While the Narendra Modi government has been promoting cashless economy for a while now, supported by moves such as demonetisation, people all across the world believe that cash will actually vanish by 2035 in major economies. The G-10 countries — the Group of 11 wealthy nations — will stop using cash as currency by the year 2035, a survey report said. “Around the world, there is a building consensus that cash is on the way out,” Bloomberg found in its recent New Economy global survey. Bloomberg also said that globally, more than half of the respondents strongly agree or agree that the G-10 will no longer use cash as a medium of exchange in 2035. Also, participants from emerging countries are slightly more inclined towards this belief compared to their developed countries counterparts.
Cash on way out
Even though India is not a part of G-10 nations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States form the G-10), Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put his sight on creating a cashless economy for India. Some of the moves of the NDA government from its first tenure have pushed India in the direction of going digital. The rise of digital wallet phenomenon is largely accepted to be associated with demonetisation with Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm seeing a spike in its users right after Narendra Modi declared Rs 1000 and Rs 500 illegal tender. Demonetisation brought in a digital payment revolution in India with banks and companies equipping their portals for digital transactions for a seamless transition from cash.
Technology and economy
Meanwhile, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum Survey also found that respondents exhibit high confidence in technology’s role in the economy. “Data shows that emerging country business professionals are more optimistic than developed markets about change, and have markedly higher expectations for the role that technology will play in the economy, business and daily life in the decades to come,” the survey said. Developing countries generally find technology more of an opportunity while developed world perceives it largely as a threat, Andrew Browne, editorial director of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum said.