“Black money”—the colloquial name for a vast network of off-the-book cash transactions and unbanked savings—is one of India’s biggest scourges. First and foremost, about half the country’s output comes from the small, informal sector, where cash transactions are the norm. Belgium, for example, which has the highest proportion of cashless transactions in the world—93%, according to MasterCard—has banned cash payments of over €3,000. And even the Reserve Bank of India, which tends towards conservative thinking about financial innovation, has come onboard, setting up a joint committee with the government to push cashless transactions. But there’s good reason to suppose that cashless payments could be adopted much faster in India than elsewhere.

Source: Mint July 21, 2016 03:22 UTC