The government and the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] have decided to incorporate certain additional security features and improve the existing bank notes of various denominations.

This is being done to check the increasing circulation of high quality counterfeit notes, RBI has said in a notification.

"New bank notes of denominations of Rs 50 and above will be introduced in a phased manner this year," RBI said.

The new improved/additional security features, besides acting as a deterrent to counterfeiting, will also enhance the overt features to help the public in identifying the genuine bank notes, it added.

To share information on the changes in the security features of bank notes, the RBI has called for a meeting of all banks chief executive officers. The currency verification and processing activities have been mechanised at the RBI.

The regulator has asked banks to equip themselves with proper and adequate number of currency handling machines so that only the non-issuable notes are sent to the RBI for eventual disposal.

This is in line with global best practice wherein most developed countries change their bank notes every five years. The central government had constituted a high-level committee to consider strengthening the security features of bank notes.

The committee's recommendations were examined and with the approval of the central government, the RBI has decided to incorporate certain additional security features and make improvement in the existing ones, in the bank notes of various denominations.