100 Rupees Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

Issued to honor M.S. Swaminathan, the agronomist whose work on high-yielding wheat and rice varieties drove India's Green Revolution in the late 1960s, pulling the country back from the brink of famine at a moment when American economists were openly predicting mass starvation. His breeding programs, developed largely at IARI in New Delhi, allowed India to achieve wheat self-sufficiency by 1974. The .500 fineness here — a quaternary alloy rather than traditional silver — reflects the Security Printing and Minting Corporation's cost management on commemorative issues intended primarily for collector distribution rather than circulation.