-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement demonetising high denomination notes on November 8, 2016, will do little to address the prime objective of flushing out black money but will adversely affect the economy in the short term, especially the informal sector, which is predominant in India, says M. Govinda Rao, a Member of the Fourteenth Finance Commission and Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Public...

-The Economic Times Farmers accustomed to decades of government policy failure are willing to bear the pain caused by the government’s decision to recall Rs 500 & 1000 Bills, but engineering a systematic failure of the rural cooperative banking sector would be an unpardonable desecration. Earlier rural bank branches were given a step motherly treatment: Rural cooperative bank branches were not replenished with lower denomination currency, while the newer higher denomination notes...

-Livemint.com The rich and the middle class have their digital wallets and credit cards; they can afford to wait two weeks, even 50 days, for their money to be exchanged One has to be astonishingly callous or exceptionally removed from reality to think that the poor are sleeping peacefully and only the rich are frightened, needing sleeping pills in the wake of the great currency-exchange drama playing out in India. For that’s...

-Livemint.com Delays in replacing the currency risk prolonging the pain in the $2 trillion economy, where about 98% of consumer payments are made in cash Mumbai: For people expecting respite from the government’s clampdown on cash, here’s a reality check: it probably won’t come soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration may need until May 2017 to replenish the stock of now worthless Bills, according to Saumitra Chaudhuri, an economist who advised Modi’s predecessor....

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: As India struggles with demonetization, individuals and businesses are using old currency notes to settle debts while income tax officials are at a loss how to go about imposing 200% penalty -- as announced by a senior finance ministry official -- on such funds flowing into banks. Firms are clearing dues to suppliers, depositing cash in bank accounts to repay old loans, and buying memberships of clubs, SPAs...