Here's how Mumbai fared after one year of demonetisation: Hits and misses

November 8 marks the oneyear anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modis unforeseen move of demonetisation Implemented with the aim of bringing black cash stashed abroad back into the Indian economy and to prevent more of the same demonetisation has had a lasting impact on each and every sector in the city midday reached out to various parties establishments and businesses in an effort to find out whether or not they think demonetisation achieved its goal in the last one yearOwner of Manis Lunch Home K S Narayanswamy PicSatej ShindeRestaurantsAccording to Cafe Madras owner Devavrat Kamath too cash payments have gained prominence once more We got Paytm within 48 hours after demonetisation as well as a cardswiping machine he said adding that the latter took a fair bit of struggle to obtainCafe Madras at Kings Circle faced a tough time procuring a cardswiping machine after demonetisation PicSatej ShindeBut by March all was normal A fair few people still do Paytm for their bills but cash payments are more Im not sure how it will be in the long run I think cashless transactions should be made cheaper in terms of banks processing charge They charge 152 per cent this should be brought down to zeroK S Narayanswamy owner of Manis Lunch Home in Chembur PicSatej ShindeK S Narayanswamy owner of Manis Lunch Home had a similar viewpoint We got card machines and Paytm the very next day after demonetisation Initially digital transactions rose but as of now the ratio of cash transactions to digital ones has come back to 5050 he said also pointing to the exceptionally high commission charged by banks We are running into losses by using plasticBanksDigital transactions notably mobileand merchant transactions havegrown significantly and mobilebankingwallet volumes aredoubleof last year and sustaining thepostdemonetisation peaks according to Ritesh Raj Saxena head Savings Digital amp Payments Business IndusInd BankChaotic scenes outside ATMs are a thing of the past File picFor leading privatesector banks debit card POS usagehas caught up with ATM cash withdrawalseven though for thecountry at large its a third of cash transactionsHepointed out that thebenefits for thebanking industry had been multifoldOn theconsumer side going from cash to digital has helped to reducebanking transaction costs with over 90 per cent of theoverall transaction valuegetting fulfilled digitally On themerchant side introduction of New Agedigital payment services viz QR UPI and Aadhaar Pay after demonetisation has helped to improvetheeconomics for banks in terms of bringing in moremerchants thereby opening up a virtuous cycleof financial inclusion fueled by digitallyenabled commercesaid SaxenaPayments Council of IndiaChairman Navin Surya said The growth rate of the digital payments industry which was earlier in the range of 2050 per cent has accelerated post demonetisation to 4070 per centPointing out that demonetisation was just one of the milestones in our countrys cashless journey and not the final destination he added It conveyed a strong psychological message to our countrymen that cash was not welcome and its digitisation was inevitable However for further accelerating this growth and moving towards a less cash economy both the government and regulators need to continue with the initiatives that they have taken since the announcement critical steps can drive our current industry growth of 10 per cent transactions to 50 per cent over the next five yearsNCR Corporation Pvt Ltd ATM manufactureras per Navroze Dastur MD NCR the first seven months after demonetisation were a huge challenge Nearly 86 per cent of the currency had been sucked out of the system and the government had not remonetised its equivalent amount a year on this has changed he saidMD of NCR Navroze DasturNow nearly 90 per cent of the currency has been remonetised this is a good thing Our transaction levels are back to predemonetisation days 120odd transactions a day across 110 lakh ATMsHowever Dastur pointed out we are currently at the same cash levels as we were before demonetisation We saw a major spurt in digital transactions during the demonetisation period but after the currency has been remonetised there is a clear drop in digital transactions with cash transactions having gained prominence once againHospitalsHere digital transactions have increased since demonetisation Dr Rajendra P Patankar chief operating officer Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital said Before demonetisation around 50 per cent of the transactions were digital the number has now surged to 80 per cent Most patients prefer paying digitally even smaller amounts This has made the system quickerHospitals including Nanavati have seen a rise in digital transactions saying patients from other states have benefited the mostLilavati Hospitals Vice President Ajaykumar Pande said the change in trend had especially helped patients coming from other states The boost in digital transactions due to demonetisation has proved useful for patients from outside Maharashtra earlier they had to carry cash which was risky Now with the rising acceptance of digital payments it has decreased our burden and made the system more transparentDr Parag R Rindani associate vice president of Wockhardt Hospitals shared the sentiment Most transactions now are made with plastic money To encourage digital transactions further we also started NeFT serviceTraffic and echallan glitchesBut its definitely not been all sunshine and roses with niggling careless and lazy errors slowing the entire system downGlitches in echallan app and card machines given to traffic cops need to be addressedA midday reporter who was fined for parking in a noparking zone near Kalanagar signal and rightfully so had to visit three different constables to pay his fine by swiping his card on the traffic polices electronic machine However during all three attempts none of the constables had a functioning one At one point there was a small queue around one of the policemen all those who wanted to pay their fines by card held up by the nonfunctioning machinesAnd this wasnt even the end of it When the reporter opened his echallan app to pay the fine through it the main screen displayed a pending offence and a fine amount but a click to go to the next page to make the payment showed no record of any fine