Last week, former Indian finance minister P.Chidambaram said "not a single economist worldwide has approved the demonetization in India 2016
On November 08, 2016, Indian Prime minister made a sudden announcement that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes will be invalid from November 09, 2016. The Indian government plan was to destroy all black money/unpaid taxes hidden by Indians in cash in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Indian people were given time till November 23, 2016 to exchange the old currency notes at all the banks in India. So there were long queues outside Banks for depositing money and also withdrawing money. I was in the queue at the bank for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Later Indian Congress leader 'Rahul Gandhi" said "91 people had died in queues outside banks and ATMs" which was the result of sudden announcement by PM Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister "Narendra Modi" is very proud of his actions
If that was their plan, then it certainly didn't work. Black money will simply move to electronic means of storage now. Just because a few notes are wiped out, it doesn't mean that black money suddenly disappears.
What the ban did was pose a huge inconvenience to every day citizens, especially Indians living overseas with these notes. Because if they wanted to cash them out, they either had to find a currency exchanger overseas in their country, or go back to India.
Can't believe that there is actually this many fatalities just from queuing for cash either. Although, it is logical given that this affected everyone in India given the sheer population. I personally hold the opinion that the demonetization was probably unnecessary and not well executed, even if it was necessary.