Researchers at the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory have developed a special security ink to prevent counterfeiting of currency notes and fake printing of passports. "Discovery of ink to curb fake printing of passports and counterfeiting of currency notes," said the Press Information Bureau (PIB) via a tweet.
Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory have made a bi-luminescent security ink which is visible in red and green light when illuminated by two different sources at 254 nanometers (nm) and 365 nm, respectively.
According to a report by Livemint, the ink was made in a batch of one kg and given to the Bank Note Press in Dewas, a unit of Security Printing Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL).
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Minister of Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan said that while the ink is found comparable to the used standards, its formulation can help in checking government documents, authenticity of passports, identity cards, tamper evident labels etc.
Despite the added security features in the new currency notes released by the RBI, reports hinted that fake notes are still being circulated. The central bank has mentioned many features which help in distinguishing real notes from counterfeit ones.
According to an annual report by the RBI last year, of the total fake Indian currency notes found by banks during 2018-19, 5.6 per cent were detected at the RBI and 94.4 per cent by other banks.