oliver2002

I got my PAN from the 90s updated with my current status/details and was surprised how easy it was. Granted, you had to send in a number of papers again and again to NDSL in Pune, but not one stamp of some govt official required. The card finally showed up per registered post in Munich.
I just finished converting all our 4 PIO to OCIs this year and the only contact to babudom was when picking it up from the consulate. That said with only 1lakh NRIs in Germany, the consulates here still entertain you in the consulate, with the 38 lakh in the US that is probably not possible.

Re Modi: I'm amazed that a party representing the traders and businessmen did something like demonetization and pulled thru the GST project. I wonder what the voters will say in a few years.

Savage25

I flew in last Saturday and my sister flew in a day later. We both changed and withdrew money at BOM T2 on arrival there, so didn't really look for an ATM/money changer at GOI. We used the prepaid taxi at GOI and both the drivers had enough 100s to give back as change for a 2000.

GUWonder

The printing presses have been on overdrive. The cash shortage isn't all that it was. In other words, the situation is "improving". I don't see it as accomplishing all that the government claimed it would accomplish, but at least the hassles from the situation are declining somewhat.

In the meantime, guess who's a bit too late to the party:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevefor.../#5b006d811148

desi

To avoid thread-drift, will open up separate thread for this. Can use guidance here. Have been struggling with this for over a month now. "Applying from abroad" has theoretically great process when web software is actually working but it fails when it insists on India issued credit cards.

desi

That seem to be in line with data points coming from various parts of Mumbai (except on the day after 3-day long weekend and the day after recent misguided babu-raj decision). It is back to normal in non-SBI nationalized banks (usual 5-10 people inside branch but no lines outside. ATMs have no lines)

Here in US, we saw about 8 years of FOX news type people trying to blame Obama for every possible thing including colder than usual winter. Not surprising that people on the current terribly implemented issue also see glass half full or half empty depending on their political leanings towards or against unusually honest but autocratic political leader.

washingtonian_2017

hi,

I will be landing in BLR on sunday around 9 AM. i will have to get indian currency either from an ATM inside the airport or an Exchange center. can anyone tell me if it is still crazy with the ATMs being out-of-order and long lines at the exchange center?

thanks

Zulazai

Iam arriving on 18 January at Hyderabad. Should I bring Canadian cash? Or should I western union money to myself? I will bring my credit card but it can't be used at all places. Can I withdraw from airport atm? What about foreign exchange around 5am inside airport?

Please give me some tips on getting by.

desi

@Zulazai/@gantid,

If you scan this thread you will notice that Delhi still has some problems.
Mumbai and Goa have been reported almost back to normal.
Forum on lonely planet has a sticky where data is being reported crowdsourcing style with much more datapoints than here.

Might want tto carry low denomination (1 & 5) USD notes. Rate may not be great but can work in emergencies (USD is much more likely to be accepted than CAD). (Even friends/collegues/neighbours might be willing to exchange USD for INR at a bit unattractive rate)

Barring some yet another idiotic move by career bureaucrates, situation is improving.

GUWonder

HYD city ATMs were mostly just fine for some foreign card use, but you'll possibly get milked for bank withdrawal fees as a percentage of the (relatively low in USD terms) withdrawal amount.


The idiotic moves have been sourced from non-bureaucrats; and any such future moves related to this are expected to come from the same non-bureaucrats and/or as a response to non-bureaucrats. And yet the situation is, amusingly enough, improving because: the career bureaucrats have been trying to fix things for the elected one man who decided to do this demonetization thing like it has gone over; and Indians are being Indians in gaming the game faster than the bureaucracies can do what they can to serve their master and the master's objectives for demonetization.

Encouraging the use of even small denomination foreign cash for private domestic settlement/conversion in India runs counter to some of the claimed objectives for the demonetization.

