India looks at the US to check fake currency notes

NEW DELHI: India is planning to seek technological cooperation of the US to check the flow of fake Indian currency notes the way Washington does to put a stop of circulation of counterfeit USD.

Impressed by the American technology, which has a database of each counterfeit US dollar -- photograph, from where it originated, its route of travel and people behind its circulation -- India is all set to ask the US to help it curb the menace, mostly originating from Pakistan.

A formal request is expected to be placed during the Indo-US Strategic Dialogue to be held in Washington later this month. Union Home Secretary R K Singh, besides others, will also attend the crucial meeting.

New Delhi will seek American technology to check the smuggling and circulation of fake Indian currency notes and build its own database of such counterfeit notes.

The move came after Home Minister P Chidambaram vowed to stamp down heavily on those who carry fake Indian currency note and indulge in smuggling of drugs from across the border.

"As far as FICN is concerned, we are worried about it and we will spare nobody who carries FICN. We will stamp down heavily on those who circulate FICN and we will punish the traffickers very severely," he had said last month.