The Reserve Bank of India will come out with a mobile application to help visually challenged people in identifying currency notes as cash still remains a dominant mode of transaction. 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 the Centre. The RBI said that identification of banknote denomination is key to successful completion of cash-based transactions by visually impaired persons. The proposed mobile app would be able to identify the denomination of notes of Mahatma Gandhi Series and Mahatma Gandhi (New) series by capturing the image of the notes placed in front of mobile camera. The RBI had come out with a similar ‘request for proposal’ from vendors but later cancelled it. The app will also generate “audio notification” intimating the currency note denomination to the user if image is captured correctly, else intimating the user to try again in case of image is not readable. There are about 80 lakh blind or visually impaired people in the country, who are likely to benefit from the initiative of the central bank.

(Business Standard)