If foreign cash is what you want to bring and use in India via non-formal forex channels, then it's USD, EUR and GBP that seem to be most appreciated. And smaller denominations are more likely to work out better than bigger denominations unless you want to end up with overpaying more and having a bunch more high denomination Indian notes that could be subject to govevernmental whim yet again.

desi

You are right. Use of small denomination forex while practical as emergency backstop, may not be totally legal.

Thanks for datapoint on HYD that is udeful info.

Your political leanings are obvious and no point arguing about it. For some of us, its been consistent pattern of unnecessary harrassment by low to mid level bureacrats over the years irrespective of political parties or leaders at helms. It is not just individuals, but both small businesses and big corporations have observed exactly the same things over the years. - bureaucracy, not political ideology that is the biggest hurdle.

Anyway, for the purpose of this thread:
DEL - still hardship reported
BOM - relatively smooth sailing
GOA - no issues at airport exchanging money
HYD - ATM works
AMD - no issues getting 2000 notes from bank but small purchase using it is difficult

GUWonder

Bureaucracy didn't decide to give us an INR demonetization. While India's bureaucratic ways are a monster too, this demonetization was not an invention of the Indian babus -- rather it's all the invention of a neta. The attempt to obfuscate from the true responsibility for the demonetization is what makes the political leaning obvious; but it's not mine that is obvious. Not that it matters in terms of what I experience in India.

desi

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...n-cash?page=27


The above is Thorn Tree thread at Lonely Planet that has lot more datapoints than our thread here. Look at the last few pages for more recent situation. Many different people seem to be contributing there and without being affected by personal political views.

Separately some in India suggest that the last week to deposit cash (especially from expats arriving over xmas holidays) may produce lines at banks but ATM seem to be doing ok in various cities.

Trying to get change for 2000 Rs note after making 100-300 RS purchase yields same reaction as at corner deli in NYC when presenting 100 USD bill after making 5-15 USD purchase.

GUWonder

Corner delis in NYC haven't recently had a cash access/shortage problem hitting tourists and locals alike. [And when I use cash in the city at the corner delis, it's almost mostly the $100 USD notes for sub-$20 purchases.] If they do, people can count on the nearest ATMs having small denomination bills and probably no long lines when they need smaller notes. That kind of thing still doesn't hold as consistently true in Delhi or in Bombay. So foregoing purchases in India due to cash scarcity is a more frequent issue than in the US at this point, even as it's not as bad this week in India as it was a month ago.

Also, the financial hit for foreign visitors to make small denomination cash withdrawals from ATMs may be relatively much higher in India than outside India. It's such for many that they may be better off converting say $10 into rupees at a staffed bank/forex counter than to use an ATM to withdraw the equivalent in rupees -- that is if assuming any difference in time to get the desired denomination rupees is valued at close to zero (a risky assumption).

Small denomination note shortages causing consumers to forego purchases was more or less very unusual in major Indian cities until this fall with the demonetization. Indian retailers/vendors with smaller denomination note shortages used to be able to more reliably count on nearby vendors to give them small denomination notes (on informal credit) to help facilitate the clearing of market transactions; however, with demonetization, retailer/vendor cooperation with one another in this way has dropped and consumers have been the worse off for it too as have the neighborhood market sellers. Hopefully that good faith credit which marketplace neighbors had for each other hasn't been given a death knell by this governmental move; if it has, consumers and others in India will be the worse off for it for years to come when tryin to use large denomination notes.

washingtonian_2017

just landed in BLR and here is an update:

The exchange facility @ BLR airport would only exchange US$75 into INR. That is a hard limit.

The ATMs only give out a maximum of INR 2,000.00 Most of the ATMs are either out of cash or out of order in the areas that I had been to (Yeshwantpur/Majestic/JP Nagar).

cphan17

Scheduled to land in Delhi on 1/2. Anyone have any updates as to the lines / availability of rupees to change from USD at the airport forex counters and at the atms? How's the availability of rupees for foreign currency exchanges at the foreign currency exchange bureaus in the City, particularly near Connaught Place? Thanks in advance.