OPINION

India starts to abandon cash, maybe a bit too fast

News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 10/11/2016

» It certainly took everyone in India by surprise. But then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a flair for the dramatic. In an unexpected prime time address on Tuesday, he announced that in a few hours, millions of high-denomination currency notes would no longer be legal tender. It was the only way, he insisted, to deal with "the disease" of unaccounted-for income -- or "black money", as it's called in India. "Your money will remain yours," he assured a stunned citizenry -- as long as you get around to depositing it in post offices sometime over the next several weeks.