India is considering adding images of Noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and the country’s former president, APJ Abdul Kalam, to some of its banknotes, according to The New Indian Express.
If so, the duo will make it to Indian currency alongside the watermark figure of MK Gandhi, the father of the nation.
Currently, the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) only use the image of Gandhi on all denominations of Indian currency notes.
This is the first time that RBI is considering using images of famous personalities other than Gandhi on the banknotes.
The RBI and the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), which is under the Finance Ministry, are learnt 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.
Government sources said that a final decision on picking one or all the three images will be taken at the “highest levels of the government”.
According to sources, the design of the three watermark samples had official sanctions. No firm decision has yet been taken, but the move is afoot to explore the possibility of including watermarks of multiple figures on currency notes.
Top government sources revealed that an RBI internal committee had submitted a report in 2020, proposing that besides Gandhi the watermark figures of Tagore and Kalam should also be developed for inclusion in all currency notes barring the 2,000 note whose printing had already stopped.
