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India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

87 points by kristianp 10y ago

deleted 10y ago
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snowwindwaves 10y ago
Canada got rid of $1000 bills in the year 2001 to combat crime and money laundering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawn_Canadian_banknotes#.241.2C000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawn_Canadian_banknotes#....
linuxkerneldev 10y ago
My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption. This was a major topic of discussion in my workplace as we have many Indian developers. Most of them were very proud that this action was taken. So it was a surprise to me to read the significantly negative tone in the BBC article. As a check, I googled "accuracy of BBC articles on India" and encountered the following : https://www.quora.com/Why-does-BBC-publish-more-negative-news-about-India https://www.quora.com/Why-does-BBC-publish-more-negative-new... "It is true that channels like BBC and CNN have long tradition of editorializing many issues of third world countries. So when any major development happens in countries like India, Pakistan or China, they go on with their usual views on the subject rather than looking at it through fresh lenses."
- rwbt 10y ago
  That might be true, but your Indian colleagues are probably well off with much of their transactions happening in plastic/electronic anyways, so this will have very little effect on their day to day lives. Since much of the Indian economy is cash based, there is a lot of frustration in the working class and there is a serious cash (as in bank notes) crunch.
  - nitinreddy88 10y ago
    I do accept this fact. Is there better option? I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt.
    - meira 10y ago
      Not necessarily. It is never a good premise to expect good faith from politicians.
    - rwbt 10y ago
      I don't know if there is a better option but the GoI definitely didn't think this throughly. Countries that demonetized in the past did this over a span of a time to prevent panic and fear. If the Govt set a deadline instead of abolishing them overnight that would go a lot smoother. Sure, that'll give 'some' tax evaders time to plan their 'exit' smoothly but it'll make lives of millions so much easier. Most likely, the evaders use that money to buy gold, so the Govt can temporarily track all gold purchases (they do it anyways for puchases over 2 lakh rupees). Even if they end up spending the cash on inflated real estate, they're in someways helping the economy instead of hoarding the cash and will end up in someone's bank account eventually. Also, all the big tax evaders rarely hoard cash. They usually have offshore accounts and sophisticated corporate structures. Secondly, the new notes being minted have no additional security features. The RBI confirmed that the new 500 and 2000 bank notes carry the same security features as the previous ones, which probably makes it similarly easy to counterfeit. The RBI previously claimed that it would take 5-6 years to design notes with new security features and I think they should've waited until they have better bank notes to curb fake notes.
    - wav-part 10y ago
      > I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt. I have no hope for this country to find such views on HN of all places. EDIT: I acknowledge this is low content comment. So I quote "the first job of an economist is to tell governments what they cannot do". Please sit back and give this a fair read [1]. [1] https://mises.org/about-mises/what-austrian-economics https://mises.org/about-mises/what-austrian-economics
- nitinreddy88 10y ago
  Totally agree with you. I have read couple of BBC articles, they show same negativity
- jetru 10y ago
  Isn't this what's happening even in the US though? Look at the 2016 US election and how it was reported. Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points?
  - jjawssd 10y ago
    Spot on. We need new media with more diverse viewpoints and more viewers for this new content. Why does every airport always have CNN on by default?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - vermontdevil 10y ago
      I've long suspected CNN pays airports for this.
  - orf 10y ago
    > Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points? In other highly impartial and irrational places, like breitbart, the_donald and other conservative media sources.
    - jetru 10y ago
      Fair enough :) I meant on television. I guess Fox News. And maybe I'm in the online echo chamber. It's really hard to tell.
      - zanny 10y ago
        Trumps facebook groups, twitter feeds, and the aforementioned subreddits around his campaign are non-stop pumping out Trump love. The Internet is only as much of an echo chamber as you let it be. You can always go look in those alternative forums.
- mrkgnao 10y ago
  I come from a lower-middle-class family in Kolkata, and I can say from experience that a lot of older people (my parents!) are over the moon with the whole thing. My mother, in particular, has suddenly turned into some sort of Modi fangirl, saying stuff like, "See what he's doing for the country!" (and variations on that). At some level, it's just the fact that anyone who replaces years of (perceived?) inaction with something striking -- however naive, or well-intentioned-albeit-disastrous-in-the-long-run -- will elicit this kind of reaction. I imagine for people like my parents, the cost of going to a bank and getting all their suddenly-demonetised banknotes exchanged (which we anyway had very little of) isn't too much. And when some restaurant, say, or a drugstore, is unwilling to accept one of the new 2000-rupee notes, we have credit/debit cards to fall back on. The fact that that people may not have Aadhaar[1] cards or voter ID cards stored safely somewhere, that not everyone has bank accounts which hold >99% (excuse the arbitrary figure) of the money they have, that not everyone has the ability to spend what might possibly be the better part of a day walking to $DEITY knows where the nearest bank is (probably to be turned away because they're out of cash or because the line is a kilometre too long) -- that the very act of going to a bank may not be as trivial or no-brainer-like to everyone as it is to oneself! -- is something we have to work very hard to even imagine. And the cash they have stored is, in many cases, all they have. (Remember what I said about not having a bank account?) Cash, for us, is what we use for bags of chips and ice-cream and sheets of graph paper and ... bus fare, I guess? Cash, to someone living from day to day, is everything. edit: yay downvotes, I can tick that off my list [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - ordinarySeeker 10y ago
    There is atleast some indication that the Modi government took some steps in the prior years/months to strategically encircle the medium to big hoarders of black money and soothe the impact of the drastic demonetization step on the poor. Having said that any action of this magnitude is bound to have misplanning, unintended consequences and hardship 2013 Under previous government Replace subsidies with direct deposits in bank accounts of poor citizens[1] 2014 Under Modi Massive push to open bank accounts for poor people which seems to have bought banking to many households who never previously had one[2] 2015 Renegotiation of Tax treaties and Information sharing treating with tax heavens[3][4] Window for hoaders of black money to declare it for a flat penalty[5] 2016 Demonetization A more detailed step by step account http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/prime-minister-modi-surgical-strike-on-black-money-government-currency-revamp/1/805904.html http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/prime-minister-modi-surgi... [1] http://www.voanews.com/a/india-replaces-subsidies-for-the-poor-with-cash-transfers/1581898.html http://www.voanews.com/a/india-replaces-subsidies-for-the-po... [2] http://qz.com/257548/the-response-to-modi-governments-first-flagship-scheme-shows-it-couldnt-have-chosen-a-better-theme/ http://qz.com/257548/the-response-to-modi-governments-first-... [3]http://swarajyamag.com/economy/campaign-against-black-money-modi-govt-plugs-indo-mauritius-tax-treaty-loopholes http://swarajyamag.com/economy/campaign-against-black-money-... [4]http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146245 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146245 [5] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-things-to-know-about-blackmoney-bill/article7194290.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-things-to-know-abou...
