Hi,

. India has now banned 500 and 1000 rupee notes, though the government has also assured the public it would print a 2000 rupee note to replace the smaller denominations. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen and – given India’s track-record – may not happen.

This statement is incorrect and somewhat misleading. The ground level situation is different. Rs.2000 notes have been produced and supplied in many cities including mine (I live in a smaller tier-2 city) from the time this policy came into place. Withdrawing cash from atms isn't hard at all. But there is a daily limit imposed on ATM withdrawals and weekly limits on cash withdrawals from the bank. Which I hope will be lifted soon.

Production of the new Rs. 500 note has been ramped up and the short supply should fade away in the next few weeks. There is a cash crunch in ATMs in the metro cities but things have improved a lot and as with any major change, there will be some chaos initially. This was also due to the fact that new notes are of a smaller size and every ATM needs manual re-calibration to accept new notes-delaying the supply and redistribution aspects of it.

The implementation has not been in-line with public expectation unfortunately and the supply could have been ramped up to build a bigger buffer prior to the announcement but to say the government is off-track would be going too far!

There are pros and cons to such a move. Given the population of my country it will take some time for things to settle down. Because, India has always had a HUGE parallel cash economy or black economy.

Cash crunch resulting in demonetisation has certainly helped fight crime, especially reduce instances of rioting which in the past was funded largely by those in power hoarding vast sums of unaccounted Black money to be spent at their whim and fancy.

Although there are ways to get around this cash crunch for some people and ways to convert black money into white etc. It's not a major issue right now. Personally I think the implementation needed to be better and daily wage labourers, business that run on cash and many amongst the poorer classes would suffer or have suffered from lack of availability of larger denominations and those without access or knowledge of modern banking, especially in some rural areas.

But the government is ramping up efforts and so are the bankers to reach out to the rural areas and improve banking there. Things are improving at a good pace and in urban areas you won't need cash to get about your daily needs if you have a debit or credit card-which we all do, multiple cards and bank accounts are quite common!

I came back to India on the 1st of December, and it was only yesterday I needed cash to pay a local business owner who only accepted cash. I've withdrawn a total of 4000 Rupees from an ATM which is roughly 59 USD in the last 16 days I've been home.