'What has the BJP-led government of Narendra Modi done since 2014 that does not suggest it wishes to destroy the informal economy, also known as the unorganised sector? While the ‘unorganised’ informal economy now accounts for roughly half of India’s GDP – and is shrinking relative to the share of the private and public corporate sector – it accounts for 80-90 % of the workforce. It includes agriculture, despite the fact that land titles are registered, except for plantations, which are regarded as ‘organised’ despite their unravelling workforces.
'An unsuspecting 56-year-old Swedish woman tourist was fined over ₹2.5 lakh after she was found in possession of over ₹50,000 in demonetised currency notes at the Cochin International Airport Limited on Tuesday. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the airport, which had beefed up the security and tightened baggage screening ahead of the Republic Day, detected 49 demonetised notes of ₹1,000 and another five notes of ₹500 in the woman’s luggage. The invalid and now illegal currency was later handed over to the Customs authorities...'
'NCRB data show fake notes of Rs 2,000 entered the market days after PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation announcement. Today they are the biggest contributors to the value of seized counterfeit currency in India... While Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 banknotes were banned overnight, the government introduced new banknotes with denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. It said these banknotes have additional security features which would make them difficult to be copied by counterfeiters, hence check the menace of fake currency...
'A government committee set up in February examined computers and pen drives and interrogated officials in charge of printing documents in an effort to identify the source of a leaked report showing that unemployment figures had hit a four-decade high in the year after demonetisation. Details of the report were published in the Business Standard in January, after the government’s refusal to release the data prompted two senior officials of the National Statistical Commission to resign in protest the same month.
'In what could be a grim indicator of rural distress and the lack of employment opportunities, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) data shows that the share of workforce in the 18-30 age bracket has begun to rise in the wake of demonetisation and the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The data, analysed by the Indian Express, indicates that the share of the workforce in the 18-30 age group has begun moving up after the financial year 2017-18...'
'Oru Chaayakadakarante Mann ki Baat (Mind Matter of a Tea Vendor), an award-winning Malayalam documentary about the hardships of a tea seller after demonetisation, was supposed to be screened at the Kerala Club in New Delhi on Monday. The event was cancelled at the last minute, though, allegedly after Sangh parivar members threatened members of the club. According to The Telegraph, organisers were told not to screen the movie because it shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi “in bad light”. The screening was going to be followed by a discussion on the economic crisis...'
'...there is a case for autonomy [of central banks], for sure. And that autonomy is important for all institutions, and that autonomy in the central bank in India was dead, certainly, in November 2016, when demonetisation was announced. Because it was very clear at that time that this was a decision taken against the wishes of the RBI, imposed on the RBI, which then had to implement something, which it did very badly. Which it had absolutely no knowledge of, and no preparation for.
'The architects of demonetisation accelerated the downward spiral in investment in the formal sector, mortally wounded those in the agriculture and informal sectors, caused innumerable job losses, and seriously impacted GDP growth... The PM’s promise that Demonetisation would eradicate corruption was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for the initial goodwill towards Demonetisation from the very poor, despite the hardships it inflicted on them. Sadly, however, this promise too was belied.
'The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday appointed former finance ministry official Shaktikanta Das as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, a day after former central bank boss Urjit Patel resigned abruptly. Das, a former finance secretary and current member of the 15th finance commission, shot into the public spotlight in late 2016 when he became the bureaucratic face of demonetisation in the weeks following the note-ban decision... In February 2017, he gave a speech that predicted that the positive effects of demonetisation would be felt from April 2017.
'Demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are the two major headwinds that held back India’s economic growth last year, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said, asserting that the current 7% growth rate is not enough to meet the country’s needs. Addressing an audience at the University of California in Berkley on Friday, Rajan said for four years – 2012 to 2016 – India was growing at a faster pace before it was hit by two major headwinds... “What happened in 2017 is that even as the world picked up, India went down.
