Scientists at the CSIR – National Laboratory have developed a special security ink which can prevent fake printing of passports and counterfeiting of currency notes.
This was informed by Press Information Bureau (PIB) in its Twitter handle on Tuesday.
It tweeted, “Discovery of ink to curb fake printing of passports and counterfeiting of currency notes.”
The laboratory has developed a bi-luminescent security ink which glows in red and green colours when illuminated by two different excitation sources at 254 nano meters (nm) and 365 nm, respectively.
The ink was prepared in a batch of 1kg and given to Bank Note Press (BNP), Dewas, a unit of Security Printing Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL), New Delhi.
Although the ink is found comparable to the standards that are in use, its formulation can help in checking the authenticity of passports, Government documents, tamper evident labels, identity cards, etc.
This was stated by Minister of Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare, and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The RBI in its website has mentioned many features for distinguishing between fake and real currency notes.
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.