Yesterday, November the 8^th was not any ordinary day since it marked the completion of three years of demonetisation, the most talked-about event in the economic history of the nation till date, perhaps more than the economic liberalisation path initiated in early 1990s. It may seem queer, but it is undeniable that as years pass by, talks centering around this ‘bold’ initiative seem to expand in volume not only among the economists and people dealing with trade and commerce, but also among common people. This year, it is noticeably higher, obviously triggered by the on-going distressful milieu of the economy and even the common man on the  street is taking an arduous route of making comparative analysis between things that existed prior to the evening of November 8, 2016 and the one that unfolded after that. Really, it is the time to reflect what effect demonetisation had on the Indian economy- has it proved salutary or is gradually turning out to be detrimental. There will be little logic to take any side and arrive at a judgement, since it is an extremely technically-inclined academic matter. But as facts are facts, it will be better to deal with a few of them that had surfaced conspicuously during these 1095 days.

Basic objectives of demonetisation were to counter terror funding, corruption and hoarding of black money by invalidating the currency notes of the denominations of Rs 1000 and 500. It was expected that of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore demonetised currency notes, approximately Rs 3 lakh crore of demonetised currency notes would not come back to the banking system, thus neutralising a substantial weight of black money in the overall economy. But, as per RBI Annual Report which came out sometime in August last year, it was far from the expectations and actually and only near about Rs 10,720 crore did not reach the banks or RBI. Although its ‘aftermath’ has been discussed and reported widely over the media during these three years, since it’s the anniversary, it is worth recalling a few once more. It has been estimated that the Indian economy lost almost 1.5 per cent of GDP in terms of growth on an average and 15 crore daily wage earners lost livelihoods for several weeks immediate to the announcement and thousands of small and medium units were forced to shut down primarily because of lack of operating cash which has been the way of doing businesses over decades. It will be over repetition also to mention that lakhs of jobs were destroyed in the process, giving birth to a mass-belief that there might be linkages between demonetisation and the omnipresent unemployment of today.

It seems that even after three years the issue has hardly effaced from public memory. And only time perhaps will  determine how long it will linger.