Narendra Modi led NDA government faced criticism over quality of 2000 and 500 notes. Opposition leaders and political analyst suggested the government should launch plastic notes. The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

Government yesterday informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started. "It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

It may be mentioned here that, in February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs. 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.