Blog: Currency Notes for Visually impaired ?

Sunday, 10 June 2018

Currency Notes for Visually impaired ?

Today’s Business Line carries following news :

The different dimensions to designing currency notes for visually impaired

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/currency-design-for-visually-impaired-remains-a-blind-spot-for-policy-makers/article24130212.ece

Solutions being considered :

* Notes should be of different sizes

* Notes should have embossed symbols for easy identification ( like braille )

* RBI to look into the feasibility of developing a device or mechanism to help the

visually challenged easily identify currency notes

The first two solutions are fairly simple and straightforward

But , both will require scrapping the current notes and re-printing with accepted solution

Persons opposed to “ device or mechanism “ solution say :

A very expensive proposal for a small minority

And , this solution too , may require re-printing !

But , if the present notes have to be scrapped in any case and new ones have to be printed , I suggest following solutions which have a desirable “ bye-product “ of eliminating / reducing BLACK MONEY as well !

SECURITY THREAD :

* The metallic SECURITY THREAD in the Currency Notes can be made to store the

unique SERIAL NUMBER of each currency note , AND a simple Smart Phone can read

that number and transmit that data to any government agency ( IT / ED / CVC etc )

This will be coupled with a Mobile App which will SPEAK ALOUD the denomination of

a note held near the currency note, using NFC / BLUE TOOTH

QUOTES FROM RESEARCH PAPER :

This is a completely electronic-free design , which means you can iron the smart fabric or put it in the washer and dryer. We are using something that already exists on a smart phone and uses almost no power, so the cost of reading this type of data is negligible

The team also demonstrated that the magnetized fabric could be used to interact with a smart phone while it is in one’s pocket …

Scientists realized that this off-the-shelf conductive thread also has the magnetic properties that can be manipulated to store either digital data or visual information like LETTERS or NUMBERS “

I believe all currency notes come with a metallic SECURITY THREAD , capable of being magnetized

So, could that thread be able to store the UNIQUE SERIAL NUMBER , assigned to each and every currency note , which , in turn , can be “ read “ by the Smart phone , and “ transmitted “ to the Central Server of the India’s Income Tax Department ?

If possible , this can track those high denomination currency notes lying in wallets / purses ( - assuming that a smart phone is also next to those notes )