The sudden announcement on November 8 in 2016 that India was to withdraw all of its Rs500 ($6.01) and Rs1000 banknotes from circulation was met with widespread incredulity. Manmohan Singh, who was India’s prime minister from 2004–2014, said at the time: “Those who say demonetisation is good in the long run should recall the quote: ‘In the long run we are all dead’.”
Along with the aim of cracking down on corruption and fake notes, prime minister Narendra Modi called on India to use this opportunity to become a cashless society, and urged young people to educate their families on how to use mobile banking and e-commerce. For a country of over a billion people, with 22 official languages and hundreds of others in common usage, creating a systemic shift in behaviour seemed like an impossible task.
