For The Modi Lovers...Any Cred At All in This Here........

The shredded currency is also recycled to make files, calendars and paper weights

and ballpoint pen shells, tea coasters, cups and small trays as souvenirs for guests

27 shredding and briquetting machines in 19 offices across India

Briquettes - usually made of farm waste in India - are used for cooking, lighting

and heating. They are cheaper than coal, have lower ash content

some 20 billion "expired" banknotes after it scrapped two high-value denominations

-To give some idea of the amount of the currency that represents -

there were more than 90 billion banknotes in circulation in India last March 

Central bank officials believe shredding 20 billion notes will not be a huge challenge !

In 2015-16 the Reserve Bank of India destroyed more than 16 billion soiled notes.

More than 14 billion were removed in 2012-2013 :

after nearly 500,000 fake notes were found in the system 

The practice is similar in the US: counterfeit banknotes are sent to the Secret Service

unfit notes are shredded and sent to landfills

or given away as souvenirs to the public touring the Federal Reserve Bank..

Raghuram Rajan was good as a teacher but as governor of Reserve Bank of India he did a lousy job. He was against interest rate cut despite the need of the same to keep the economy in right health. Demonetization is good a job to bring back Indian economy but there is no doubt the government could have planned it little more carefully.