16 January 2014
Reserve Bank Of India was established in 1935, and was nationalised in 1949. Prior to that all notes were issued on behalf of CROWN by Finance Ministry, the ultimate monetary authority for Indian Currency. subsequent to delegating the currency issuing function to RBI, all higher denomination notes were issued by RBI. Only as a matter of convention the one rupee note continued to be signed by Finance Secretary. Probably prior to 1949 one rupee note was the highest denomination note in circulation.
17 January 2014
in addition to nice explanation by Avtar, you may also read this to further enrich your knowledge of history of currency notes in relation to RBI.