Currency Demonetisation and Future course of Indian Economy

Rishi Verma · Post by **Rishi Verma** » 30 Nov 2016 22:13

shiv wrote:I spoke to several auto drivers today. More than 50% own ordinary phones - not smartphones. they don't know that dialling *99# will get them a menu that enables bank transactions via SMS. Try it

UP gov is giving away free smart phones as election gimmick, better send all those cabbies up here and get equipped.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 30 Nov 2016 22:16

Bart S wrote: The stupid thing is that plenty of government services are still not cashless. Like NHAI (most toll booths), public transportation, many post offices, many utility payment counters (not talking about online but physical payment counters) etc.

This is low hanging fruit for the Modi govt that they should tackle ASAP. Otherwise vested interests will complain that Modiji talks about cashless but see what his government organizations are doing. But this is a real problem and an inconvenience as well. All it needs is an executive decree from the govt.

Problem is - people like me (and probably you too) are already using the cashless route for utility bills, mobile bills, property tax etc - so we are looking for the little extras.

I find that most mobile banking apps or UPIs are aiming at utility payments and checking bank balance etc which i don't care for because I am "way past all that" I guess we need patience. e-payment is going to reduce queues at utility offices where people queue twice a month for electricity and water.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 30 Nov 2016 22:22

VikasRaina wrote:Problem is after all this nice preaching about effort towards Cashless society blah blah, People have started getting bothered about lack of low denomination notes, long Queues and ATM's running dry.
You should see teh disappointment when ATM as well the bank thtows out the 2000 rupee note.
The initial claim of Govt was that poor hardly use or handle 1000 rupee note then How on earth they will use Rupee 2000 note.

This whole goodwill about BM drive will vanish pretty fast if Govt starts converting this excercise into something else which is forcing people to go cashless. Cheering crowds don't take much of time to turn into slogan shouting opponents atleast in India.
JMT

i am one of those "bothered" by lack of low denomination notes, long queues (congrats btw on getting that spelling right, i copied from your post

) and other stuff. but i fully support demon. and think it was long overdue. so far everyone i have spoken to agrees. as long as the low denom notes start flowing in, all will be well. even otherwise, people support it.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 30 Nov 2016 22:28

People want fixes to situations but are not willing to put up with inconveniences. Nothing in life is free. Modi is conducting emergency surgery, so there will be some recovery and pain for long term health.

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 30 Nov 2016 22:30

KJo wrote:People want fixes to situations but are not willing to put up with inconveniences.

True dat. MH municipal elections at least (though in a small measure) lends some credence to mango beebul supporting such moves in spite of the inconvenience.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 30 Nov 2016 22:36

Rishi Verma wrote:
shiv wrote:I spoke to several auto drivers today. More than 50% own ordinary phones - not smartphones. they don't know that dialling *99# will get them a menu that enables bank transactions via SMS. Try it
UP gov is giving away free smart phones as election gimmick, better send all those cabbies up here and get equipped.

Data cost scares the crap out of older & less well off people. Data costs in India are insane and apart from outright crooks - Congress set the bar really high for 2G so companies are still making up for that by buggering the public - forget 3G or 4G

I have pretty much the fastest broadband available for home users in India (ACT) - but it was down for a week after a storm and to cope i bough a 3G dongle (about a year ago) from MTS. You pay Rs 300 for 1.5 GB which is ridiculous. ACT gives 15 GB extra for Rs 300 and today BSNL had an offer of 1 rupee per GB (provided you use 300 GB a month!) . But people are right now drinking the sweet nectar of free 4G data on Reliance Jio

shyamal · Post by **shyamal** » 30 Nov 2016 22:48

Shiv sir,
If you are using data only for intermittent usage like e-payments etc and no downloads and limited surfing - then in Rs 50 you can get 125 MB data for 30 days.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 30 Nov 2016 22:55

shyamal wrote:Shiv sir,
If you are using data only for intermittent usage like e-payments etc and no downloads and limited surfing - then in Rs 50 you can get 125 MB data for 30 days.

True - but it requires plenty of "knaalij" to reach the stage when you know what your phone is doing. Lots of clueless people open some app and it keeps on sucking data and they get scared because they have no idea.

Amazingly an ENT surgeon friend of mine had his phone taken over by one of those infections that ask you to pay to open your browser. He thought this was normal and kept paying because Rs 200 every few days was not a problem for him and he prided himself on his low data usage. There's a sucker born every minute....

