The Reserve Bank of India has recently decided to change the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian Rupee notes to other national leaders. Since 1997 every rupee note had the Gandhi as its face on every denomination.

To end this monopoly is the main objective of the RBI. The RBI has no record of the various changes in the layout of Rupee from the beginning and this leads to the conclusion that no one can trace when and what triggered the Gandhi era of rupee notes. RBI is now considering suggestions from people across the country to put personalities other than Gandhiji to put on our currency and the major recommendations are Jawaharlal Nehru, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Indira Gandhi. This has already elicited a debate among various communities of the country, each holding up the name of their leaders.