- ajeet_dhaliwal 10y ago
  The BBC is always like this. You should have seen the bias in the 2014 general elections, they did not want Narendra Modi to win and become the prime minister and they made that very clear in every article leading up to the election. He did end up winning. When India successfully sent a probe to Mars the BBC suggested the money could be better spent elsewhere. I would not rely on the BBC for India news, or even United States news for the matter. If you relied on the BBC for India news you wouldn't ever want to visit because you'd be afraid you would get raped as soon as you step out of the airport. In the case of the USA, you wouldn't even make it out of the airport, you would be shot dead at the baggage carousel. What annoys me most is I am forced by law to pay for such news reporting.
  - dodgedcactii 10y ago
    Cool story bro.
- andrewvijay 10y ago
  They write like they know everything in the world but still they don't twist the facts. Also if some good was done they write like 'oh look these ex slaves have done this good' and if bad' oh look the poor bastards are adding just another bad thing to the list'. These are metaphors and they don't literally write this! And many neutral toned articles are mistaken as negative by nationalists here.
- deleted 10y ago
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- dragonsh 10y ago
  BBC is right in its analysis, this measure only targets 20% of Indian wealth. The richest 5% owning 80% of Indian wealth are at ease, only poor and middle class troubled. Moreover this 20% money will be available to them as cheap loans. The total money owed by big corporates in India is way bigger then this parallel black money. Also the person Rajan who was planning to reign this loans is forced out of office. Modi is Indian version of Donald trump building Great Wall across India against corruption in media. A normal Indian will never know that black money outside of India far outweigh anything in Indian homes.
  - personinsg 10y ago
    I am not sure about BBC but now people know why Rajan previous RBI governor and govt has differences and he was forced out.
- babyrainbow 10y ago
  >My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption... How can this curtail corruption?
  - ara24 10y ago
    It was primarily intended to bring out undeclared income and wipe out counterfeit notes. However, IMHO, undeclared income facilitates corruption.
- manish_gill 10y ago
  Rather than attacking the messenger and correlating it with the anecdotal evidence from the people you know, try to look at this objectively. - The white-collar middle class of course is lauding this move. Most of them (us) use digital money, are educated, want to see the corruption eradicated etc. - BUT, the majority of the population is poor, working class, not education enough. India is still a cash-based economy. Poor people have all their savings in either cash or gold. Women in India still hide money from their husbands. - Business - Real Estate, Transport, what have you, is still done in cash. Soon, the truckers who get paid in these denominations will stop getting paid, and stop bringing in food to the cities. What then? - A kid has already died because the private hospital refused to accept the currency. - There is talk going on about a possible Bank Run. - Most importantly, I firmly believe this was a political move to cripple his opponents in the upcoming elections in the heartland states of India. He's lost the last few state elections despite going to rallies himself. This is him tightening his grip on the power. - Now we know why Mr. Raghuram Rajan left the RBI and has gone back to U Chicago. - Edit: Oh yeah, the new note only contain one non-English script, devnagari. The language and culture wars that took 2 decades to resolve will begin anew. The privileged HN readers here who are like "I'll just order from Amazon" live in such a bubble that it's hilarious. This is the most brazen and irresponsible move that this govt has ever done. It's a draconian ruling that in the name of progress, is going to (already has) ruin the lives of the poor people of this country who have nothing to do with the daily corruption. The middle class will hail Mr. Modi as a visionary, drinking his kool-aid, click Purchase and go about its business. To call this a "temporary hiccup" is callous and frankly, disgusting.
  - kranner 10y ago
    > Oh yeah, the new note only contain one non-English script, devnagari. Other scripts are on the back.
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - abrbhat 10y ago
    Script-wise, it looks like the previous notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_INR_Rev_2016.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_INR_Rev_2016.jpg
- perseusprime11 10y ago
  Actions against corruption are always tough. There is no easy way to get black money out. Short term it will hurt even common people but this will play out nicely in longer term.
- alimbada 10y ago
  If you follow the Palestine-Israel conflict to any degree you'll realise very quickly that BBC only ever reports on anything that's pro-Israel and never the other way.
- mavelikara 10y ago
  The move was _intially_ welcomed, but as the days went on massive flaws in execution became obvious. Hence people are upset. Source: I am an Indian living in the US who has immediate family living in India.
wav-part 10y ago
My initial gut reaction is/was, a costly political stunt to fullfill an election promise. But I will wait when we have figures about cost to economy vs additional tax revenue. It also should be taken into account that Rupee now is even more unlikely to become a global currency. Instead of money going directly to corrupt bureaucrats now it will directly going to politicians to be spent on unsustainable welfare (subsidies/reservations/PSUs) which would get them even more votes clamouring for more welfare. Ah dont you fking cry when they up the sales tax 200% on your favourite gadgets in the name of the poors. All thanks to this cashless/surveillance there will be no escape.
- 0xmohit 10y ago
  I suppose that if election promises were to be fulfilled then the government might have chosen to act upon those stashing billions of dollars in tax havens abroad.
  - wav-part 10y ago
    I find even the concept of income tax injustice at massive scale. But I have a feeling that this was a least costly way to shut up a socialist population. Assuming Modi is not just another socialist and this is the last of it we are seeing.
- gnipgnip 10y ago
  +1 Taxation by a state which has very little legitimacy is more akin to thievery. This shows all the signs of a new Indira Gandhi-esque regime in the making (with about the same amount of fanfare). - The currency replacement is likely going to take about ~$5B (the "Black money" is valued at $20B). - Nothing stops Pak from counterfeiting these new notes. - This move creates a reverse bank run to build up reserves, which in light of the rate (10-15% ?) of bad loans in Indian Banks, is interesting to say the least. - There also appears to be a very big push under this regime to push for cashless-id transactions. With the UIDAI in place, pessimists would believe there to be the coming of an even more efficient 1984-esque system for producing more cheap labor for US & pals.
