Demonetisation

     It was a routine Tuesday as usual on the 8th of November. I had just reached home switched on the Wifi and suddenly all the quiet WhatsApp groups began flooding with long text messages which I always skip to read. There was this small, one line text by a friend which read check the news. So, I told my folks who were busy watching T.M.K.O.C to change the channel and there was the P.M of our country enthusiastically saying, " Bhaiyo aur Behno ..." and the news flash read, " 500 and 1000 rupee notes to be scrapped by today midnight." It was a kind of jolt for me as I had neither experienced nor expected something of this could happen because in my 20 years I've seen 25 and 50 paise being scrapped but 500- 1000 notes was way beyond anyone's imagination. And immediately later there was this announcement of the "Pink Revolution" the 2000 rupee pink note and the new 500 one. Soon after hearing people ran up to the ATMs as they were supposed to remain shut and so were the banks for the next couple of days. In the PM's impactful speech he also said there are 50 days to deposit the old notes for the exchange of the new ones and this week being the last week of the year and also of the so called depositing period let's look back at the one and a half month and the prospects of future.
      As soon as the banks became functional, after the announcement till today the money in them have dried up but the long queues that wait outside, from the chilly mornings to the hot afternoons haven't reduced one bit. And even after they reach the bank counters they are handed these pink notes, for a moment they feel elated but later having these pink notes become a headache as there is no shopkeeper ready to accept it and give the change. People having patience wait outside the ATMs in the prospect of the ATM van arriving but they too face disappointment as some of the ATMs are yet to be recalibrated. Some people have started using cheques even to pay a small sum of money, some have gone the cashless way using E wallets for payments. Even the small vegetable vendors are using it. Many are accepting credit and debit cards to pay. Belgium, France, Canada are already 90% cashless , even Goa is leading the way to move to a cashless India. This mode isn't harmful but we must be cautious.
     The biggest advantage of demonetisation is that it will help the government to track people who are having large sums of unaccounted cash or cash on which no income tax has been paid P.S. black money. Since the black money is used for illegal activities like terrorism finding, money laundering and also inflating the prices of major assets like gold and real estate. Also due to people disclosing their income by depositing in the bank accounts the government would get a good amount of tax revenue which could be used for good infrastructure, hospitals, educational institutions and many other facilities for the poor and needy sections of the society.
    But the implementation of the demonetisation could have been better because the middle class and the poor have to suffer the brunt of this cash crisis, the working class cannot leave their works and wait in these endless queues. There has been an altogether economic slowdown in all businesses. On the other hand corruption is seen at different levels, the new 2000 rupee have been found stacked at houses of the bankers. It's still a wait and watch situation and let's hope for the best and I strongly support this change.