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A Female Banker’s Memoir About the Unrest of Demonetisation in India

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14.03.2022

The life of a woman banker with a family in a frequently transferrable job isn’t easy. In Arundhati’s life, too, there were breaking points when she almost thought of quitting her career to balance her personal aspirations with her family’s needs. But she didn’t give up. Instead, she faced her challenges with humour and positivity and took up every assignment as a new chapter in learning and adapting.

Indomitable is the story of Arundhati’s life as a banker and the challenges she faced in a male-dominated bastion. She takes the reader through her childhood and early education in the 1960s, getting to Kolkata for her college education and then into the State Bank of India (SBI), where she started her career. Read an excerpt from her personal account of her journey.

On 8 November 2016 at 2.30 p.m., I received a call from the RBI deputy governor’s office requesting I attend a meeting at 6.30 p.m. When I asked what the agenda was or whether I should come prepared to discuss any particular area, I was told to come without any preparation. That didn’t seem to bode well, but by then I had schooled myself not to worry unnecessarily (easier said than done).

On arrival, I found a number of other bank CEOs already assembled and the rest trickled in soon after. None of us knew the agenda, but it was obvious something big was in the offing. Soon all the deputy governors other than R. Gandhi walked in. The conversation started with stressed assets as usual, and went on to other areas such as capital raising, technology, etc. At about 7.50 p.m., a number of other RBI officials walked in and the TV was switched on. At 8 p.m. sharp, the prime minister came on and we heard about demonetization along with the rest of the nation. For a few minutes, there was stunned silence as we tried to digest what we were hearing. In about four hours, all the `1,000 and `500 notes – comprising 86 per cent by value of notes in circulation in an economy where 12 per cent was in cash – would no longer be legal tender! Banks would be closed for one day to receive the new notes in their branches, and would have to start exchanging the old notes for the new notes from the day after. Thirty-six hours! That’s all we had to supply the new notes to our branches, work out the processes for the exchange, change the IT system so that cashiers get a new screen with additional columns for the new `2,000 and `500 notes and for accounting purposes. Imagine the logistics required merely for supplying the new notes, and for collecting and returning the old notes to RBI, the daily data that would be required, the customer education that would need to happen … It was mind-boggling. It appeared that the new currency had already been supplied to the currency chests maintained by banks on behalf of RBI. But those in-charge of these chests had been instructed not to share this information with the banks, as a result of which we didn’t even know how much stock of new notes we had and where it was available.

But there was an even bigger challenge looming. As the new notes were displayed to us by RBI officials, we realized that they were smaller and thinner in dimension, meaning that all ATMs would have to be recalibrated manually to dispense these notes. The recalibration would need the cash trays to be fitted with a small part – and of this part there was limited supply locally, and the rest would probably need to be imported. Till the recalibration was done, ATMs would be useless, increasing the crowds at the branches.

The biggest challenge would be, however, the logistics of getting the new notes out to the branches. Currency notes cannot be stuffed into pockets and taken across to branches or ATMs. The supply of notes required concurrence of the police, and could be moved only if they cleared routes for us and there was sufficient security accompanying us. To get it done in a single day was one of the biggest logistical operation the banking industry had ever undertaken until then, and it was many times more onerous for us in SBI, given that we had over 24,000 branches as well as other banks and post offices linked to us. The cash distribution on the first day ended on a tragic note. One of our vehicles returning from supplying notes to distant branches overturned in the wee hours of 10 November on the road between Kanpur and Lucknow, and all eight members travelling in the vehicle were instantly killed. I console myself that an accident can happen anywhere and not necessarily for a particular reason, but it added to my sombre frame of mind.

As soon as the meeting at RBI ended at 9.15 p.m., all the CEOs rushed out. We had no time to talk to each other – all were busy on their mobiles, calling up their teams to assemble at once. I called my team over to my place as the senior executives lived in a building close to my residence. We started by working out first how we could communicate what we needed done right down to the grassroots. WhatsApp groups were created by all of us covering our next two tiers, such that a message that originated at the leadership level could be cascaded down to the frontline within half an hour.

People in charge of currency supply were asked to work through the night to determine the amounts that would need to be supplied to branches connected to them, based on the size and type of branch. Emphasis was on retail because it was expected that corporates could manage payments through cheques or digital channels.

The processes of obtaining permission from the local police for undertaking the remittance of new notes, recording of currency exchanged, details of the persons presenting the cash, segregated storage, changes required in the IT applications and the cashier’s screens were noted and conveyed. It was decided that Rajnish Kumar, MD of NBG, would start holding video conferences at 6 a.m. to pass on the instructions. We ended the meeting at around 2 a.m. with the list of actions completed. Teams, however, worked through the night to flesh out the action points required to be conveyed to our various regional managements, so that they could not only begin the process of obtaining the new notes but also make all necessary arrangements for the pandemonium that would inevitably ensue when we opened for business the next day.

Indomitable
About the Book - Indomitable

Growing up in the sleepy towns of Bhilai and Bokaro, Arundhati Bhattacharya never imagined that one day she would go on to chair India's largest bank. It was sheer chance that she came to know of the bank probationary officers'…

To read more, order your copy of Indomitable, by Arundhati Bhattacharya today!

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