Rishi Verma · Post by **Rishi Verma** » 30 Nov 2016 23:03

shiv wrote:Data costs in India are insane and apart from outright crooks - Congress set the bar really high for 2G so companies are still making up for that by buggering the public - forget 3G or 4G

Solution is simple. Gov can make legislation to allow free data for e-cash transactions. It's fairly low bandwidth anyway. Even slow speed is acceptable.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 30 Nov 2016 23:34

Rishi Verma wrote:Solution is simple. Gov can make legislation to allow free data for e-cash transactions. It's fairly low bandwidth anyway. Even slow speed is acceptable.

Even giving free SIM-based wireless PoS to every seller/vendor and free access of internet (between PoS and payment channel) is worth every paisa in the long run.

Rishi Verma · Post by **Rishi Verma** » 30 Nov 2016 23:37

Blackmail on GST by Mamta over DeMo

Coffee Spill Alert: ~~Bi*tch~~ Anti-national Burkha has written the report and her ~~ugly~~ face ~~is prominently visible.~~ May send the viewer in a fit of uncontrollable rage

Edited as per kind suggestion below

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 30 Nov 2016 23:39

Sir please don't use terms. It's not conducive for a public forum if we access the site. TIA for understanding.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 30 Nov 2016 23:41

In GST council, Central Govt Govt has 50% voting rights and it can easily muster 50% state votes (a total of 75%, 50%+25%). But they will use voting only as last resort. They will try to get consensus as much as possible (since these are budding days of GST).

atamjeetsingh · Post by **atamjeetsingh** » 30 Nov 2016 23:47

Demonitization may not be able to curb the black money may not be able to stop corruption. But one of the most important thing it will do is it will surely increase the revenue of Govt.
All those payment made thru pos or digitally will surely bring lot of businesses under sales tax umbrella.

saip · Post by **saip** » 01 Dec 2016 01:07

It makes you wonder how much black money Didi lost because of this master stroke by Modi. She is behaving like a mad dog.

saip · Post by **saip** » 01 Dec 2016 01:09

Rishi Verma wrote:
shiv wrote:I spoke to several auto drivers today. More than 50% own ordinary phones - not smartphones. they don't know that dialling *99# will get them a menu that enables bank transactions via SMS. Try it
UP gov is giving away free smart phones as election gimmick, better send all those cabbies up here and get equipped.

Who pays for these smart phones? Without the black money how can they finance them or Govt going to pay with tax rupees? Is it not against EC directives?

shyamal · Post by **shyamal** » 01 Dec 2016 01:10

The latest Huff-post C-voter survey. Sample size is very small but still...
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/30 ... onetisati/

TKiran · Post by **TKiran** » 01 Dec 2016 01:24

Yesterday, I went for a break with my client, after we had snakes, the client wanted chai, we had two SP chai. The chaiwala sells chai and cigarettes. I saw the board, payTM accepted and the number. The client was very much happy, he was praising Modi like anything, he said, all these BM hoarders are dead, it's going to be a new dawn for cashless India on 31st December 2016. I was nodding in agreement with the client, I told him, I will just have a smoke and I will join you.

Me: bhaiyya ek Gold flake Kings Dena, aur ek happy dent Dena.... Do SP chai, ek Gold flake Kings aur ek happy dent, kitna huwaa?

Chaiwala : chaalis huwaa sir, aap cashless payTM payment bhi kar sakte ho.

Me: arrey bhaiyya mere paas tho sau ka hi note hai. Iska chuttaa dedo baas. Hamaara to cash transactions bahut chalta rehta hai, kamaskam saal ka 2.5 lakhs cash transactions hi chalte hai.

Chaiwala: hamara to mahine me hi itna cashless me hi ho jaata hai.

Me: phir to aapka amadani hai 2.5x12= tees lakh rupaye hue, aap ka to phir kharchaa kitna hoga, rent, pagaar, cigarette wale ka kharchaa, doodh, gais, paani, bijili sub millake kitna paisa honga?

Chaiwala: Saab, saab milaake humko mahine me ek laakh bachta hai, phir Maine apne saale ko bhi rakha hai, do bachche hai, unka padhayee, bhaada, paalnaa posnaa, kuch nahin bachta Saab.

