The demonetization of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes has taken the country by surprise, but it is a big bold move to wipe out black money, felt Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD and CEO of Bandhan Bank. He said the move has disrupted normal life but this short-term pain is for the nation’s long term gain, participating in the discussion on demonetization on CNN-News18 show, Off Centre. Stating that Bandhan Bank has 68% of its branches in rural areas, he gets the view from the ground and said how ‘short term’ the measure will be depends entirely on how soon the supply of currency to the banking system can be increased. He felt that to tackle black money and corruption, which is the long-term goal of the move, people have to be educated about electronic transactions and government machinery has to be cleaned up. Ghosh also pointed out that many people do not know about digital transactions and they are still using cheques which takes 3 days to encash. People need to be educated on how to make digital transactions, he emphasized, adding this is a good opportunity for people to learn the concept of electronic banking.
