Nitin Pai Quoted in the Los Angeles Times

Nitin Pai was quoted in an article with the Los Angeles Times which examines the effects of the sudden demonetisation in India.

India is facing a severe currency shortage ever since the government banned Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 rupee bills in an effort to fight corruption and tax evasion. However, 500 and 1000 rupee notes make up as much as amounting to 86% of the cash in circulation.

Experts predict a powerful feeling of schadenfreude among the general public: a hope that India’s tax-dodgers will suffer more as the economy is cleaned up. But that could have limits.

“It is unfathomable why some of the smartest minds and most competent officials were unable to see that the currency transfusion will be a complex, difficult, painful process full of unintended consequences,” said Nitin Pai, co-founder of the Takshashila Institution, an independent policy research organisation.

Click here to read the full article.