Colour coded: Apex Bank to issue brand new Rs 20 notes with greenish-yellow hues

The apex bank had first introduced the Rs 20 note in the Mahatma Gandhi Series in August 2001. The new banknote of Rs 20 denomination in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series is bearing the signature of Governor Shaktikanta Das featuring Ellora Caves on the reverse, portraying the country’s cultural heritage, as per a report from RBI.

In comparison to the old red-orange coloured Rs 20 note of  size 143 X 63 mm, which had a motif of Mount Harriet, the new note will have a motif of Ellora caves on the backside with 63 X 129 mm in size depicting the cultural heritage of India.

These new Rs 20 notes are also designed with a geometric pattern aligning with the overall colour scheme, both at the front and back sides.

The front side of the note will have a see-through register with denominational numeral 100, a latent image with numeral and also a Devanagari versionof the same.

The note will have a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the center with micro letters RBI, Bharat, India and 20, along with a guarantee clause, Governor’s Shaktikanta Das’ signature with the promise clause and RBI emblem towards the right of Gandhi’s portrait. There will be Ashok Pillar emblem and electrotype (20) watermark on the right side of theGandhi’s portrait.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday sought to know from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the reason behind changing from time to time the size and other features in currency notes and coins. The query was posed by a division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar while hearing a petition filed by the National Association of the Blind (NAB). The NAB petition claimed that new currency notes and coins issued by the RBI posed difficulty for visually impaired persons in terms of identification and distinguishing them. “We want to know from the RBI what is the compulsion to keep changing the features like size and so on in the currency notes,” Chief Justice Nandrajog said. The court added that no other country in the world keeps changing size and features of their currency notes so often. The court was informed that in March this year the RBI had issued new coins with special features to help visually impaired persons distinguish them. The court directed the apex bank to file its affidavit within a period of six weeks on the issue.