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India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

bbc.com

61–70 of 119 posts

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#61

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…

>My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption... How can this curtail corruption?

It was primarily intended to bring out undeclared income and wipe out counterfeit notes.

However, IMHO, undeclared income facilitates corruption.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#62
post #10

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…

I come from a lower-middle-class family in Kolkata, and I can say from experience that a lot of older people (my parents!) are over the moon with the whole thing. My mother, in particular, has suddenly turned into some sort of Modi fangirl, saying stuff like, "See what he's doing for the country!" (and variations on that). At some level, it's just the fact that anyone who replaces years of (perceived?) inaction with…

Even as a self-confessed critic of Modi, I have to admit that these hiccups are only temporary.

What's more disturbing to me is the rumors I've heard from some wealthy friends' parents that they've already found loopholes to launder money through charitable trusts

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#63
I think the BBC is missing some of these images:

https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412

https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440

https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524

https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536

https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#64
post #27

I think the BBC has completely missed the sentiment on the ground. There is widespread support for this. Every single person I've spoken to in the long queues near ATMs have expressed that they don't mind the inconvenience because it will help the country.

Yes, I personally have been very surprised by how positive the reaction has been. My home has a lot of small shops around ("chaiwalla" tea booths, tiny grocery "kirana" shops, little idly shops, lots of roadside vendors, etc.), and the reaction has been almost universally positive. There's of course a bit of grumbling about cash being hard to find in the first two days, but even those come in a manner similar to how one might complain about rain - taken as an inevitable small nuisance in the larger scheme of things.

One part of the explanation is that these are the same folks that often deal with the small politicians and exploitative moneylenders - so now, seeing these corrupt people suffer greatly from this move, they're full of heartfelt praise for the central govt. At least half the praise I hear has been in the form of "you should have seen that politician's face" or "that moneylender is roaming all over town trying to change his black money".

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#65
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come from a lower-middle-class family in Kolkata, and I can say from experience that a lot of older people (my parents!) are over the moon with the whole thing. My mother, in particular, has suddenly turned into some sort of Modi fangirl, saying stuff like, "See what he's doing for the country!" (and variations on that). At some level, it's just the fact that anyone who replaces years of (perceived?) inaction with…

Even as a self-confessed critic of Modi, I have to admit that these hiccups are only temporary. What's more disturbing to me is the rumors I've heard from some wealthy friends' parents that they've already found loopholes to launder money through charitable trusts

>>What's more disturbing to me is the rumors I've heard from some wealthy friends' parents that they've already found loopholes to launder money through charitable trusts

This has existed forever. Cleaning up is not easy as most religions run their worship places under these trusts.

Politically very hard to deal with this situation.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#66
post #63

I think the BBC is missing some of these images: https://twitter.com/NileshShah68/status/797097848470929412 https://twitter.com/gbhimani/status/797021076182077440 https://twitter.com/_anujsinghal/status/796348883362283524 https://twitter.com/lady_gabbar/status/796269539067457536 https://twitter.com/jhunjhunwala/status/793799136592011264

It's BBC. Can't expect anything from positive from them when it comes to India.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#67
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come from a lower-middle-class family in Kolkata, and I can say from experience that a lot of older people (my parents!) are over the moon with the whole thing. My mother, in particular, has suddenly turned into some sort of Modi fangirl, saying stuff like, "See what he's doing for the country!" (and variations on that). At some level, it's just the fact that anyone who replaces years of (perceived?) inaction with…

There is atleast some indication that the Modi government took some steps in the prior years/months to strategically encircle the medium to big hoarders of black money and soothe the impact of the drastic demonetization step on the poor. Having said that any action of this magnitude is bound to have misplanning, unintended consequences and hardship 2013 Under previous government Replace subsidies with direct deposits…

The timing is suspicious though, ahead of state elections in the key states of UP, Punjab, Gujarat and Goa. For campaigns that are largely fought on cash, depriving other parties of cash is the biggest advantage.

Better timing would have been to wait until adoption of the Government's own pan-Indian electronic payment scheme ('Unified Payment Interface'), including giving small vendors card reading devices.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#68
A middle class Indian here. Average Indian is facing some problem. Here is a list.

1. If someone has cash in hand for emergencies then he/she has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to deposit it into a bank account. 2. One has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to exchange old currency for new or to withdraw Rs 10,000 from one's account. Rs 10,000 is sufficient money to take care of basic needs for about 15 days.

3. There is a shortage of lower denomination notes. RBI received 5 million Rs 500 denomination notes yesterday. It will heal ease the problem.

I live in the National Capital Region. I have faced no problem at all. I am doing my grocery purchase online. Urban India pays it's utility bills online. There are a number of e-wallet solutions which have made online transactions easy.

I am not aware about the inconveniences faced by Indians living in rural areas. Economy in rural India is cash based. But since I have my roots in rural India I have seen many transactions happening through informal credit channel. It is not uncommon for a worker to get paid once every 3-4 months. Migrant workers often get payed by contractors at the end of their contract. The actual impact is not earth shattering.

There is a high decibel political noise around the whole thing. But as someone who has paid his taxes honestly his entire life, I welcome and support this move.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#69

A middle class Indian here. Average Indian is facing some problem. Here is a list. 1. If someone has cash in hand for emergencies then he/she has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to deposit it into a bank account. 2. One has to stand in a bank queue for 2-3 hours to exchange old currency for new or to withdraw Rs 10,000 from one's account. Rs 10,000 is sufficient money to take care of basic needs for about 15 d…

  Average Indian is facing some problem.
Some? I've heard of some cases wherein a funeral was deferred for lack of cash.

It affects the dead too: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/demonetis...

Baby dies as parents had no cash to buy medicines in Vizag: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Baby-d...

Currency ban: Kids couldn't attend dad's funeral: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Currency-b...

Marriages to moksha, all adjourned: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Marriages-...

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#70
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nope. This decision seems to have happened at the whim of 3 people - the PM, the finance minister, the RBI governor. Clearly they didn't even proof read the notes. The back side of the 2k rupee notes is a mess. They screwed up the spelling of 2 in Hindi and 1000 in Urdu making it Bazaar from Hazaar

"Two" appears as "दो" (do) in Hindi in the 2000 INR notes. This looks correct to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_INR_Rev_2016.jpg (see the left edge of the note just below the string "2016").

If you are talking about "दोन" (don) appearing twice within the pink rectangular box, that's Konkani and Marathi, not Hindi. Two is indeed written as "दोन" (don) in Konkani and Marathi.

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