- mindentropy 10y ago
0xmohit 10y ago
I am amazed the amount of selfishness we exhibit. If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot. A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%. Most of the ATMs are out of cash. There are huge queues at banks; most of them are giving away Rs. 2000/= bills. Amusingly, if you were to give the new bill to a shopkeeper chances are that he'd refuse to tender the change back as the closest denomination to that is a Rs. 100/= bill. Statistics reveal that only 6% of the black money is in the form of cash. As such, the argument of declaring higher currency notes as illegal tender in order to curb black money in unconvincing.
- rwbt 10y ago
  If it's really just 6% of tax evasion, then I honestly think this is just a political decision trying to keep their promises.
- Manishearth 10y ago
  > A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. Forget banks, many don't have ID. Ration cards exist, but those are tied to your household so you may not easily be able to get access to your ration card (say if you're in a city with family -- and ration card -- back home). In case of estranged women it's even hader. Without ID they can't exchange larger amounts. It's also hard to create a new bank account on short notice without this. My mother once helped a young woman set up a bank account. She had come to Mumbai to find work, and used to live at her aunt's place, and her aunt would hold her money for her (but skim off it). Most such people keep their savings in cash someplace "safe", though some use post office accounts. Anyway, the process was arduous. Her name was garbled on her family's ration card, and they needed the original, which was back at the village. This took forever to sort out. This is going to be hard to work through for a few. Especially those with lower income who keep most of their life savings in cash.
  - kamaal 10y ago
    Actually dealing with banks is a luxury which Urban Indians assume is available for everyone. Its not. Most banks are huge red tape in India and corruption is quite common. Even to dispense cash/loans a lot of times local rural banks ask for bribe. Which is why most people go a distance to avoid dealing with banks. This problem was addressed by co-operative societies to an extent, but it doesn't scale though. Debit/Credit/Electronic transfers are for the privileged in India.
firasd 10y ago
What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... it kinda underscores that real 'black money' isn't stuffed in mattresses, it's stored more cleverly in different types of assets, companies, offshore accounts. Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, had this to say a couple years ago about the idea: “Unfortunately, my sense is the clever find ways around it. They find ways to divide up their hoard in to many smaller pieces… I would focus more on tracking data and better tax administration to get at where money is not being declared. I think it is very hard in this modern economy to hide your money that easily.” http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/09/heres-what-raghuram-rajan-thinks-of-currency-demonetisation/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/09/heres-what-raghuram-... The fact that our Prime Minister’s fans are so enthusiastic and the move is aimed at curbing ‘black money’ makes it hard to clearly take a stand against this move, but I personally find it ill thought-out. The fact that some wealthy people are evading taxes by sticking cash in a cupboard somewhere doesn’t mean that hundreds of millions of ordinary people should suddenly be unable to buy milk or bread, damn.
- 0xmohit 10y ago
  What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... Those Bollywood stars are the ones who (1) own huge stretches of agricultural land posing as farmers, (2) own benami properties. Perhaps publicly supporting anything a ruling government says is their way to demonstrate support towards the government and avoid any scrutiny.
  - somedangedname 10y ago
    "This (demonetisation) is not an end. I have more projects in mind to make India corruption-free. …. We will take action against ‘benami’ property." - PM Modi [0] Whether he takes further action and if those actions will be effective remain to be seen. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-narendra-modi-demonetisation-corruption-black-money-benaami-property-4373110/ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-n...
- 10y ago
goombastic 10y ago
Ahh, it's the BBC. I think we have reached a point in journalism where it has now become important to identify who is reporting it as well. At this rate we will need a simple content bias/color code plugin for different sites. As an Indian, I have found that the BBC has been overly pessimistic about India especially on the web. Their story selections, headlines, and the voices listed as sound bites in the stories support the "downplay theme" for India.
- gozur88 10y ago
  >I think we have reached a point in journalism where it has now become important to identify who is reporting it as well. We were always at that point even if not many people realized it. The difference is with electronic media you're not depending solely on organizations like the BBC for information.
essdas 10y ago
I think the BBC has completely missed the sentiment on the ground. There is widespread support for this. Every single person I've spoken to in the long queues near ATMs have expressed that they don't mind the inconvenience because it will help the country.
- danparsonson 10y ago
  But then again, by definition those are not the people who are hurt the worst, because they have bank accounts.
  - swatkat 10y ago
    You don't need a bank account to exchange demonetized currency notes.
    - Manishearth 10y ago
      You need ID, though. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12947147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12947147 You need a bank account for this process to be convenient and easy. Without it you have to exchange in bits and pieces.
    - danparsonson 10y ago
      No, but having a bank account and therefore a payment card a) gives you another means of paying for things besides cash, and b) likely means that you don't have your life savings in the form of now-invalid currency.
- sundarurfriend 10y ago
  Yes, I personally have been very surprised by how positive the reaction has been. My home has a lot of small shops around ("chaiwalla" tea booths, tiny grocery "kirana" shops, little idly shops, lots of roadside vendors, etc.), and the reaction has been almost universally positive. There's of course a bit of grumbling about cash being hard to find in the first two days, but even those come in a manner similar to how one might complain about rain - taken as an inevitable small nuisance in the larger scheme of things. One part of the explanation is that these are the same folks that often deal with the small politicians and exploitative moneylenders - so now, seeing these corrupt people suffer greatly from this move, they're full of heartfelt praise for the central govt. At least half the praise I hear has been in the form of "you should have seen that politician's face" or "that moneylender is roaming all over town trying to change his black money".
msravi 10y ago
The partisan nature of this piece is amazing. Contrary to what is presented here, the whole exercise was one that was brilliantly executed, and one that has caused minimal disruption. See this: http://swirlingtea.blogspot.in/2016/11/demonetization-why-2000_13.html http://swirlingtea.blogspot.in/2016/11/demonetization-why-20...
andrewvijay 10y ago
