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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;doug444, post: 2603708, member: 38849&quot;]This is a bit long, so I&#039;ll post the beginning of the article.&nbsp; About six weeks ago, India demonetized two of the most commonly used bills in India, with face values of roughly US $8 and US $16:</p><p><br /></p><p>(from Toronto&#039;s main newspaper, The Globe and Mail)</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;...Mr. Sidhu, his hair slicked back with gel, adjusted the gold chain around his neck and shrugged. He knew he was offering a bad rate (8,000 rupees is in fact worth about $160) but it was Dec. 23 and in a week, <span style="color: #ff4d4d"><b>those bills would be useless</b></span>. He knew people were desperate to offload them. And where there’s desperation, there’s opportunity.</p><p><br /></p><p>On Nov. 8, 85 per cent of India’s currency was taken off the market with a surprise announcement from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that 500 and 1,000 rupee notes (respectively worth about $10 and $20) were now useless. A deadline of Dec. 30 was set for Indians to deposit their old bills in their bank accounts. It was a dramatic move to eliminate black money and counterfeit notes that has caused nothing short of chaos in the cash-based society. The economy has taken a hit and hours-long lines are the norm at banks, causing inconvenience for the well-off and devastation for the country’s poor, many of whom do not have bank accounts or access to banks.</p><p><br /></p><p>The decision has rippled across oceans, affecting those who travel regularly to India and tend to keep rupees on hand, including the 1.2 million of Indian origin in Canada. Many have begged relatives and friends travelling to India to deposit their holdings for them. Others hope they can change over their money in the new year at one of a handful of Reserve Bank of India offices in that country before a March 31 deadline, a process that is much more complicated than going to a regular bank.</p><p><br /></p><p>And then there are those such as Mr. Sidhu, who have identified business opportunities in demonetization.The morning after learning that 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were no longer valid in India, Torontonian Lorna D’Souza rushed to her local State Bank of India branch in the city and tried to get her wad of bills – worth 50,000 rupees ($1,000) – changed over to Canadian dollars. The bank teller refused. So did a currency trader.</p><p><br /></p><p>“They said, ‘We are not taking because nobody is buying,’” she recalled.</p><p><br /></p><p>No Canadian banks or Canadian branches of Indian banks have accepted the notes since Nov. 8. The Indian consulate in Toronto has reportedly been swamped with calls from Indo-Canadians about what to do with their now invalid bank notes.&quot;&nbsp; [more][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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