RBI to introduce New Re.1 Note

The Reserve Bank of India has announced that new one rupee note has been printed by the government and will be soon put into circulation. The one rupee note was discontinued in 1994 because it was more expensive to produce such notes when compared to the one-rupee coins. In the following year, Rs. 2 and Rs. 5 notes were also discontinued to free up printing facilities for higher denomination notes. However, these old notes continue to remain in circulation and continue to remain as legal tenders.

Salient Highlights

The new Re.1 one will be predominantly pink-green on the obverse and reverse in combination with other colours. The new one rupee note will bear the rupee symbol. It will be 9.7 by 8.3 cm in dimension.
The new note will feature ‘Bharat Sarkar’ on its masthead, and ‘Government of India’ printed below that. In contrast all the other currencies in India has ‘Bharatiya Reserve Bank’ and ‘Reserve Bank of India’ printed on them. This is because the one-rupee note has always been issued by the central government. 
The watermarks of the Re 1 note will include the Ashoka Pillar, the hidden numeral “1” and the hidden word “Bharat” in Hindi).
The note will also feature an image of the ‘Sagar Samrat’ oil exploration rig. 

Background

In January 2015, the government began printing of Re 1 notes after getting reports of coin shortage along with instances of melting coins for profit.
The printing of new one rupee note will cost 94 paise, when compared to the one rupee coin, which will cost 70 paise. The new one rupee note will be the third new currency that will be introduced by the government since the demonetization drive in November.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2017