I wrote a column one day after Demo in which I said that the step will raise the cost of black money, it will not eliminate it. Modi gave four reasons for Demo: to curb corruption, black money, fake notes and terror finance. To judge the success or failure of Demo on these four metrics is almost impossible because Demo was one of the several weapons the government has deployed against these issues. Digital transactions leave a trail and the more India moves to such transactions, the bigger is the blow to black money. A metric to measure the impact of Demo on black money would be tax compliance.

Source: Mint November 07, 2017 11:26 UTC