A year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of high-value banknotes which amounted to 86% of currency in circulation. The sudden announcement caught everyone by surprise. People faced lot of problems to exchange notes and many lost their lives in the process. The demonetisation of currency notes was supposed to be an attack on black money, on counterfeit notes, and projected as part of a broader push to promote digitization and non-cash payments.
A year later, progress on all these counts appears to be very modest, and should make us question whether this exercise was needed at all to fulfill its stated aims. The people of India despite all the difficulties put their faith on the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that demonetisation will help to unearth black money and weaken the terror organization operating against India’s interest. But there is no clarity regarding whether it has served its purpose. BJP is continuing to sell demonetisation as success story while opposition Congress has termed it as huge mistake. But there is no denying that demonetisation has negatively affected the Indian economy. The debate over it will continue and political parties will try to use it for their benefit. But the people of India will be wondering whether the sacrifice made by them will have any positive outcome?