“A Cashless India”: Reality or Utopia? Some Insights

Demonetization move adopted by the Government of India in 2016 though paved the way for a cashless economy and was an attempt to usher in digital transactions, yet, cash still continues to be the most dominant medium of transactions in the country. Flexibility and ease in the use of coins and notes is one of the prime reasons why the country still remains a profusely cash based economy. The countless benefits of digital transactions among others include curbing of black money, making money laundering difficult and bringing in greater lucidity in the accounting system. Despite these, electronic transactions have only been confined to a very small section of the population. Infrastructural constrictions and low literacy rates especially in rural India, digital inequality and illiteracy, high cash dependency ratio, cyber security challenges, intermittent access to net connections are some of the major hurdles that the country faces in embracing a completely digital economy. Along with Government endeavours to move forward to a cashless economy, improvement in infrastructural setup and also a change in the conservative mindset of the people has become the need of the hour in enabling India to become completely cash free.