Did Twitterati just reveal that Rs 2,000 notes were printed months before currency crisis?

Urjit Patel took charge as the 24th RBI governor on September 6.

The new Rs 2,000 currency noteIBTimes India

When Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were banned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, rumours had it that the government started printing the new Rs 2,000 notes a few months ago. Several media reports also stated that printing of the new notes began in August or September.

"The printing, according to officials, began in August-September and nearly 480 million notes of Rs 2,000 denomination and an equal number of Rs 500 denomination were printed," the Economic Times reported.

A few netizens later raised their concerns and questioned recently-appointed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel's signature on the highest-denomination currency notes "printed months ago."

Patel was appointed as the 24th RBI governor on July 19, and took over the position from Raghuram Rajan on September 6. It means that Patel's signature would not be valid on any notes printed in August.

From what we understand, the "printing of currencies began 6 months ago" rumour was cooked up by a few netizens, who misunderstood the reports on the government's plan to introduce the Rs 2,000 notes a few months ago.

It has to be noted that printing of a currency goes through several procedures, including designing it to getting the paper ready. Though the authorities might have started the initial stages of printing by the end of August as reported by the ET, the actual printing is understood to have started only after Patel took charge of the office.

Hoax Busted: No language errors in new Rs 2,000 currency || This bank transaction slip cites Narendra Modi as the 'reason/purpose of payment'

Meanwhile, a RBI official told the Hindu that they could not introduce any special security measures on the currencies as the decision was taken on a sudden notice.

"Since the decision to introduce the new notes was taken only six months ago, there was no time to alter the security features. Only the design has been changed, but the security features remain the same as the old notes," said the official.

Check out some social media responses here: