RBI Governor Urjit Patel seemed rather clueless on how long the cash ban effect will take to wear off

At the all important press conference hosted by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, along with all the board of the RBI, the question that every journalist seemed to ask was-How soon would normalcy would return to India and when would people finally stop standing in queues outside banks and ATMs?

A total of three questions were asked by journalists to which Guv Patel’s response was, “The decision to demonetise was not taken in haste and was taken after due consideration and planning, taking into account the hardships the common man would face once the decision was implemented.”

One worrisome that Patel does agree to it is that the cash ban drive will take a very obvious hit on the country’s GDP growth, considerably slowing it down, thereby hurting businesses in the process.

However, what he did not divulge for even once was a basic timeline for normalcy to return into the banking system. The RBI Governor, while admitting to the fact that Rs 11.5 lakh crore had been returned into the system by the way of the demonetisation drive, steered absolutely clear of giving out any specific period within which this entire note crisis would come to an end.

The RBI says it has pumped in Rs 19 billion worth of cash into the system over the last one month, which equals to the amount it had pushed into the system over the last three years.

However, the amount that was pushed into the system over the three years was at a time when there was no government induced liquidity crunch into the system where overnight 86% of the country’s cash was deemed illegal.

The fact on the street says a very different story where most of the ATMs still haven’t been recalibrated, the hundreds that have been are out of cash. Thirty days after the all crucial cash ban decision, long queues are still seen outside banks and ATMs that are functioning with no reprieve to the common man insight.

And even as the government now blows the trumpet of digitisation to justify its decision, the fact remains that 70% of Indian population lives in backward villages with barely any signs of any kind of digital connectivity.

It, therefore, wouldn’t be wrong to say that while the decision to demonetise was taken by the political bosses, the independent body, solely in-charge of managing liquidity in the country, seems to have absolutely no idea as to how long it will take to return to normal life.

What is more astounding is that all its solutions are reactionary to what is happening rather than pre-empted which shows the government is trying to use the garb of “secrecy” to state that it actually has no way of steering the country back on track.