By a 99.3% verdict, India's cash ban was a farce

Finally, on Wednesday, the RBI governor stopped counting - and began his own reckoning

In the chaotic final months of 2016, angry citizens were slamming the Reserve Bank of India by calling it the “Reverse Bank.” It’s taken Governor Urjit Patel, who had only recently stepped into the top job, almost two years to reassert his authority and reestablish the institution’s credibility with a couple of notable successes just this week.

Ridicule flew thick and fast after Narendra Modi’s November 2016 demonetization, for which Patel was a reluctant point man. The decision to outlaw 86 percent of the country’s cash was political, but the responsibility for taking back the suddenly worthless notes and issuing