Money: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t

Ever since the current crisis at the Punjab Maharashtra Co-operative Bank hit the news, social media and WhatsApp have been rife with misinformation regarding finance and banking.

From cash going defunct, to banks shutting down, people are sharing highly panic inducing messages all over the internet. But can such fake news cause offline damage to the state of banking and finance in our country?

Join us, as we sit down with author Vivek Kaul to discuss ways to protect ourselves from such a fate.

Here is an excerpt from the episode:

November 8, 2016 was a historical day. As the whole world looked in awe and surprise at Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential elections, people in India were going through a major shock treatment. 

On that very day Prime Minister Modi made the fateful announcement on demonetisation – a move that would render 86% of the cash in circulation invalid overnight. There was an instant panic, as people started queuing outside banks and ATMs to exchange and withdraw cash that was deemed as valid by the RBI.

This opened up a can of worms – people realised that all the cash money they took for granted can be turned into worthless pieces of paper in an instant. It was a realisation that would be further exploited by the makers of fake news to spread panic on social media at ease. For nothing bothers people than the thought of losing their hard earned money.

Today, even the smallest crisis in the banking and finance sector in India can aggravate due to rash decisions made my people purely based on misinformation.

This is an episode about how fake news can potentially cause a financial crisis – and all the methods to stop that from happening.