Take money, watch it burn

Both Sweden and India underwent a period of demonetisation. The circumstances surrounding each country's demonetisation efforts were different, which contributed to one country's successful demonetisation and another country's lack of success.

The differences between both efforts can be divided into cultural and economic factors. The cultural factors include uncertainty avoidance, jugaad, preference for cash and political culture. Economic factors include the origin of change and income inequality. This work also examines how non-state transnational actors, such as multilateral aid agencies and philanthropic organisations, contributed to demonetisation in India and Sweden....

In 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's goal was to implement a fully digital payment system in India and other developing countries by 2018. At a 2015 forum in Washington, DC, Bill Gates remarked, 'We have very significant efforts in Nigeria, Pakistan and India, (and) a dozen other countries, where we work with the central banks to make sure that the right kind of transaction switch is available', showing...a close relationship with Reserve Bank of India (RBI).


He also stated that the Foundation worked with the RBI over 3 years for a payments bank that would enable basic financial transactions over the mobile phone.

From 'Note the Change: A Comparative Study of Demonetisation Efforts in India and Sweden', University of North Florida