Banks were told they would be receiving the new banknotes, but none - not even the powerful heads of the biggest state-owned and private banks - were aware of the decision to demonetise the older bank
On Tuesday, even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation was being telecast across television channels, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had already started dispatching the new series of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes to banks across the country.
Banks were told they would be receiving the new banknotes, but none — not even the powerful heads of the biggest state-owned and private banks — were aware of the decision to demonetise the older banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. Until they heard it on TV, that is.
The landmark decision by the government to put the notes out of circulation was a process six months in the making, and involved a lot of challenges, the biggest being keeping it confidential, sources involved with the exercise toldBusiness Standard.
In fact, only 10 people in the system were aware of the plan in its entirety. The proposal gained traction in a meeting between officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the finance ministry and the logistical process was set in motion after Modi gave his go-ahead in early-May. The thenRBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was also on board.
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