It was said that it was to remove black money from the market but the percentage of cash in black money is only 6%. The remaining are assets mostly outside of India. And such a major move affecting a billion people must have been well thought out to avoid the chaos. There have been couple of deaths because of this. Two children were dead because docs refused to accept old currency for admission in hospitals. But questioning this is being termed as anti national. Hope this fake nationalism stunts end soon.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
swatkat 10y ago
Ah! Yet another "anti-India" article by BBC ;) This is not the first time BBC is doing it (can we call it as "propaganda"?) ;) I've seen a few firsthand instances of people who hoarded illegal cash impacted by this demonetization move. Yesterday, somebody even dumped wads of cash into a lake in Bangalore (near KR Puram area). I suggest people here to read this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5c195e/do_you_guys_know_any_people_hoarding_lots_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5c195e/do_you_guys_k...
- mindentropy 10y ago
  It is all funny anecdotes. Good for a laugh and some happy revenge. Now remember that not all have just hoarded the cash. Many have actively invested and this investment actually goes to the poorer sections of the society as daily wages. What would happen if that cash is sucked out? The rich class can live without the investment but the poor have no way to go as they suddenly find themselves jobless. Next the government will throw cash around with policies such as NREGA to help the poor and then again you have all this money sloshing around in the economy albeit with higher denomination and newer currency.
msravi 10y ago
I think the BBC is missing some of these images: https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412 https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412 https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440 https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440 https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524 https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524 https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536 https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536 https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264 https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264
- parthdesai 10y ago
  It's BBC. Can't expect anything from positive from them when it comes to India.
webbrahmin 10y ago
A middle class Indian here. Average Indian is facing some problem. Here is a list. 1. If someone has cash in hand for emergencies then he/she has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to deposit it into a bank account. 2. One has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to exchange old currency for new or to withdraw Rs 10,000 from one's account. Rs 10,000 is sufficient money to take care of basic needs for about 15 days. 3. There is a shortage of lower denomination notes. RBI received 5 million Rs 500 denomination notes yesterday. It will heal ease the problem. I live in the National Capital Region. I have faced no problem at all. I am doing my grocery purchase online. Urban India pays it's utility bills online. There are a number of e-wallet solutions which have made online transactions easy. I am not aware about the inconveniences faced by Indians living in rural areas. Economy in rural India is cash based. But since I have my roots in rural India I have seen many transactions happening through informal credit channel. It is not uncommon for a worker to get paid once every 3-4 months. Migrant workers often get payed by contractors at the end of their contract. The actual impact is not earth shattering. There is a high decibel political noise around the whole thing. But as someone who has paid his taxes honestly his entire life, I welcome and support this move.
- 0xmohit 10y ago
  Average Indian is facing some problem. Some? I've heard of some cases wherein a funeral was deferred for lack of cash. It affects the dead too: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/demonetisation-affects-dead-and-alive-alike/article9335280.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/demonetis... Baby dies as parents had no cash to buy medicines in Vizag: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Baby-dies-as-parents-had-no-cash-to-buy-medicines-in-Vizag/articleshow/55408981.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Baby-d... Currency ban: Kids couldn't attend dad's funeral: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Currency-ban-Kids-couldnt-attend-dads-funeral/articleshow/55365905.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Currency-b... Marriages to moksha, all adjourned: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Marriages-to-moksha-all-adjourned/articleshow/55406394.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Marriages-...
andrewvijay 10y ago
This is a huge pain in the ass for absolutely no gains whatsoever. Around 20 fucking people have died because of this very scheme. The worst thing is that there are so called educated fools down voting criticizing comments here even after witnessing all this mess and chaos. Absolute shambles!
- andrewvijay 10y ago
  UPDATE: 25 fucking people dead by now. Within 6 days. Refer this http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/15/demonetisation-death-toll-rises-to-25-and-its-only-been-6-days/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/15/demonetisation-death...
known 10y ago
If you do not support demonetization https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-indian-demonetization-why-should-we-struggle-jyothish-jayan https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-indian-demonetization-w... otherwise http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/8/9164/MasterCard-Modi http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/8/9164/M...
known 10y ago
13 ways how Indians can convert black money http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/13/13-ways-in-which-indians-will-convert-their-black-money-into-whi/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/13/13-ways-in-which-ind...
known 10y ago
"Media does not spread free opinion; It generates opinion" --Oswald, 1918 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_West https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_West VERIFY and TRUST;
known 10y ago
I appreciate Modi regime for their efforts to curb black money, though they failed to keep up their poll promises. Before elections, we'll give OROP. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll clean GANGA. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll catch DAWOOD. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll solve KASHMIR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring KOHINOOR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute VADRA. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute DIKSHIT. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll build RAM-MANDIR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll scrap ARTICLE370. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll end DYNASTY politics. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll create VIDARBHA state. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll give special STATUS to AP. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll disclose NETAJI documents. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring COMMON-CIVIL-CODE. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll DEPOSIT 15 lakhs in your a/c. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute SIKH-RIOT culprits. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring BLACK-MONEY in 100 days. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we're the HONEST. After elections, 50% Ministers have CRIMINAL cases;

