The Reserve Bank of India proposes to come out with a mobile application to aid visually impaired persons in identifying Indian currency notes.
At present, banknotes in the denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50,100, 200, 500 and 2,000 are in circulation, besides Re 1 notes issued by theGovernment of India.
Intaglio printing based identification marks for helping thevisually challenged in identification of denomination of banknotes are presentin notes of Rs 100 and above.
The RBI has solicited bids from technology firms fordeveloping the mobile application.
“The application should be able to identifydenomination of legal tender banknotes of Mahatma Gandhi Series and MahatmaGandhi (New) series by capturing the image of the notes placed in front ofmobile camera or scrolled across it,” said the request for proposal issuedby the central bank.
Also, the mobile application should be searchable via voiceoption in all app stores, it said.
“The mobileapplication should be able to identify the bank note denomination in 2 secondsor less,” the RBI said, and added that the app should also work in offlinemode without internet connection.
Further, the mobile application shall provide multi-lingualsupport as well as audio notifications. The application is expected to supportHindi and English language as a minimum, it said.
Cash constitutes the most important means of transaction inthe country. As on March 31, 2018, there were about 102 billion pieces ofbanknotes in circulation having a value of Rs 18 lakh crore.
There are about 80 lakh blind or visually impaired people inthe country, who are likely to benefit from the initiative of the central bank.In June, 2018 the central bank had declared thatit would explore the feasibility of developing a suitable device or mechanismfor aiding the visually impaired in the identification of Indianbanknotes.