India 2018

Finance 241
(UNCCD), Minamata Convention on Mercury and supports implementation
of the Protocol in countries with economices in transition for the Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (MP).
Asian Development Bank
India is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which was
established in 1966. ADB has 67 members (including 48 regional and 19 nonregional
members), with its headquarters at Manila, Philippines. India is holding
6.331 per cent of shares, totaling 6,72,030 shares in ADB as on 31st December,
2016, with 5.363 per cent voting rights. The Bank is engaged in promoting
economic and social progress of its developing member countries (DMCs) in
the Asia Pacific Region. The main instruments that it uses to do this are making
loans and equity investments, providing technical assistance for the preparation
and execution of development projects and programmes and other advisory
services, guarantees, grants and policy dialogues. India borrows from ADB
within overall external debt management policy pursued by the Government
which focuses on raising funds on concessional terms from less expensive
sources with longer maturities. India started borrowing from ADB in 1986.
Currency and Coinage
Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL) is the only
PSU under the Department of Economic Affairs. It was formed after
corporatisation of nine units, i.e. four mints, four presses (two currency note
presses and two security presses) and one paper mill which were earlier
functioning under the Ministry. The Company was incorporated in 2006 under
the Companies Act, 1956. It is engaged in the manufacturing of security paper,
minting of coins, printing of currency and bank notes, non-judicial stamp papers,
postage stamps, travel documents, etc. The Company supplies currency/bank
notes and coins to RBI, Non-Judicial Stamp Papers to various state governments;
postal stationery and stamps to postal department; passports, visa stickers and
other travel documents to Ministry of External Affairs. Other products include
commemorative coins, MICR and Non-MICR cheques etc. SPMCIL has also
setup a 50:50 Joint Venture in 2010 with Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran
Pvt. Ltd. (BRBNMPL) in the name of Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited
(BNPMIPL), a Green-Field project of Bank Note Paper Mill with capacity of
12000 MT per annum having two state of the art technology paper lines of 6000
MT capacity per annum each. The commercial production has started from
both the lines.
New Denomination of Banknotes
New denomination banknote of ` 2,000/- has been introduced with the approval
of the Government on the size, theme, colour and design. This helped in faster
remonetisation of the system, subsequent to cancellation of legal tender of
Specified banknotes.