the raw bank notes. It has a capacity of 12000 MT per year. Around 18 billion new pieces of notes are to be printed, which includes those of the Rs. 2.000 denomination.
Changing the security features is a huge exercise and takes anywhere between five to six years. The last time such an exercise was undertaken was in 2005 when currency notes of all denominations with new security features were introduced. Water marks, security threads, fibre, latent image etc. comprise security features and these require several representations, evaluations and finally a Cabinet nod.
According to sources, the production of the notes in India was pushed by the Prime Minister’s Office, or PMO. They say, The PMO was of the opinion that all the bank notes are imported from countries, which are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO. If tomorrow, there is an embargo on India then the currency manufacturing will be crippled as we rely heavily on imports. With this aim it was decided to push the production in India.
