Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched on Thursday a broadside against the government’s clampdown on the cash economy, calling it a “monumental mismanagement” that might shave at least two percentage points off India’s economic growth and hit the poor hard. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat in the Rajya Sabha and heard out the criticism from his predecessor. The government hit back, with finance minister Arun Jaitley said the prime minister can’t sit in the House the whole day but will speak in the debate at the right time. “I want to know from the prime minister the name of any country where people have deposited their money in the bank but they are not allowed to withdraw their money. Some experts say the demonetisation move has deeply damaged India’s mostly cash economy where online transactions are uncommon and hobbled by a lack of connectivity and poor network across the vast countryside.

Source: Hindustan Times November 24, 2016 18:30 UTC