It’s been close to 40 days since demonetization was announced by the government. The number of ATMs that disburse cash has reduced to 13% of all the available ones, which implies that the probability of finding cash has further reduced. People still have to wait in queues for hours if not days together. So many have died that it hurts. When 68% of the economy transacts in cash, demonetization cannot be easy for most citizens.

Yet we all have found hope… in a possible digital economy, in an increased no of bank accounts, more compliance, more accountability and more. I hope that the political parties lead the charge by showing that to the country. I hope that all government offices will accept non-cash payments- for instance, my recent visit to the passport office required Rs 40 in cash for SMS sending for instance.

I know that in the past 40 days, I could get by with almost no cash because I never use any except for tips. The interesting thing is that the car drivers and others where I would use cash for a small tip don’t want me to waste my precious change to give them even though that may be important for them. It tells me that we all share the pain together.

The RBI with its ever changing rules has shown us that “Change is the only Constant”in our lives and yet in spite of all the misery- we found an incredible quality in the citizens. “Resilience”

Now moving to genomics and Genomepatri.

Well think about it, RBI could also be “Resilience by India”. Imagine if we did a study on a large population to see if our DNA showed resilience- I think it will… Mine did anyway.

We will keep our ATM open- “Any Time Mapmygenome” on our website at Mapmygenome where you can do an online transaction on our website with multiple options we have, or call us, email us to help you with the process- send us your saliva and we will have a report ready for you.

We can also look for other interesting traits like “Avoidance of errors” Essentially if you want to find out if you learn by your previous mistakes? – I am thinking in the current context, what we could learn by profiling our leaders DNA.

And while there are many more interesting things you can learn, I will stick to 3 for this post. The third one that makes sense in this context is Major Depressive Disorder. With everything that is going on around us, the environment may be a trigger for those for whom cash may be important for a livelihood. It may be worthwhile to see if one’s genes help offset these changes in the environment.

I hope that these issues around demonetization get fixed soon and regardless of the issues we have faced, we can convert this major adversity as an opportunity for the country.

Jai Hind

and

Jai Genome