On November 8, 2016, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi announced that 500- and 1000-rupee notes would cease to be legal tender from midnight that day. This removed 86% of the cash from circulation, an unprecedented event in human history. Demonetisation, as it was then called, or DeMon or Notebandi as it is also known, had humanitarian and economic effects that might take years to play out. In episode 2 of The Seen and the Unseen, Amit Varma is joined by Suyash Rai, an economic analyst from Delhi, as they examine whether demonetisation achieved any of its intended effects, and try to come to terms with some of its unintended (but foreseeable) consequences.

Both Varma and Rai have been early critics of this demonetization, and have written extensively on the subject. Some of their pieces:

Narendra Modi Takes A Great Leap Backwards—Amit Varma, The Times of India, November 20, 2016

The Humanitarian Cost Trumps Any Economic Argument—Amit Varma, India Uncut, November 24, 2016

The Rise and Fall of Emperor Modi—Amit Varma, Hindu Business Line, November 25, 2016

Three Reasons Why A Cashless Society Would Be A Disaster—Amit Varma, The Times of India, December 18, 2016

Narendra Modi Makes Some New Year Resolutions—Amit Varma, The Times of India, January 1, 2017

Tackling Black Money—Suyash Rai, NIPFP, November 17, 2016

A flawed policy: The real problem with demonetisation is not just in implementation—Suyash Rai, Scroll, November 22

The Demonetisation Decision: Event, Impact, Narrative and Meaning—Suyash Rai, The Wire, December 4, 2016

Follow them at their Twitter handles, @amitvarma and @suyashrai.