Will India's Ambitious Currency Swap Succeed?
It is being called PM Narendra Modi's boldest gamble yet - a crackdown on black money that has turned everyone's world upside down with the banning of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Today, as banks opened for the first time since the surprise announcement, there was utter chaos. People lined up for hours to change their money. Some had to be turned away because the banks just ran out of cash. The new 2000 rupee note has started to come into circulation, but there will be a new 1000 rupee note as well, says the government. It will have new security features. While the government said there was no need to panic, for many people it was a crisis situation as they struggled to pay at hospitals, chemists and vegetable vendors. Meanwhile, there have been Income Tax raids at 11 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Ludhiana today - largely jewellers and hawala currency operators have been raided.
