My Scribles

The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes came as a surprise to almost everyone. The details of re-monetisation are still to become entirely clear. What follows is a set of personal opinions of likely outcomes arising from this move to demonetise. Each of those opinions could be entirely wrong but they are all centred on subjects that are worth thinking about. But, first, some basic statistics. About 85% of all currency in circulation has just been turned into coupons that can only be exchanged in specific places. These notes can be converted into currency again only with identity proofs (which hundreds of millions don’t have) and the additional hardship of standing in many queues for many hours. Over half of India’s population doesn’t have any sort of bank account at the moment and about 300 million don’t have basic ID such as Aadhaar either and hence, cannot access the banking system at all. About 130 million Indians have mobile wallets (about 25 million have ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for fighting black money and corruption is a bold move. But this sudden move would have implications for the people as well as economy. A jolt to unorganised economy - The Indian economy has the unique characteristics of a parallel unorganised economy which also contributes to employment , consumption and growth. This economy will receive a big jolt from scrapping of high value notes like Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. Fight against counterfeiting - Of late , the large value notes like Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 gave a big push to counterfeiting. The RBI has issued many advisories in the past against fake notes in the market. The current decision would act against counterfeiting. Cost of replacement - There is a cost of replacement of such notes as they comprised a big chunk of the total volume of currency in the market. Banks' logistical issue - People are going to flood the banks for tendering their notes for re...

Indian Railway Ministry never tires of introducing new and cool features to the lifeline of India.<br> In a highly anticipated move, the Indian Railways’ new AC-III tier compartment will come loaded with features like CCTV cameras in the aisles, a GPS-based passenger information system and tea and coffee vending machines in the coaches. <br> New AC-III tier train coaches to have GPS, coffee-machine and CCTVhttps://t.co/8CvDEfh3Gr pic.twitter.com/129O1pRlrs <br> — Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) November 3, 2016<br> The Indian Express  has reported that these new coaches will be deployed on the all-AC-III tier Humsafar service mid-November. Humsafar is tentatively scheduled to run between Delhi and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The new coaches designed by the Rail Coach Factory in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh will be part of four trains as of now.<br> Apart from these, the coaches will also boast of the following super cool features:...