India to take up fake currency note issue at global fora – India – NEWS – The Times of India

With a number of states reporting huge seizures of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs), India will soon take up the issue at global fora, like Interpol, in a big way and will also ask some European countries to keep a watch on importers of currency-standard printing paper and ink to Pakistan -- the country which New Delhi suspects as the base of printing and circulation of FICNs.

Although the role of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in printing and circulation of FICN has never been a secret, sleuths of the Indian agencies found that the agency had, of late, impressed upon the government in Islamabad to import additional currency-standard printing paper and ink from companies located in UK, Sweden and Switzerland to pursue its nefarious designs in India. (via India to take up fake currency note issue at global fora - India - NEWS - The Times of India).

On September 10, 2008

The 2ndlook post on Terrorists And Counterfeit Indian Currency analyzed this situation. And laid out a logic for addressing this problem in a very simple manner.

Why Indian currency

The counterfeiting of US dollars is understandable. It is the world’s largest currency – and most acceptable. The GBP or the Euro are also reasonable targets for counterfeiting activity. Even counterfeiting the Canadian dollar!

But, the most unlikely target is the Indian Rupee! India is a small, poor economy, (at least, till about 5 years ago). India does not have capital convertibility either. So, this huge counterfeiting operation raises more questions. Is this counterfeiting related to India’s Gold reserves?

Less than 12 suppliers

The entire currency and security-grade printing is dominated by less than a dozen companies. These companies will not dare to support ‘counterfeiting’ operations – unless there is official cover or support given to them, by their respective Governments.

Now, this small clutch of currency businesses makes it simple to track the source of inks, paper, dies, plates – which can be identified by a simple spectroscopic examination. The cost of this entire examination will be far lesser than the amount of money (not fake FICN) that the Indian Government spends on fighting terror.

This is good news. The Indian Government is working on the right track. We can lick this problem.