RBI to have its own unit to manufacture paper for currency notes

The Reserve Bank of India’s Note Printing Press in Mysore near here will soon have its own unit to manufacture superior quality paper required for printing currency notes.

The RBI had so far been importing special quality paper for printing currency notes from England, Germany and Ukraine. With the Federal Government giving a technical and administrative clearance for setting up a unit to manufacture paper for currency notes at the RBI Note Printing Press in Mysore, the RBI will be saving about Rs 3 billion annually in foreign exchange.

Sharing this information with reporters, President of RBI Note Printing Press Employees Union A Ramdas said England, Germany and Ukraine were procuring cotton from Gadag and Davangere in Karnataka to produce superior quality paper required for printing currency notes by the RBI Note Printing Press.

Instead of incurring a huge import cost, it is feasible to set up a unit to manufacture currency notes at the RBI Note Printing Press in Mysore. “Superior quality paper can be produced in Mysore itself from the cotton grown in Gadag and Davangere in Karnataka”, Ramdas observed.

Apart from saving foreign exchange upto Rs 3 billion, the proposed paper manufacturing unit will employ new technology that will help improve the life expectancy of the new currency notes by three times. “The life of the new currency notes will be thrice superior compared to the notes presently in use”, he said.

He also revealed that the RBI Note Printing Press has chalked out plans to bring out newly designed currency notes with more security features with a view to preventing counterfeiting. The new currency notes are expected to hit the market by next year, Ramdas said.

The decision to set up a unit to manufacture paper for currency notes and incorporate new design with additional security features is aimed at pulling the RBI Note Printing Press in Mysore out of the shadow of the theft of Rs 5 million from the Press last year.

The security at the RBI Note Printing Press had been strengthened after theft of currency was reported. A decision had been taken to install CCTVs at every nook and corner of the Press after a study highlighted lapses in security, Ramdas said.