87 points by kristianp 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Canada got rid of $1000 bills in the year 2001 to combat crime and money laundering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawn_Canadian_banknotes#.241.2C000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawn_Canadian_banknotes#....

linuxkerneldev 10y ago

My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption. This was a major topic of discussion in my workplace as we have many Indian developers. Most of them were very proud that this action was taken. So it was a surprise to me to read the significantly negative tone in the BBC article. As a check, I googled "accuracy of BBC articles on India" and encountered the following : https://www.quora.com/Why-does-BBC-publish-more-negative-news-about-India https://www.quora.com/Why-does-BBC-publish-more-negative-new... "It is true that channels like BBC and CNN have long tradition of editorializing many issues of third world countries. So when any major development happens in countries like India, Pakistan or China, they go on with their usual views on the subject rather than looking at it through fresh lenses."

rwbt 10y ago
That might be true, but your Indian colleagues are probably well off with much of their transactions happening in plastic/electronic anyways, so this will have very little effect on their day to day lives. Since much of the Indian economy is cash based, there is a lot of frustration in the working class and there is a serious cash (as in bank notes) crunch.
- nitinreddy88 10y ago
  I do accept this fact. Is there better option? I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt.
  - meira 10y ago
    Not necessarily. It is never a good premise to expect good faith from politicians.
  - rwbt 10y ago
    I don't know if there is a better option but the GoI definitely didn't think this throughly. Countries that demonetized in the past did this over a span of a time to prevent panic and fear. If the Govt set a deadline instead of abolishing them overnight that would go a lot smoother. Sure, that'll give 'some' tax evaders time to plan their 'exit' smoothly but it'll make lives of millions so much easier. Most likely, the evaders use that money to buy gold, so the Govt can temporarily track all gold purchases (they do it anyways for puchases over 2 lakh rupees). Even if they end up spending the cash on inflated real estate, they're in someways helping the economy instead of hoarding the cash and will end up in someone's bank account eventually. Also, all the big tax evaders rarely hoard cash. They usually have offshore accounts and sophisticated corporate structures. Secondly, the new notes being minted have no additional security features. The RBI confirmed that the new 500 and 2000 bank notes carry the same security features as the previous ones, which probably makes it similarly easy to counterfeit. The RBI previously claimed that it would take 5-6 years to design notes with new security features and I think they should've waited until they have better bank notes to curb fake notes.
  - wav-part 10y ago
    > I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt. I have no hope for this country to find such views on HN of all places. EDIT: I acknowledge this is low content comment. So I quote "the first job of an economist is to tell governments what they cannot do". Please sit back and give this a fair read [1]. [1] https://mises.org/about-mises/what-austrian-economics https://mises.org/about-mises/what-austrian-economics
nitinreddy88 10y ago
Totally agree with you. I have read couple of BBC articles, they show same negativity
jetru 10y ago
Isn't this what's happening even in the US though? Look at the 2016 US election and how it was reported. Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points?
- jjawssd 10y ago
  Spot on. We need new media with more diverse viewpoints and more viewers for this new content. Why does every airport always have CNN on by default?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - vermontdevil 10y ago
    I've long suspected CNN pays airports for this.
- orf 10y ago
  > Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points? In other highly impartial and irrational places, like breitbart, the_donald and other conservative media sources.
  - jetru 10y ago
    Fair enough :) I meant on television. I guess Fox News. And maybe I'm in the online echo chamber. It's really hard to tell.
    - zanny 10y ago
      Trumps facebook groups, twitter feeds, and the aforementioned subreddits around his campaign are non-stop pumping out Trump love. The Internet is only as much of an echo chamber as you let it be. You can always go look in those alternative forums.
mrkgnao 10y ago
I come from a lower-middle-class family in Kolkata, and I can say from experience that a lot of older people (my parents!) are over the moon with the whole thing. My mother, in particular, has suddenly turned into some sort of Modi fangirl, saying stuff like, "See what he's doing for the country!" (and variations on that). At some level, it's just the fact that anyone who replaces years of (perceived?) inaction with something striking -- however naive, or well-intentioned-albeit-disastrous-in-the-long-run -- will elicit this kind of reaction. I imagine for people like my parents, the cost of going to a bank and getting all their suddenly-demonetised banknotes exchanged (which we anyway had very little of) isn't too much. And when some restaurant, say, or a drugstore, is unwilling to accept one of the new 2000-rupee notes, we have credit/debit cards to fall back on. The fact that that people may not have Aadhaar[1] cards or voter ID cards stored safely somewhere, that not everyone has bank accounts which hold >99% (excuse the arbitrary figure) of the money they have, that not everyone has the ability to spend what might possibly be the better part of a day walking to $DEITY knows where the nearest bank is (probably to be turned away because they're out of cash or because the line is a kilometre too long) -- that the very act of going to a bank may not be as trivial or no-brainer-like to everyone as it is to oneself! -- is something we have to work very hard to even imagine. And the cash they have stored is, in many cases, all they have. (Remember what I said about not having a bank account?) Cash, for us, is what we use for bags of chips and ice-cream and sheets of graph paper and ... bus fare, I guess? Cash, to someone living from day to day, is everything. edit: yay downvotes, I can tick that off my list [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ordinarySeeker 10y ago
