On 8 November, Prime Minister Modi shocked the nation by launching what has now gone down in the history books as a ‘surgical strike’ on black money. In a surprise move, the government decided to scrap all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, from the midnight of 9 November. The notes already in circulation have to be deposited with the banks by the end of December.
The announcement sent Indians, rich and poor, into a tizzy. The panic button had been pressed and everyone seemed to be in a rush to get rid of their high-denomination notes in two ways – either by depositing the notes with a bank or by exchanging them for legal currency, especially the newly-introduced and highly-sought after Rs 2,000 currency notes.
Sounds simple, right? Not if your country of 1.2 billion people operates primarily on cash, 86 percent of which is the now defunct currency.
BloombergQuint took to the streets of South Mumbai to find out what kind of collateral damage this “surgical strike on black money” has had. During the Facebook Live, a number of revelations were made by the denizens of Mumbai. Firstly, while most people believe that the establishment may have demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 with good intentions, the move should have been better timed. People seemed bewildered that the government chose to scrap old notes only to introduce new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes later. Most people said banks were woefully underprepared to cope with the situation.
Originally published on BloombergQuint.
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