Did Demonetisation Help India's Transition to the Digital Economy?

The unexpected announcement of demonetisation of higher denomination notes in India and a prolonged cash crunch provided a shift towards cashless economy. The objective of the present study is to explore and compare the market status of the adoption of digital payments in India before and after demonetisation. The findings reveal that during the study period of 48 months in the post demonetisation era, the use of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), M-wallets and Mobile Banking, debit and credit cards at point of sale (PoS) has increased significantly. However, despite the increased efforts of the government to push for a cashless economy, India still remains a cash intensive economy, with an increasing currency in circulation (CIC) to GDP ratio. Hence, to bring permanent change continuous effort for digitization need to be made.