<story><title>In Its Third Month, India’s Cash Shortage Begins to Bite</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/world/asia/in-its-third-month-indias-cash-shortage-begins-to-bite.html?em_pos=small&amp;emc=edit_dk_20170125&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;nl_art=15&amp;nlid=65508833&amp;ref=headline&amp;te=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seshagiric</author><text>As an Indian, I feel this article is overtly negative and fails to capture the real public opinion. For example, everyone in my friends + relatives circle (mix of salaried and small business owners) have been impacted, we have borne the grunt of standing in lines for 2-3 hours just to get cash, but each and everyone welcomes the change. We in fact want the govt. now to focus on the other big source of black money - real estate.&lt;p&gt;The NY times also deliberately ignores the positive outcomes e.g. housing loans are now coming to a six year low, online transactions are increasing (which increases tax inflow to the govt. by bringing previously unreported transactions to tax bracket).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>signal11</author><text>If you&amp;#x27;re posting on HN, you and your friends are probably not the audience for whom there&amp;#x27;s pain. Reading the NYT piece, it appears to be hitting contractual labor the hardest - people who earn $220&amp;#x2F;month or less.&lt;p&gt;From the article: &amp;quot;The worst affected by the cash crunch are the country’s hundreds of millions of farmers, produce vendors, small shop owners and daily-wage laborers who are usually paid in cash at the end of a day’s work.&amp;quot; This makes sense as daily-wage laborers would form the backbone of any informal ecnonomy, and the lack of ready cash is killing the informal economy.</text></comment>
<story><title>In Its Third Month, India’s Cash Shortage Begins to Bite</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/world/asia/in-its-third-month-indias-cash-shortage-begins-to-bite.html?em_pos=small&amp;emc=edit_dk_20170125&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;nl_art=15&amp;nlid=65508833&amp;ref=headline&amp;te=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seshagiric</author><text>As an Indian, I feel this article is overtly negative and fails to capture the real public opinion. For example, everyone in my friends + relatives circle (mix of salaried and small business owners) have been impacted, we have borne the grunt of standing in lines for 2-3 hours just to get cash, but each and everyone welcomes the change. We in fact want the govt. now to focus on the other big source of black money - real estate.&lt;p&gt;The NY times also deliberately ignores the positive outcomes e.g. housing loans are now coming to a six year low, online transactions are increasing (which increases tax inflow to the govt. by bringing previously unreported transactions to tax bracket).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>agustamir</author><text>I have heard this argument of the Indian middle class standing in lines but having a positive outlook of the future. That’s the general sentiment floating around. Many economists and social scientists in India have been highly critical of the move and its implementation too. The govt didn’t present data about how much dirty cash was scooped up through this move. It’s narrative changed from bringing back dirty money to digital transactions. 
The population hit hard by this move is the poor, which frankly hasn’t got the kind of access to technology to be using credit and debit cards. Access to smartphones hasn’t picked up to the extent of substituting it as an alternative to cash. What about them? They form a large chunk. Not a lot of media attention has been given to this section of society - the daily wage earners, factory workers paid in cash, farmers[0]. Who’s talking about these folks? I would be more interested in some real insights into this instead of rhetoric and searching for some silver lining.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thewire.in&amp;#x2F;89578&amp;#x2F;costs-of-demonetisation-dampening-spirits-farmers-struggling&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thewire.in&amp;#x2F;89578&amp;#x2F;costs-of-demonetisation-dampening-s...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>