RBI considers using images of Rabindranath Tagore, APJ Abdul Kalam on banknotes: Report

Currently, only the watermark image of Mahatma Gandhi occupies the pride of place on Indian currency notes of all denominations. This is for the first time that the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India are considering using the watermark figures of other iconic Indian personalities alongside the Father of the Nation, reported New India Express.

The RBI and the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), which is under the Finance Ministry, are learned to have sent two separate sets of samples of Gandhi, Tagore and Kalam watermarks to IIT-Delhi Emeritus Professor Dilip T Shahani, who has been told to choose from the two sets and present them for final consideration by the government, stated the report.

Professor Shahani is an expert in Electromagnetic Instrumentation and the government has given him the responsibility to examine the watermarks. This year in January, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Modi government.

The inclusion of the watermark figures of Tagore and Kalam follows the proposal by one of nine RBI internal committees formed to recommend new security features for a fresh series of banknotes.

The committee was formed sometime in 2017, and submitted its report in 2020, proposing that besides Gandhi the watermark figures of Tagore and Kalam should also be developed for inclusion in all currency notes other than the Rs 2,000 that is no longer printed, stated the report.

Last year, the RBI instructed its Mysore-based Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Ltd and SPMCIL’s Security Paper Mill at Hoshangabad to design the watermark samples.

Later on, the RBI and SPMCIL sent their samples to Shahani for examination. Shahani has held several discussions with officials on the “finer aspects” of the samples, according to the report.