  There is atleast some indication that the Modi government took some steps in the prior years/months to strategically encircle the medium to big hoarders of black money and soothe the impact of the drastic demonetization step on the poor. Having said that any action of this magnitude is bound to have misplanning, unintended consequences and hardship 2013 Under previous government Replace subsidies with direct deposits in bank accounts of poor citizens[1] 2014 Under Modi Massive push to open bank accounts for poor people which seems to have bought banking to many households who never previously had one[2] 2015 Renegotiation of Tax treaties and Information sharing treating with tax heavens[3][4] Window for hoaders of black money to declare it for a flat penalty[5] 2016 Demonetization A more detailed step by step account http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/prime-minister-modi-surgical-strike-on-black-money-government-currency-revamp/1/805904.html http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/prime-minister-modi-surgi... [1] http://www.voanews.com/a/india-replaces-subsidies-for-the-poor-with-cash-transfers/1581898.html http://www.voanews.com/a/india-replaces-subsidies-for-the-po... [2] http://qz.com/257548/the-response-to-modi-governments-first-flagship-scheme-shows-it-couldnt-have-chosen-a-better-theme/ http://qz.com/257548/the-response-to-modi-governments-first-... [3]http://swarajyamag.com/economy/campaign-against-black-money-modi-govt-plugs-indo-mauritius-tax-treaty-loopholes http://swarajyamag.com/economy/campaign-against-black-money-... [4]http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146245 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146245 [5] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-things-to-know-about-blackmoney-bill/article7194290.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-things-to-know-abou...
ajeet_dhaliwal 10y ago
The BBC is always like this. You should have seen the bias in the 2014 general elections, they did not want Narendra Modi to win and become the prime minister and they made that very clear in every article leading up to the election. He did end up winning. When India successfully sent a probe to Mars the BBC suggested the money could be better spent elsewhere. I would not rely on the BBC for India news, or even United States news for the matter. If you relied on the BBC for India news you wouldn't ever want to visit because you'd be afraid you would get raped as soon as you step out of the airport. In the case of the USA, you wouldn't even make it out of the airport, you would be shot dead at the baggage carousel. What annoys me most is I am forced by law to pay for such news reporting.
- dodgedcactii 10y ago
  Cool story bro.
andrewvijay 10y ago
They write like they know everything in the world but still they don't twist the facts. Also if some good was done they write like 'oh look these ex slaves have done this good' and if bad' oh look the poor bastards are adding just another bad thing to the list'. These are metaphors and they don't literally write this! And many neutral toned articles are mistaken as negative by nationalists here.
deleted 10y ago
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dragonsh 10y ago
BBC is right in its analysis, this measure only targets 20% of Indian wealth. The richest 5% owning 80% of Indian wealth are at ease, only poor and middle class troubled. Moreover this 20% money will be available to them as cheap loans. The total money owed by big corporates in India is way bigger then this parallel black money. Also the person Rajan who was planning to reign this loans is forced out of office. Modi is Indian version of Donald trump building Great Wall across India against corruption in media. A normal Indian will never know that black money outside of India far outweigh anything in Indian homes.
- personinsg 10y ago
  I am not sure about BBC but now people know why Rajan previous RBI governor and govt has differences and he was forced out.
babyrainbow 10y ago
>My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption... How can this curtail corruption?
- ara24 10y ago
  It was primarily intended to bring out undeclared income and wipe out counterfeit notes. However, IMHO, undeclared income facilitates corruption.
manish_gill 10y ago
Rather than attacking the messenger and correlating it with the anecdotal evidence from the people you know, try to look at this objectively. - The white-collar middle class of course is lauding this move. Most of them (us) use digital money, are educated, want to see the corruption eradicated etc. - BUT, the majority of the population is poor, working class, not education enough. India is still a cash-based economy. Poor people have all their savings in either cash or gold. Women in India still hide money from their husbands. - Business - Real Estate, Transport, what have you, is still done in cash. Soon, the truckers who get paid in these denominations will stop getting paid, and stop bringing in food to the cities. What then? - A kid has already died because the private hospital refused to accept the currency. - There is talk going on about a possible Bank Run. - Most importantly, I firmly believe this was a political move to cripple his opponents in the upcoming elections in the heartland states of India. He's lost the last few state elections despite going to rallies himself. This is him tightening his grip on the power. - Now we know why Mr. Raghuram Rajan left the RBI and has gone back to U Chicago. - Edit: Oh yeah, the new note only contain one non-English script, devnagari. The language and culture wars that took 2 decades to resolve will begin anew. The privileged HN readers here who are like "I'll just order from Amazon" live in such a bubble that it's hilarious. This is the most brazen and irresponsible move that this govt has ever done. It's a draconian ruling that in the name of progress, is going to (already has) ruin the lives of the poor people of this country who have nothing to do with the daily corruption. The middle class will hail Mr. Modi as a visionary, drinking his kool-aid, click Purchase and go about its business. To call this a "temporary hiccup" is callous and frankly, disgusting.
- kranner 10y ago
  > Oh yeah, the new note only contain one non-English script, devnagari. Other scripts are on the back.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- abrbhat 10y ago
  Script-wise, it looks like the previous notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_INR_Rev_2016.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_INR_Rev_2016.jpg
perseusprime11 10y ago
Actions against corruption are always tough. There is no easy way to get black money out. Short term it will hurt even common people but this will play out nicely in longer term.
alimbada 10y ago
If you follow the Palestine-Israel conflict to any degree you'll realise very quickly that BBC only ever reports on anything that's pro-Israel and never the other way.
mavelikara 10y ago
The move was _intially_ welcomed, but as the days went on massive flaws in execution became obvious. Hence people are upset. Source: I am an Indian living in the US who has immediate family living in India.

wav-part 10y ago

My initial gut reaction is/was, a costly political stunt to fullfill an election promise. But I will wait when we have figures about cost to economy vs additional tax revenue. It also should be taken into account that Rupee now is even more unlikely to become a global currency. Instead of money going directly to corrupt bureaucrats now it will directly going to politicians to be spent on unsustainable welfare (subsidies/reservations/PSUs) which would get them even more votes clamouring for more welfare. Ah dont you fking cry when they up the sales tax 200% on your favourite gadgets in the name of the poors. All thanks to this cashless/surveillance there will be no escape.

