11–20 of 119 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this what's happening even in the US though? Look at the 2016 US election and how it was reported. Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points?
Spot on. We need new media with more diverse viewpoints and more viewers for this new content. Why does every airport always have CNN on by default?
Instead of money going directly to corrupt bureaucrats now it will directly going to politicians to be spent on unsustainable welfare (subsidies/reservations/PSUs) which would get them even more votes clamouring for more welfare. Ah dont you fking cry when they up the sales tax 200% on your favourite gadgets in the name of the poors. All thanks to this cashless/surveillance there will be no escape.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might be true, but your Indian colleagues are probably well off with much of their transactions happening in plastic/electronic anyways, so this will have very little effect on their day to day lives. Since much of the Indian economy is cash based, there is a lot of frustration in the working class and there is a serious cash (as in bank notes) crunch.
I do accept this fact. Is there better option? I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt.
My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption. This was a major topic of discussion in my workplace as we have many Indian developers. Most of them were very proud that this action was taken. So it was a surprise to me to read the significantly negative tone in the BBC article. As a check, I googled "accuracy of BBC articles on India" and encountered the…
Isn't this what's happening even in the US though? Look at the 2016 US election and how it was reported. Hardly impartial or rational. I mean where are the people cheering for Trump and their view points?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might be true, but your Indian colleagues are probably well off with much of their transactions happening in plastic/electronic anyways, so this will have very little effect on their day to day lives. Since much of the Indian economy is cash based, there is a lot of frustration in the working class and there is a serious cash (as in bank notes) crunch.
I do accept this fact. Is there better option? I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt.
Secondly, the new notes being minted have no additional security features. The RBI confirmed that the new 500 and 2000 bank notes carry the same security features as the previous ones, which probably makes it similarly easy to counterfeit. The RBI previously claimed that it would take 5-6 years to design notes with new security features and I think they should've waited until they have better bank notes to curb fake notes.
If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot.
A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%.
Most of the ATMs are out of cash. There are huge queues at banks; most of them are giving away Rs. 2000/= bills. Amusingly, if you were to give the new bill to a shopkeeper chances are that he'd refuse to tender the change back as the closest denomination to that is a Rs. 100/= bill.
Statistics reveal that only 6% of the black money is in the form of cash. As such, the argument of declaring higher currency notes as illegal tender in order to curb black money in unconvincing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might be true, but your Indian colleagues are probably well off with much of their transactions happening in plastic/electronic anyways, so this will have very little effect on their day to day lives. Since much of the Indian economy is cash based, there is a lot of frustration in the working class and there is a serious cash (as in bank notes) crunch.
I do accept this fact. Is there better option? I am quite sure this decision was taken after discussing with lot of people who might have done PhDs in Economics and serving for Govt.
I have no hope for this country to find such views on HN of all places.
EDIT: I acknowledge this is low content comment. So I quote "the first job of an economist is to tell governments what they cannot do". Please sit back and give this a fair read [1].
Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, had this to say a couple years ago about the idea: “Unfortunately, my sense is the clever find ways around it. They find ways to divide up their hoard in to many smaller pieces… I would focus more on tracking data and better tax administration to get at where money is not being declared. I think it is very hard in this modern economy to hide your money that easily.” http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/09/heres-what-raghuram-...
The fact that our Prime Minister’s fans are so enthusiastic and the move is aimed at curbing ‘black money’ makes it hard to clearly take a stand against this move, but I personally find it ill thought-out. The fact that some wealthy people are evading taxes by sticking cash in a cupboard somewhere doesn’t mean that hundreds of millions of ordinary people should suddenly be unable to buy milk or bread, damn.
My initial gut reaction is/was, a costly political stunt to fullfill an election promise. But I will wait when we have figures about cost to economy vs additional tax revenue. It also should be taken into account that Rupee now is even more unlikely to become a global currency. Instead of money going directly to corrupt bureaucrats now it will directly going to politicians to be spent on unsustainable welfare (subsid…
I am amazed the amount of selfishness we exhibit. If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot. A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%. Most of the ATMs are out of cash. The…