MYSURU: Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd (MPVL), the sole manufacturer of indelible ink in the country, has now been invited by the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Ltd to present their case for producing ink for printing currency notes.
This follows MPVL seeking the permission from the Prime Minister’s Office to manufacture the ink as part of Modi’s Make in India call.
The prime minister had also observed that the image of Mahatma Gandhi on the Indian currency notes was printed using foreign ink.
The Reserve Bank of India prints the currency notes at its printing presses in Mysuru, Solbani (near Kolkata) and Nagpur, but imports the ink and paper required to print Indian currency.
MPVL wishes to produce high-security printing inks used for offset, intaglio printing.
In the intaglio technique, the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink.
Hailing the interest shown by MPVL, Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Director (Technical) S Madhav Rao has invited it to provide details of the facilities available at its facility for production of security printing inks.
MVPL chairman Ananthu said the Mudran office wanted to know the details of their experience in producing printing inks suitable for dry offset, intaglio and numbering processes.
He said that they wanted to appoint a technical consultant for the project.
MPVL marketing manager Harakumar said, “We will soon come out with the expression of interest to appoint technical experts
for manufacturing the currency ink.”
He said that they will prepare a project report, and include technical experts to make pre-technical qualification.
Clarifying that they have enough land for setting up a plant for ink production, he said that there is a need for more talks to understand the requirements and technology, and to decide on the initial investment required to improve infrastructure and enter into an MoU before they make sample submissions in a year or two.