India thinking currency notes on polymer
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
NEW DELHI, Aug 18 (PTI): In a bid to overcome the menace of fake Indian currency notes, the Government has started giving serious thought to printing currency notes on polymer, a practice prevalent in Australia.
The Government is toying with the idea of requesting the Australian government to provide the technological know-how for polymer currency notes, which is durable and difficult to counterfeit, an official source said.
"Australian notes are more secure against counterfeiting. The notes are printed on polymer substrate instead of traditional paper," the official said.
The Australian notes are printed on special polymer and have a distinctive feel. A suspect note is excessively thick compared to a genuine note.
"The vast majority of counterfeits are printed on paper and can be easily torn," he said.
Besides, polymer notes are environment friendly which cannot be said of traditional paper.
"Paper notes degrades fast also," he said. Moreover, the biggest advantage of polymer notes is that it does not suffer the problem of recycling like the paper notes. "As polymer notes last four times more than paper notes, there is less waste which is good for both the environment and the economy," the official said.
The Government is toying with the idea of requesting the Australian government to provide the technological know-how for polymer currency notes, which is durable and difficult to counterfeit, an official source said.
"Australian notes are more secure against counterfeiting. The notes are printed on polymer substrate instead of traditional paper," the official said.
The Australian notes are printed on special polymer and have a distinctive feel. A suspect note is excessively thick compared to a genuine note.
"The vast majority of counterfeits are printed on paper and can be easily torn," he said.
Besides, polymer notes are environment friendly which cannot be said of traditional paper.
"Paper notes degrades fast also," he said. Moreover, the biggest advantage of polymer notes is that it does not suffer the problem of recycling like the paper notes. "As polymer notes last four times more than paper notes, there is less waste which is good for both the environment and the economy," the official said.