The Arithmetics Of Cashless India

Economist, Prasenjit Bose says,” Making India completely digital and going cashless is not possible right now. For that to happen, we need financial literacy. More importantly, we need digital literacy. We can’t force people to go digital in a country where two-thirds of the population reside in villages. Almost a quarter of the rural populace doesn’t have mobile phones, let alone smartphones. Many villagers do not have a bank account. They do not know how to open an account. Yet, we are forcing people to go cashless due to demonetization. That’s not the way to use technology. Basically, it is created for urban India and we can’t impose it on everyone.”

- Shwetank Mishra

Perhaps, When you read this article, the government would have presented its path-breaking budget-2017 on February 1, People fervently waiting for this budget for four possible reasons- the First budget after demonetization move, Last budget before the introduction of Goods & Service Tax, The budget suppose to focused on poll-bound states and last but not the least, as claimed by Union State Finance Minister that, the budget would focus on cashless economy. Interestingly, on the Cashless economy, the IT giant and promoter of Microsoft, Bill gates quoted, “India is still coming to grips with Prime Minister Modi’s ‘shock and awe’ approach to demonetization, which should be seen as an important element of his ambitious digital India mission.” The impromptu decision on demonetization not only make busy to the people standing in the queue, but eminent economists are too busy with their calculator to measure the effectiveness of the counterfeit notes, currencies and it’s significant and after few weeks of the decision, the demonetization move transformed in pitched for creating a cashless society. According to a study done by Tufts University in 2014, The Cost Of Cash In India, cash operations cost the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and commercial banks about Rs21,000 crore annually.