JK News Today

Jammu, Nov. 09

India carried out another surgical strike but this time it came around in response to the war waged against an internal but the gargantuan evil of corruption. The revolutionist move to discontinue notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as legal tenders created wavelet of review discussions in each  nook and corner of the country.

JK News Today approached the experts of business and economy in The Business School, University of Jammu to gain deeper comprehension on the much talked about issue and get cognized with the vistas of the fraternity on the impact of this advancement on nation and the state and its business and economy in particular.

Ruminating over the critical step taken by the government, Professor Vinay Chauhan welcomes the decision and sees it as a tool to curb the unauthorized holding of money. Staying positive about the latest development Professor Chauhan believes this move will provide the much needed boost to the national as well as the state exchequer. “We cannot isolate regional economy from the national economy and both will be affected alike. Nevertheless, the economy of J&K has some peculiar traits like Terrorism and Tourism, and this move can serve as a crucial control mechanism on all money circulated in the economy through unethical ways such as Hawala. Moreover, in our state illegal business transactions take precedence over the legal ones and the quantum of illegal money overshadows the little legal money in the flow. Particularly, in Kashmir which is paralyzed for months still the funding keeps pouring in and it is understandable that unethical sources are coming into the play here. Such a mechanism was necessary to keep a check on illegal transactions and curbing the massive protest. Also, coming at the time of US and UP elections, the move is commendable as money flowing in the name of speculations will be put to rest. The prime agenda with which this government came into power was to curb the black money and such is the stature of our Prime Minister that he has delivered what he promised, says Professor Chauhan.

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Meanwhile Dr. Amisha Gupta, Assistant Professor at this apex institute of management called it a ‘wonderful step’. She opines that all this did not happen overnight, rather it was a very well thought of strategy as firstly the bank accounts were introduced for all which was followed by the linkage of the same with adhaar and then channelize the money towards the these accounts. Dr. Gupta sees it as a conscious effort to unveil black money lying with tycoons as well as an astounding effort to curb fake currency which holds aggrandized importance in the state of J&K where the circulation of money is head wind. J&K is both worst-hit and best-benefitted by this move she suggests. “It can be seen as a blessing in disguise for the state as this stroke possesses the potential to solve the Kashmir Issue and streamline the state economy  but as J&K economy is a multifaceted economy hence no facet of the economy will remain untouched by this move”, says Dr. Amisha Gupta.

Dr. Komal Nagar, Assistant Professor at The Business School termed the decision as a ‘bold move’. She recollected that a similar proposal had come few years back also but nothing was materialized. She threw light on the tripartite effect of the resolution. In her opinion, the foremost upshot will be that the fake currency will be done away with. Secondly, there will be a check on the sponsor of terrorism and lastly the menace of black money will be curbed to a sizeable extent. She sates that the economy and business are surely going to be badly hit, atleast for a week, before it stabilizes again with the flow of new currency. She moots that the real estate is the sector which is going to face the major blow and so are the small-scale business houses which deal majorly in cash whereas the major business houses may remain unaffected as the major chunk of transactions happen online which may not call for immediate changes in the business processes. “The overall economy is undoubtedly going to see a downward trend and the masses have to wait and watch for the remedy measures that will divulge only as the banks open tomorrow.” says Dr. Nagar who endorses the move and says it should have happened much before.

Another aspect of the move is that it might give impetus to the digitization pitch. “I see this as a step to help penetrate digitization to the lowest possible level. Each small shopkeeper will now be compelled to keep EDC machines to facilitate transactions or pay the cost of lost business till the free flow of new currency does not become a reality”, says  Swati Sharma, PhD Research Scholar of the institute.

The final year students of the institute are equally vocal about their views. “Ours is a border state which has led to lot of duplication in currency, thereby making business ever apprehensive about the genuineness of their hard earned money. This one decision is enough to give solace to whole of the business class which can now carry on daily transactions without being concerned about the duplicity of currency”, says Manhar Malhotra. “Money stashed in safes will now come out and be utilized for the good of people” says Shiromani Gupta. While Aruz Mahajan and Anupam Sharma raise concerns over decrease in the circulation of money for initial days and its resultant problems, Divanshu Gupta sees the heightened role of Banks and the plastic money in the economy now on.

The students and faculty in general appreciated the move and appealed to people to not get  panicked. Further they also urged people to not exploit the poor and illiterate people who are unaware about this change by forcing own higher currency notes to such people. They exhort people of the state to contribute to the good cause by cooperating with government and facilitating the strengthening of the state as well as the national economy.