0xmohit 10y ago
I suppose that if election promises were to be fulfilled then the government might have chosen to act upon those stashing billions of dollars in tax havens abroad.
- wav-part 10y ago
  I find even the concept of income tax injustice at massive scale. But I have a feeling that this was a least costly way to shut up a socialist population. Assuming Modi is not just another socialist and this is the last of it we are seeing.
gnipgnip 10y ago
+1 Taxation by a state which has very little legitimacy is more akin to thievery. This shows all the signs of a new Indira Gandhi-esque regime in the making (with about the same amount of fanfare). - The currency replacement is likely going to take about ~$5B (the "Black money" is valued at $20B). - Nothing stops Pak from counterfeiting these new notes. - This move creates a reverse bank run to build up reserves, which in light of the rate (10-15% ?) of bad loans in Indian Banks, is interesting to say the least. - There also appears to be a very big push under this regime to push for cashless-id transactions. With the UIDAI in place, pessimists would believe there to be the coming of an even more efficient 1984-esque system for producing more cheap labor for US & pals.
mindentropy 10y ago

0xmohit 10y ago

I am amazed the amount of selfishness we exhibit. If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot. A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%. Most of the ATMs are out of cash. There are huge queues at banks; most of them are giving away Rs. 2000/= bills. Amusingly, if you were to give the new bill to a shopkeeper chances are that he'd refuse to tender the change back as the closest denomination to that is a Rs. 100/= bill. Statistics reveal that only 6% of the black money is in the form of cash. As such, the argument of declaring higher currency notes as illegal tender in order to curb black money in unconvincing.

rwbt 10y ago
If it's really just 6% of tax evasion, then I honestly think this is just a political decision trying to keep their promises.
Manishearth 10y ago
> A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. Forget banks, many don't have ID. Ration cards exist, but those are tied to your household so you may not easily be able to get access to your ration card (say if you're in a city with family -- and ration card -- back home). In case of estranged women it's even hader. Without ID they can't exchange larger amounts. It's also hard to create a new bank account on short notice without this. My mother once helped a young woman set up a bank account. She had come to Mumbai to find work, and used to live at her aunt's place, and her aunt would hold her money for her (but skim off it). Most such people keep their savings in cash someplace "safe", though some use post office accounts. Anyway, the process was arduous. Her name was garbled on her family's ration card, and they needed the original, which was back at the village. This took forever to sort out. This is going to be hard to work through for a few. Especially those with lower income who keep most of their life savings in cash.
- kamaal 10y ago
  Actually dealing with banks is a luxury which Urban Indians assume is available for everyone. Its not. Most banks are huge red tape in India and corruption is quite common. Even to dispense cash/loans a lot of times local rural banks ask for bribe. Which is why most people go a distance to avoid dealing with banks. This problem was addressed by co-operative societies to an extent, but it doesn't scale though. Debit/Credit/Electronic transfers are for the privileged in India.

firasd 10y ago

What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... it kinda underscores that real 'black money' isn't stuffed in mattresses, it's stored more cleverly in different types of assets, companies, offshore accounts. Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, had this to say a couple years ago about the idea: “Unfortunately, my sense is the clever find ways around it. They find ways to divide up their hoard in to many smaller pieces… I would focus more on tracking data and better tax administration to get at where money is not being declared. I think it is very hard in this modern economy to hide your money that easily.” http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/09/heres-what-raghuram-rajan-thinks-of-currency-demonetisation/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/09/heres-what-raghuram-... The fact that our Prime Minister’s fans are so enthusiastic and the move is aimed at curbing ‘black money’ makes it hard to clearly take a stand against this move, but I personally find it ill thought-out. The fact that some wealthy people are evading taxes by sticking cash in a cupboard somewhere doesn’t mean that hundreds of millions of ordinary people should suddenly be unable to buy milk or bread, damn.

0xmohit 10y ago
What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... Those Bollywood stars are the ones who (1) own huge stretches of agricultural land posing as farmers, (2) own benami properties. Perhaps publicly supporting anything a ruling government says is their way to demonstrate support towards the government and avoid any scrutiny.
- somedangedname 10y ago
  "This (demonetisation) is not an end. I have more projects in mind to make India corruption-free. …. We will take action against ‘benami’ property." - PM Modi [0] Whether he takes further action and if those actions will be effective remain to be seen. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-narendra-modi-demonetisation-corruption-black-money-benaami-property-4373110/ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-n...
10y ago

goombastic 10y ago

Ahh, it's the BBC. I think we have reached a point in journalism where it has now become important to identify who is reporting it as well. At this rate we will need a simple content bias/color code plugin for different sites. As an Indian, I have found that the BBC has been overly pessimistic about India especially on the web. Their story selections, headlines, and the voices listed as sound bites in the stories support the "downplay theme" for India.

gozur88 10y ago
>I think we have reached a point in journalism where it has now become important to identify who is reporting it as well. We were always at that point even if not many people realized it. The difference is with electronic media you're not depending solely on organizations like the BBC for information.

essdas 10y ago

I think the BBC has completely missed the sentiment on the ground. There is widespread support for this. Every single person I've spoken to in the long queues near ATMs have expressed that they don't mind the inconvenience because it will help the country.

danparsonson 10y ago
But then again, by definition those are not the people who are hurt the worst, because they have bank accounts.
- swatkat 10y ago
  You don't need a bank account to exchange demonetized currency notes.
  - Manishearth 10y ago
    You need ID, though. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12947147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12947147 You need a bank account for this process to be convenient and easy. Without it you have to exchange in bits and pieces.
  - danparsonson 10y ago
    No, but having a bank account and therefore a payment card a) gives you another means of paying for things besides cash, and b) likely means that you don't have your life savings in the form of now-invalid currency.
sundarurfriend 10y ago
Yes, I personally have been very surprised by how positive the reaction has been. My home has a lot of small shops around ("chaiwalla" tea booths, tiny grocery "kirana" shops, little idly shops, lots of roadside vendors, etc.), and the reaction has been almost universally positive. There's of course a bit of grumbling about cash being hard to find in the first two days, but even those come in a manner similar to how one might complain about rain - taken as an inevitable small nuisance in the larger scheme of things. One part of the explanation is that these are the same folks that often deal with the small politicians and exploitative moneylenders - so now, seeing these corrupt people suffer greatly from this move, they're full of heartfelt praise for the central govt. At least half the praise I hear has been in the form of "you should have seen that politician's face" or "that moneylender is roaming all over town trying to change his black money".

