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Writer's pictureThirteen

The power in the Concept of Money

8th November 2016 is an important date in Indian history when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared," To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the five hundred rupee and thousand rupee currency notes presently in we will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight..." (as transcribed by Business Standard). Whatever the reason for demonetisation, one thing that became clear that evening was that once the vested power in those bills is retracted by the authority, those bills are no longer are more than a piece of paper.


Right after this instance, many instances were reported whereby bags filled with these discarded bills were left and abandoned by the road or were burnt or dumped in the bins. The ones who did this had these bills in excess and they had gained them unlawfully. For some others, the case was the opposite. They were left stranded and in a fix. Many had to stand in long queries to exchange these bills for the ones that were legal.


In short, white money remains an abstract concept, its impact on human lives is very much real. I avoid being impacted by the vague concept of paper currency, a newer and an even more abstract form of currency evolved - digital money. It is only time that will tell us how this form of money will evolve further and now how much of that which does not even exist physically will we be letting to impact and affect us.

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