On the evening of 8th November, the people of India were on the receiving end of a big surprise a surprise with positive intentions. But it was a big one, nevertheless. The Government of India enacted a policy that made 1000 and 500 notes no longer valid as legal tender money.
Just after the announcement, all the ATMs, and cash deposit machines were filled with people either depositing or taking out their money. After that came the long queues in front of banks and again in ATMs, due to the severe cash crunch and the fixed cap on the amount that can be withdrawn or deposited.
The government made their intentions clear that this was the best way to curb the black money present in the economy and also root out the corruptions or terrorist activities that were being boosted by this black money. It is believed that 85% of the currency notes in circulation will be replaced and this has led to different views. Here, Ill let the experts in economics do the talking. But, one thing that is for sure, without technology this would have been a very hard thing to accomplish.
New age technologies like e-wallets, smartphones, internet of things (IoT) and big data analytics have come to the rescue; to contain the chaos that could have ensued. Though one can argue that it is only a luxury of the rich, there is a counter argument that the future is bright.
However, there is one significant technology and its presence cannot be seen by the people immediately; but it can be one which changes the whole game towards the positive direction. Its Big Data Analytics. One can be even brave enough to say that it will be one of the major players. Big data has become like gold in this digital age and it offers huge opportunities. If you want to cash on this opportunity, there is still time to learn big data and grow in this field.
Here are some of the ways how big data analytics can play an important role in the successful implementation of demonetization:
- Uncover hidden transactions Big Data Analytics is the process of examining large data sets to uncover hidden patterns. This can be very helpful in examining the patterns of transactions to understand if there are any fraudulent activities. Government financial institutions can take the help of big data analytics to check if there is a sudden flow of transactions that seems irregular and this will help to crack down on black money hoarders.
- A helping hand for the tax administration With the demonetization move, there is a deluge of work for the tax administration. It is difficult to handle such huge amount of data to look for irregularities. It has become the proverbial searching for a needle in a haystack situation at present. This is where big data analytics can play a role in mining the data and analysing it for any discrepancies. With many policies that are already present like TDS (tax deduction at source), TCS (tax collection at source), PAN for high volume transactions and financial agencies (banks, credit card companies, etc.) reporting high-volume transactions to IT department, it has become even easier.
- Check corruption and terrorism One of the reasons for the government to opt for demonetization was to check the unaccounted money that goes into terror activities. Terror activities in India are geographically-specific and with the help of big data analytics, the unusual currency patterns in those areas can be focused on a microscopic level.
Corruption is also another evil deeply associated with black money. With digitalisation and along with the help of big data analytics, it will be possible to curb corruption. The flow of money can be trailed with the help of big data analytics and this will reveal the patterns associated with it. Cash counting machines and other machines that are associated with handling cash can be equipped with sensors or data gathering tools, which will help in getting information regarding the flow of cash.
We can see that big data can play a great role in the successful implementation of demonetization to flush out the black money out of the economy and to put a check on fraudulent transactions.