And Prime minister Narendra Modi had just announced demonetisation, a bold measure to tackle corruption. From midnight on 8th November 2016 the banknotes which comprised 85% of India’s currency were no longer legal tender. The result was economic chaos.
Top-down imposition
Why do some innovations catch on when others are disastrous? An Indian journalist described demonetisation as “a bad idea, badly executed on the basis of some half-baked notions.” Many have said the same about reorganisations of the NHS. The health service is no stranger to top-down imposition of change.
Governments’ horizons are usually short-term. The possible unintended consequences of their policies are an inconvenient truth which is given scant consideration; implementation is someone else’s problem.Only one person knew in advance about Modi’s demonetisation plan – the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, who had to arrange
