Cash is colorless.

"The US banknote, the most ubiquitous currency in the world used in everything from drug deals to legally accepted tender in multiple countries, falls short of the rupee when it comes to circulation numbers." There are 176 billion banknotes in India compared to 56 billion US dollar bills and 30 billion euro banknotes. "Cash has continued to grow despite the expansion of digital payments." TOI. "India's currency in circulation (CiC) climbed to record-high levels in late 2025 and early 2026. So far in 2025-26, CiC has increased by Rs 2.76 trillion, 3.1 times the rise seen in the same period last year. " At the same time the value of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions increased to a record Rs 28 trillion, wrote Soumya Kanti Ghosh & and Tapas Parida. The reasons could be because the tax department tracked UPI transactions and sent GST notices to street-side vendors and small stores, low interest rates on bank deposits and households recycling precious metals because of the high prices. "The apparent paradox of of the usage of of both rising is a warning that we are settling into a hybrid equilibrium: digital for convenience, cash for avoidance and for those excluded from UPI." One reason for the rise in cash is "the fear of UPI as a trap for small traders." Then, there has been an "explosive growth of unconditional cash transfers , estimated at 2% of GDP across 15 states." That increased cash use in rural and informal India. Thirdly, there is "the rising use of money power in elections," wrote Ajit Ranade. And, since politicians need cash to win, the use of cash will continue to balloon. India has introduced strict rules to restrict cash
transactions. This is expected to curb black money, which is income hidden from authorities to avoid tax, improve tax compliance, reduce counterfeit currency and improve financial inclusion. Bajaj Finserve. On 8 November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of all Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes from circulation with four hours notice. Known as demonetisation. He said it would "curtail the shadow economy, increase cashless transactions and reduce the use of illicit and counterfeit cash." A total of Rs 15.44 trillion became worthless. The hope was that black money would be destroyed. In reality, Rs 15.28 trillion, or 99% of the banned notes were deposited in banks. A total of only 573,891 counterfeit notes were detected out of 24.02 billion notes withdrawn, which was close to 0%. BBC. However , it caused enormous hardship as people had to queue up for hours to exchange old notes for new, and daily wage laborers, who earn in cash, became unemployed. In the US in 2024, "approximately 20 million households rely on cash as their primary payment method, particularly among those who are unbanked or underbanked and individuals earning under $25,000 annually." "Pro-cash legislation has been gaining momentum across the US, with several states and cities implementing or considering laws to protect the use of cash as a form of payment." cusomag.com. But black money is not all black. "Back in the last years of the noughties India's economy was looking just as frothy as the rest of the world.. It had been growing at an astounding 9% a year for three years to 2008.." "The difference in India is that all this 'irrational exuberance' did not end in disaster." Prof Kaushik Basu says that "pervasive use of 'black money' - illegal cash hidden from tax authorities - created a bulwark against a crisis in the banking sector." BBC. Finally, one can lose only that much cash as they are carrying, but with rising rates of cyber crime and increasing sophistication of cyber criminals (pib.gov.in) one can lose all the money in one's account. Governments earn from seigniorage, which is the face value of currency notes compared to the cost of producing it. Investopedia. This year the RBI transferred Rs 2.87 trillion as dividend to the government. Reuters. Do they want to cut that down? Black or white, cash helps the economy. It has no color.