| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Why India wiped out 86% of its cash overnight |
| 2016-11-15 |
| [BBC] India is in the middle of an extraordinary economic experiment. On 8 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave only four hours' notice that virtually all the cash in the world's seventh-largest economy would be effectively worthless. The Indian government likes to use the technical term "demonetisation" to describe the move, which makes it sound rather dull. It isn't. This is the economic equivalent of "shock and awe". Do not believe reports that this is primarily about bribery or terror financing, the real target is tax evasion and the policy is very daring indeed. You can see the effects outside every bank in the country. I am in Tamil Nadu in the south of India and here, as in every other state in the country, queues of people clutching wads of currency stretch halfway down the street. |
| Posted by:John Frum |