RBI has over 23 billion worthless banknotes! If stacked up, it will be 300 times the height of Mt Everest

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation scheme, people have been lining outside the banks to deposit their old denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and now India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is facing a new problem-what should be done to more than 23 billion worthless bank notes?

The old banknotes, if stacked up one on top of the other, would be 300 times the height of Mount Everest and if laid down to form a pathway, it'd be long enough to reach the moon and back five times.

Modi’s step of demonetizing has been admired for its boldness but criticized for its poor execution. The RBI spends more than $400 million on currency production each year, about 1.5 percent of the global bank note industry.

Most of the junked notes will be destroyed and dumped in landfills following the usual process used with soiled notes. Many will also be turned into briquettes for industrial use, while some could be converted into paperweights and other such knickknacks, a senior central bank official told Bloomberg.

In India, 98% of the transactions occur in cash, and the high frequency of handling forces the monetary authority to withdraw about 75 percent of its notes in circulation in a typical year -- more than the number of bank notes collectively produced by all countries taken together with the exception of China.
(image: IndiaTimes)