All Indians woke up this morning with a bombarding update by our dear PM Mr. Narendra Modi – “All 500Rs and 1000Rs will be illegal starting midnight”. Everyone must be wondering how to get the best out of their 500Rs and 1000Rs notes.  Kids’ suggestion to their parents must be “ Papa! Kabse bol rha/rhi hu, pese chahe bekar ho jayein bache ko bike nahi dila sakte!”(Dad! I am asking you from so long, you can let money go in trash but won’t buy me a bike). Shopaholic people got an irresistible excuse to fund their shopping “ Time kam bacha hai, isse acha kuch kam ki cheezein hi Lelo” (We aren’t left with much time, so thought of buying some useful stuff) . I cannot imagine the crowd on Indian roads right now. So let’s talk about the strategic motive behind this PM’s announcement and how according to him it will help the nation.

• Black money holders can only use their hidden money if they have new notes which they can only get by revealing their identity and account details. Of course they won’t do so; hence their cash will be just like useless pieces of paper. Boom!! Mission accomplished.
• Neighboring terrorist countries are hollowing our economy with their big rackets of fake currency supplies. So whatever money they have injected in our country will be of 0 value. Well at least until they start with fake new 500, 2000Rs notes.

It all looks just perfect right? Now let’s look on the other side where this idea can be problematic for some genuine people.

• I am just hoping that this fear of mine doesn’t come true. What if these government institutes who are supposed to help people in exchanging their notes just start denying the service and start asking for money to do so? What can a common man do if exchanging companies say “500 ka 400 hi milega, lena hai lo warna agey badho” (You get only 400 for 500Rs note, either take it or leave it). Who is at loss?
• What about NRIs who have genuine Indian currency but no medium to get it exchanged? Yes govt. have given the time till Dec 30^th to get the currency exchanged but what if they don’t know anyone in India. Isn’t it too much chaotic for them? This is what my family here in USA is facing too.

All in all very bold and worth appreciation step by Mr. Modi and if applied properly, it definitely can help boosting our economy.  So what are your plans for utilizing your 500Rs and 1000Rs notes?