An image of a new ₹ 500 is going viral on social media platforms depicting the illustration of Lord Rama on one side and Ram temple on the other side. Users on social media are claiming that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will release new notes on 22 Jan 2024, the day of the consecration of Ram temple.

Fact-Check

According to Section 22 of the RBI Act 1934, the Reserve Bank of India has the exclusive right to issue bank notes in India. But the final decision on the design of the note etc. completely depends on the government.

The DFRAC team visited the official website of RBI but we didn’t get any press release in the context of the above viral claim.

If RBI had issued such notes, it would have provided this information on its official website.

Furthermore, after searching with the help of some keywords, the team did not find any such news informing that the Government of India or RBI has announced the release of new notes of ₹ 500.

Upon investigating further, the DFRAC team carefully observed the viral image of the new note and found a watermark on it ‘@raghunmurthy07’ who shared it with the caption in Kannada: “Ram devotee Gandhi also wanted the same”.(Translated to English)

Additionally, Rs 500 is written in Kannada and English in the viral image, whereas it is originally in Hindi and English.

It is noteworthy that the same image has been posted on several other blogs with the same serial number. Also, below the image in the design, is written in Kannada and English, while it is in Hindi and English.

Conclusion

It is clear from DFRAC’s fact-check that neither the government nor the Reserve Bank of India has made any such announcement of issuing new notes of ₹ 500 having the image of Lord Rama or Ram temple.

The viral image of the new ₹ 500 note has been edited. Hence, the claim of social media users is false.