MANI App: RBI’s New Years Gift to Visually Impaired People

Shubham Chauhan

04 Jan, 2020

The Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on January 1, 2020, launched the “Mobile Aided Note Identifier (MANI)”, a mobile application for assisting visually impaired people in identifying currency notes.

Cash remains a dominant mode of transaction in India and to help visually impaired people in identifying currency notes, RBI launched the mobile app ‘MANI’. Users can download the app from Android Playstore or iOS App Store.

MANI – RBI’s App for currency identification
https://t.co/8VCA394b23 pic.twitter.com/VmHvp0vaN9

— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) January 1, 2020

Unlike the countries like the USA that prints all denominations of currency in the same size and same color Indian banknotes contain several features that enable visually impaired people to identify them.  Indian Banknotes includes various distinguishing features like intaglio printing and tactile mark, variable size, large numerals, inconsistent color, monochromatic hues, and patterns. All these features help visually impaired people in identifying different banknotes.

To make currency notes more accessible for 80 lakh blind or visually impaired people in the country, RBI took the help of technological advancements and launched a mobile application, thereby facilitating their day to day transactions.

Features included in the app MANI launched for visually impaired people

• The mobile application launched by RBI is competent in identifying the denominations of Mahatma Gandhi Series and Mahatma Gandhi (New) series banknotes. The app will be able to identify the notes by checking the front or reverse side of the note, including half folded notes as well. The user of the application can use Android or iOS camera at various holding angles and in a broad range of light conditions to identify the banknotes.
• Users of MANI app will be able to identify the currency notes through the audio notification, which will be available in both Hindi and English language.
• The application once installed, will not require the internet to operate. Users can take the assistance of the application even in offline mode.
• Adding to the features of the application and making it more user-friendly, voice control has also been added to the app. Users can navigate the app by voice controls to enjoy the features of the application. However, this feature will only be available on the devices those which support voice-enabled controls.
• The application is free and is available for download in both the Android play store as well as in the iOS app store.
• RBI in its notification on Launch of the MANI app made it clear that that the mobile application will not be able to authenticate the note as being real or fake.

Take Away

The launch of the MANI app is a commendable step taken by RBI to facilitate visually impaired people in identifying currency notes. The user interface of the app is fairly easy and the additional features offered in the app make it more compatible to be used by visually impaired people. Such a step taken by the Reserve Bank of India is highly applaudable, and would certainly aid the users of the app in distinguishing banknotes.