msravi 10y ago

The partisan nature of this piece is amazing. Contrary to what is presented here, the whole exercise was one that was brilliantly executed, and one that has caused minimal disruption. See this: http://swirlingtea.blogspot.in/2016/11/demonetization-why-2000_13.html http://swirlingtea.blogspot.in/2016/11/demonetization-why-20...

andrewvijay 10y ago

It was said that it was to remove black money from the market but the percentage of cash in black money is only 6%. The remaining are assets mostly outside of India. And such a major move affecting a billion people must have been well thought out to avoid the chaos. There have been couple of deaths because of this. Two children were dead because docs refused to accept old currency for admission in hospitals. But questioning this is being termed as anti national. Hope this fake nationalism stunts end soon.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

swatkat 10y ago

Ah! Yet another "anti-India" article by BBC ;) This is not the first time BBC is doing it (can we call it as "propaganda"?) ;) I've seen a few firsthand instances of people who hoarded illegal cash impacted by this demonetization move. Yesterday, somebody even dumped wads of cash into a lake in Bangalore (near KR Puram area). I suggest people here to read this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5c195e/do_you_guys_know_any_people_hoarding_lots_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5c195e/do_you_guys_k...

mindentropy 10y ago
It is all funny anecdotes. Good for a laugh and some happy revenge. Now remember that not all have just hoarded the cash. Many have actively invested and this investment actually goes to the poorer sections of the society as daily wages. What would happen if that cash is sucked out? The rich class can live without the investment but the poor have no way to go as they suddenly find themselves jobless. Next the government will throw cash around with policies such as NREGA to help the poor and then again you have all this money sloshing around in the economy albeit with higher denomination and newer currency.

msravi 10y ago

I think the BBC is missing some of these images: https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412 https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412 https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440 https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440 https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524 https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524 https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536 https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536 https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264 https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264

parthdesai 10y ago
It's BBC. Can't expect anything from positive from them when it comes to India.

webbrahmin 10y ago

A middle class Indian here. Average Indian is facing some problem. Here is a list. 1. If someone has cash in hand for emergencies then he/she has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to deposit it into a bank account. 2. One has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to exchange old currency for new or to withdraw Rs 10,000 from one's account. Rs 10,000 is sufficient money to take care of basic needs for about 15 days. 3. There is a shortage of lower denomination notes. RBI received 5 million Rs 500 denomination notes yesterday. It will heal ease the problem. I live in the National Capital Region. I have faced no problem at all. I am doing my grocery purchase online. Urban India pays it's utility bills online. There are a number of e-wallet solutions which have made online transactions easy. I am not aware about the inconveniences faced by Indians living in rural areas. Economy in rural India is cash based. But since I have my roots in rural India I have seen many transactions happening through informal credit channel. It is not uncommon for a worker to get paid once every 3-4 months. Migrant workers often get payed by contractors at the end of their contract. The actual impact is not earth shattering. There is a high decibel political noise around the whole thing. But as someone who has paid his taxes honestly his entire life, I welcome and support this move.

0xmohit 10y ago
Average Indian is facing some problem. Some? I've heard of some cases wherein a funeral was deferred for lack of cash. It affects the dead too: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/demonetisation-affects-dead-and-alive-alike/article9335280.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/demonetis... Baby dies as parents had no cash to buy medicines in Vizag: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Baby-dies-as-parents-had-no-cash-to-buy-medicines-in-Vizag/articleshow/55408981.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Baby-d... Currency ban: Kids couldn't attend dad's funeral: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Currency-ban-Kids-couldnt-attend-dads-funeral/articleshow/55365905.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Currency-b... Marriages to moksha, all adjourned: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Marriages-to-moksha-all-adjourned/articleshow/55406394.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Marriages-...

andrewvijay 10y ago

This is a huge pain in the ass for absolutely no gains whatsoever. Around 20 fucking people have died because of this very scheme. The worst thing is that there are so called educated fools down voting criticizing comments here even after witnessing all this mess and chaos. Absolute shambles!

andrewvijay 10y ago
UPDATE: 25 fucking people dead by now. Within 6 days. Refer this http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/15/demonetisation-death-toll-rises-to-25-and-its-only-been-6-days/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/15/demonetisation-death...

known 10y ago

If you do not support demonetization https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-indian-demonetization-why-should-we-struggle-jyothish-jayan https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-indian-demonetization-w... otherwise http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/8/9164/MasterCard-Modi http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/8/9164/M...

known 10y ago

13 ways how Indians can convert black money http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/13/13-ways-in-which-indians-will-convert-their-black-money-into-whi/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/13/13-ways-in-which-ind...

known 10y ago

"Media does not spread free opinion; It generates opinion" --Oswald, 1918 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_West https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_West VERIFY and TRUST;

known 10y ago

I appreciate Modi regime for their efforts to curb black money, though they failed to keep up their poll promises. Before elections, we'll give OROP. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll clean GANGA. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll catch DAWOOD. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll solve KASHMIR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring KOHINOOR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute VADRA. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute DIKSHIT. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll build RAM-MANDIR. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll scrap ARTICLE370. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll end DYNASTY politics. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll create VIDARBHA state. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll give special STATUS to AP. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll disclose NETAJI documents. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring COMMON-CIVIL-CODE. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll DEPOSIT 15 lakhs in your a/c. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll prosecute SIKH-RIOT culprits. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we'll bring BLACK-MONEY in 100 days. After elections, we cannot do it; Before elections, we're the HONEST. After elections, 50% Ministers have CRIMINAL cases;