Photo by Joseph Radhik
Modi(fied) Weddings to Follow In the Wake of the PM's Masterstroke?
by Shantanu Jain Industry Watch | November 9, 2016 | News
Motwane Entertainment and Weddings Samit Garg E-Factor Entertainment Wedniksha Rajeev Jain
In what can be termed as an absolute masterstroke at stamping out corruption and draining illicit cash from the Indian economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday announced the demonetization of all INR 1000 and 500 bank notes from midnight Tuesday.
The decision was announced during a late-evening television address to the nation during which Modi said, “In the past decades, the flow of corruption and black money has grown in our economy and it has weakened our effort to remove poverty. On the one hand, we are now No. 1 in the rate of economic growth. But on the other hand, we were ranked close to one hundred in the global corruption perceptions ranking two years back.”
He further added, “To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the five hundred rupee and thousand-rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight (8th November 2016). This means that these notes will not be acceptable for transactions from midnight onwards. The five hundred and thousand rupee notes hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements will become just worthless pieces of paper.”
The announcement comes as a huge shock to many quarters of business in the country. However, it is believed that the most affected sectors will be mainly the construction industry, bureaucrats, small & medium level enterprises that run on liquid cash and day to day payments, and the Indian wedding industry, where the acceptance and flow of black money is estimated to be at an all-time high.
To dig deeper into how the decision to abolish high-value currency notes will affect the Indian wedding industry, EVENTFAQS Media reached out to industry stalwarts in an exclusive conversation. Below are the excerpts of the conversation:
Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment said, “We don't welcome this rule. Only God knows what will happen to the Indian wedding industry. People I know have weddings lined up tomorrow with no idea of what to do now. At the end of the day, we all know that black money exists. But as our leader, he (PM) should have done this in a more organized way and given people some time and leverage.”
Aditya Motwane, Director, Motwane Entertainment & Weddings welcomed this move by the Prime Minister and commented, “This rule is fantastic for India as a country. No doubt the wedding industry will be quite shaken just as politicians and the builder community will be. Weddings that are to take place immediately might be affected. However, this rule will not affect destination weddings in scenarios where the client is not a resident of India. Most of our destination wedding clients live abroad and have a business that is globally set up.”
Samit Garg, Director, E-Factor responded by saying, “No, this will not affect the Indian wedding industry at all. People face problems every day; different types of problems. And therefore, they find solutions. Events, especially weddings, and private events are too important. They won't stop at nothing.”
Bhavnesh Sawhney, Director, Wedniksha quoted, “There couldn't be a better and bolder move than the banning of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. The wedding industry is great in terms of revenue generation. Such a move is only welcomed by us, the kind of regularization that this will impose, is sure to benefit the country in more ways than one. While we do believe, there may be an inconvenience for perhaps a month owing to the circulation of the new currency. This initiative will help make the industry run a lot more smoothly in the long run.”
It is to be noted that the new rule in place is an attempt by PM Modi to fulfill his election promise of curbing tax evasion and recovering illegally stashed income overseas. It gives his Bharatiya Janata Party a talking point ahead of elections in five states next year. Additionally, economists are not surprised at this move on the part of the government as they believe that the PM had been dropping hints at taking stringent actions all along.
The process began from a massive push to universalise access to bank accounts to the use of Aadhaar in transactions and the push to a cashless economy. This was followed up with two offers for those with black money to come clean—the latest scheme closing on September 30.
To dig deeper into how the decision to abolish high-value currency notes will affect the Indian wedding industry, EVENTFAQS reached out to industry stalwarts.