HISTORY OF RUPEE NOTES
IN INDIA:
On 8th November, 2016, Prime
Minister Modiji announced that the current Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 rupee notes
will not be valid from midnight. Instead, he said they were being replaced with
new notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000. The same (Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000) was
introduced with effect from 10th November, 2016.
This is not the first time, when rupee note has
been demonetized in India.
Earlier, in 1978, the then Prime Minister
Morarji Desai had also banned all currency above Rs. 100.
The highest currency note ever printed by the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was Rs. 10,000 note during the British Raj. It was
printed first in 1938 and a new version came in 1954.
When Desai came to power, banknotes of Rs.
1,000, Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 were in circulation. But then Prime Minister
Morarji Desai, who also held the finance portfolio, demonetized all these notes
in January 1978.
During the Sh. Atal Behari Vajpayee era, the Rs
1,000 note made a comeback. In November 2000, these notes were re-introduced on
the ground that it would be easier for business transactions. The Rs 500 notes
had already returned into circulation in October 1987. The move was then
justified as an attempt to contain the volume of banknotes in circulation due
to inflation.
