Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday backtracked on his support for the Indian government’s move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. A day after he called it a “bold move” and an “important step to move away from a shadow economy”, the Microsoft founder said he had “no opinion” on the decision, Business Standard reported.
During a NITI Aayog lecture on Wednesday, Gates had said the Narendra Modi government’s decision would create an “even more transparent economy”. He said he believed digital transactions will see a rapid rise in India. “I think in the next several years, India will become the most digitised economy,” he had said at the event that was attended by the prime minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other ministers.
The next day, however, Gates, whose current net worth is $82.3 billion (approximately Rs 5.6 lakh crore), said, “I do not have an opinion about demonetisation...I do know that independent of demonetisation, digitisation is a good thing.” While speaking to a group of journalists, he continued to stress on the importance of running a digital economy and how it was more cost-efficient. “As you digitise...interest rates, transaction rates go down, and the ability to make savings go up,” he said.
On November 8, Modi had announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were no longer legal tender and introduced new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 currency notes. Citizens have been struggling for cash since then, even the government assured them that banks had enough money to exchange old notes and that ATMs would start dispensing the new notes in abundance soon.
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