World can learn from Aadhaar: Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff

NEW DELHI: India’s demonetisation has to be seen in the context of everything that the government is doing, said Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff, adding it might yield long-run benefits but emerging economies will need to be cautious if they want to do this.

The author of The Curse of Cash said demonetisation was “flawed in some respect” and that “it may take many years to judge the impact”, but it is also a fact that the Indian government has done much to promote financial inclusion.

“The world has much to learn about from the Aadhaar project,” he said, calling it a remarkable technological accomplishment with huge benefits.

Rogoff said some amount of cash use is inevitable, but the idea is to root out cash in large deals. “We need physical currency of some type around definitely.”