A look at how the digital payments ecosystem has evolved since demonetisation

The cash crunch at some ATMs in a few towns and cities across the country last month had all of us fearing a second round of demonetisation. Admit it, you too half-expected an announcement from Narendra Modi at 8pm again.

It has been 18 months since the first round of demonetisation back in November 2016 but our fears remain strong, don’t they? I mean, sure, more people pay tax now but we’d rather have access to hard cash. We still use cash for 90% of our purchases and we never took to digital payments fully.