Down to the last decimal

Twitter was abuzz with comments on the deletion of the December 7 transcript of R Gandhi , Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) deputy governor, giving details about how many new notes were printed till December 5. Neither the transcript nor the URL for it is available any more. In the policy conference, he had said that almost Rs 12 lakh crore of demonetised money had been returned to banks, later revising it down to Rs 11.85 lakh crore. A few minutes into the conference, Gandhi interjected RBI Governor Urjit Patel to say the total figure was actually Rs 11.55 lakh crore. Gandhi also said that about Rs 4 lakh crore of new notes in all denomination were printed and supplied for the public. In the transcript, the precise figure was Rs 3.81 lakh crore. Surely, Gandhi’s later announcements on currency supplied were more precise about the decimals, saving a lot of pain for serious followers of the entire demonetisation exercise.