The International Monetary Fund has hailed India as a bright spot amidst a slowing global economy. Indian economy has the potential to achieve double-digit growth rate. In spite of being a bright spot on the world map, a host of problems confront India which caste shadow on its governance credentials. These so-called black spots include: (a) black money, (b) corruption, (c) money laundering, (d) counterfeit currency, (e) tax evasion and (f) terrorist financing.

The new Government at the Centre, which took charge in May 2014, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has a vision to make India a modern and vibrant economy. Policies and programmes to rejuvenate the economy have already been announced in this regard.

     It was in the above context that the Government of India decided to withdraw the legal tender character of ` 500 and ` 1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series from the midnight of November 8, 2016. The announcement was made by no less a person than the Prime Minister himself in an unscheduled live televised address to the nation on the evening of November 8, 2016. The demonetized bank notes accounted for 86 percent of the country’s cash supply.

The use of digital technology—world’s fastest growing economic activity—to improve governance cannot be over-emphasized. Digital technology has become the greatest agent of change and promises to play this role even more dramatically in future. One major objective of the demonetization exercise is to encourage cashless/electronic transactions in the economy. The Government of India has taken policy decision to encourage electronic transactions and has, in this regard, announced a number of incentives.

Technology, competition, and benchmarking to the best international practices have to be the driving force of India’s development efforts. Demonetization exercise needs to be seen in this perspective.

Dr. Niranjan Sahoo is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Rural Management, Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi. He did his M.A. from Visva-Bharati Central University, Santiniketan, West Bengal; M.Phil. from BANISS (an ICSSR Institute), University of Indore; and Ph.D. from Magadh  University. He also holds STC on Human Resource Management from IIT-Kharagpur.

He is the recipient of many awards, notably International Intellectual Achiever’s Award conferred in Bangkok, Thailand (December 30, 2010); Visva-Bharati Snattakottar Award conferred by the then Prime Minister Shri I.K. Gujral (January 11, 1997); Rashtriya Gaurav Award (April 9, 2010) and Rajeev Gandhi Excellence Award (September 9, 2010).  Recently, he was selected as a member to the Apex Committee of Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. Dr. Sahoo has visited a few South Korean universities also viz. University of Suwon, University of Sinhan, Vision University, Hwashin Cybercity University and Chanbuk National University as guest professor. 

He has published a number of research papers in academic journals of repute including International Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research, and Journal of International Centre for Economics, Humanities and Management, Bangkok. His areas of research interest include rural financial services, corporate social responsibility (CSR), entrepreneurship development, and human resources management.

Dr. Sarika R. Lohana is UGC-Dr. Radhakrishnan Post-doctoral Fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Commerce and Management Sciences, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada (SRTM) University, Nanded. She received her M.Com. from SRTM University, Nanded; M.Phil. in commerce from Alaggappa University, Karaikudi; Ph.D. from the School of Commerce and Management Sciences, SRTM University and MBA in finance from IGNOU, New Delhi.

She has published papers in Indian Journal of Management Review; Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Asian Journal of Management Sciences. She is a member of the International Technical Committee on Social and Human Sciences, WASAT, (USA). Her areas of research interest include financial and marketing management, entrepreneurship, six sigma, corporate finance, neuro and behavioural finance.