This may have been a good idea, but it is terribly implemented. Especially, notes of denomination 500 should not have been banned with immediate effect.<p>In general many poor people, even in cities, do not have bank accounts and face lot of issues when opening such accounts. Sometimes bank require a "reference" from an existing customer to open an account. Sometimes many such poor families (say 20 families - think of it as a big landed area with 20 small houses) live together at a single address, paying rent for a single room, and the banks will refuse to open so many accounts under a single address. Their are several such smaller issues that crop up when trying to open an account that are not well known and that only the people in a particular city or locality face.<p>These people cannot deposit their savings since they don't have a bank account to begin with. And they definitely have savings in Rs 500 denomination since 500 is nowadays often used in the markets. Essentially, this ban has hit hard the common people. The very rich are hiring others to do the transactions and exchange of money. The lower middle class and poorer sections are left wanting for cash. Hence, good idea, but bad implementation.