Indian Demonetisation Announcement and Insights from Public Reaction: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This investigation analyses the early reaction of general public on demonetisation announcement, wherein, an attempt has been made to examine how people from diverse background perceived the decision in terms of its pros & cons from the perspective of economy as well as from personal and business perspectives. A structured questionnaire survey is carried out via online and field survey mode during the period between 9th November, 2016 and 11th November, 2016. We utilise appropriate descriptive statistics and the ordinal regression model to get insights on our research objectives. The findings suggest that the demonetisation move is strongly appreciated by the citizens and considered it to be initiated at the right time despite the difficulties encountered by them with respect to procuring money from banks, post offices and ATM outlets in addition to the household and livelihood management during the initial three days. The results also prove that the younger generation, businessmen and professionals consider the demonetisation decision as the most appropriate as indicated by significant cumulative odds ratio. This implies that in the long run the decision India may witness more secure, brighter and prosperous economic and social growth.