Modi's Demonetisation: Differing Opinions

India's demonetisation: 'Modi didn't think of the poor' 

In a strong editorial, the Economist said Modi's "perceived need for secrecy (to take cash-hoarders by surprise) fed into the innate sense he has of his own infallibility and his misplaced faith in his technocratic skills."

Kaushik Basu, a former chief economist at the World Bank, said in an op-ed in the New York Times that demonetisation was likely to cause the economy to nosedive. "Demonetization may have been well-intentioned, but it was a major mistake," Basu wrote. "The government should reverse it."

Assessing the impact of demonetisation four weeks later, TN Ninan, the editor of the Business Standard, wrote that Modi's move "at this stage looks like a bad idea, badly executed on the basis of some half-baked notions."