India clears trials and regular issuance of ₹10 and ₹20 polymer notes
The government has approved field trials and eventual regular issuance of ₹10 and ₹20 polymer banknotes. The notes will circulate alongside paper currency, creating a durability-led shift in cash handling for retailers, banks and payments infrastructure providers.
What happened
Reserve Bank of India · India approved field trials and eventual regular issuance of ₹10 and ₹20 polymer banknotes. The RBI says plastic notes will circulate
Key facts
- ₹10
- ₹20
- 1 billion polymer banknotes each for ₹10 and ₹20 denominations
- 68,000 reams of polymer substrate
- 34,000 reams per denomination
- Minimum bidder supply: 20,400 reams
- 2,810 crore currency notes supplied in the fiscal year
- Over ₹4,800 crore spent on note printing
- 1,700 crore soiled notes destroyed
- Banknote value in circulation rose 11.9%
- Banknote volume in circulation rose 10.5%
Why this matters
Target partnerships or capabilities in polymer-note validation, cash automation and recycling, where parallel circulation will create integration and upgrade demand across banks and retailers.
What to watch
- RBI notification specifying trial geographies, production volumes, security features and transition timetable.
- Confirmed acceptance or required upgrades from ATM, cash recycler, note sorter, vending, parking and ticketing-equipment manufacturers.
- Data on polymer-note life cycle, withdrawal rates, counterfeit incidents and cost per note in circulation versus paper equivalents.
- Expansion from ₹10 and ₹20 into higher-velocity or higher-value denominations.
- Merchant and consumer reports of note acceptance problems, machine rejections, sticking, heat damage or authentication confusion.
- Currency-printing and bank procurement contracts that indicate sustained rather than pilot-scale production.
- Cash-management providers should audit note-sorter, recycler, ATM and counterfeit-detection compatibility for polymer substrates and mixed-note flows.
- Large retailers, transit operators and vending-machine networks should test acceptance, sensor calibration, jam rates and note-storage performance before circulation broadens.
- Banks and cash-in-transit operators should update branch, vault and merchant-training procedures for polymer-note fitness, authentication and bundling.
- Payments firms should position polymer adoption as cash-infrastructure modernization rather than a direct threat to UPI, while offering merchant cash-reconciliation and deposit-automation tools.
- Retail chains with high cash exposure should track whether cleaner, more durable notes reduce till rejects, deposit discrepancies and staff time spent sorting low-value currency.