Me: agar aapka soob kharchaa hai attrah lakh tho, aap ko bachaa barah lakh tho aap ko taix bharnaa padega ... 2.5 chodke, pachees hazaar plus pachaas hazar plus tees hazar, yaane ke ek laakh pandraa hazaar taix bharnaa padega.

Chaiwala: kaikoo taix saab, hamara to mahine me kuch bhi nahin bachta, taix kyaa bharenge?

Me: bhaiyya tumko to taix bharnaa hi padenga naahee tho Modi tereko chodenga naheen, ab to too payTM bhi use karraa hai, tu agar taix nahi bharaanaa, tere ko jeyil me bhejenge. Tera amadani yahan ke nabbe pratishath software engineeraa se bhi jiyaada hai, main bolta hoon tu taix bharle.

Today morning, I stopped by the shop, and said, bhaiyya, gold flake Kings dedo, I took the cigarette and lit it, said, bhaiyya aaj to mere paas cash bilkul nahin hain, payTM se pay karletha hoon.

Chaiwala said, saab koi bhi payTM isthemaal nahi karraa tho main nikaal diyaa. Koi baat naahin aap kal dedo.

Me: arey mujhe ek aur cigarette chahiye, aajkal tenction jiyada chalraa..

Chaiwala: koi baat nahin lelo saab.

Evening when I was leaving, chaiwala put his hand saluting to me and said, "raam raam saab".

I was in a hurry to go to the airport, and now I am still wondering, how did the chaiwala came to know that I am not going to pay him Rs26/- due??

Bart S · Post by **Bart S** » 01 Dec 2016 01:29

shiv wrote:
Rishi Verma wrote:
UP gov is giving away free smart phones as election gimmick, better send all those cabbies up here and get equipped.
Data cost scares the crap out of older & less well off people. Data costs in India are insane and apart from outright crooks - Congress set the bar really high for 2G so companies are still making up for that by buggering the public - forget 3G or 4G

This is absolutely correct and a very important point. Govt needs to designate payment related data (which is really quite small in volume relative to other traffic, for e.g video streaming for an hour would probably exceed one's entire payment related traffic for an entire year) as non-chargeable and the carriers can use other types of traffic to subsidize the revenue lost.

Also, in the longer term data is going to be the default mode of transport. This is already the case with new gen 4G networks like Reliance Jio for example. To elaborate, older cellular networks had a voice component (time division multiplexing) and a data component (packet switching) that was added on to the earlier voice networks. With Reliance Jio, there is no voice network, everything is just data (packet switched network), and voice is just another app using data. With any newer 4G deployments and the future 5G networks, data will be the default network. So this problem will go away with time, given that financial transactions don't take up much data and will become more trivial as a proportion of overall traffic over time.

disha · Post by **disha** » 01 Dec 2016 01:59

TKiran wrote: I was in a hurry to go to the airport, and now I am still wondering, how did the chaiwala came to know that I am not going to pay him Rs26/- due??

Because you are TKiran and you TKiran'ed a chaiwalla., since you cannot TKiran the real chai wallah.

Manish_Sharma · Post by **Manish_Sharma** » 01 Dec 2016 02:16

manjgu wrote:Jaitely is a hardboiled vakil ... no one can better of him except maybe Subramaniam Swamy !! hahahahaha

I used to be a fan of SSwamy until 16th May 2014, it was 4 days after the victory of NaMo announced, that one news flash came very quickly on Aaj Tak that "SSwamy has today raised the issue of Prianka Vadra having several DIN numbers..." thats all, then second news came that "Prianka Vadra has submitted the penalty of Rs. %%%% ..."
and that was all !

I was left thinking why SSwamy raised this issue, right before NaMo's taking charge? Did he not want this matter to be handled by NaMo govt. instead of mms govt?

It made me suspicious of him eversince.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 01 Dec 2016 02:46

TKiran - seriously dude. good going on convincing some random dude not to pay tax. way to go. great nation building right there. right on the day when some folks who are merely supported by that tax and who protect you (and me) lost their lives while you were convincing some random chai wallah to not pay. if you wanted to post an apocryphal story, err...not too great either.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 01 Dec 2016 03:32

Where exactly does one smoke all those Gold Flakes? I thought smoking in public is banned in India, and surely the airport does not allow smoking except inside the jet engines? Just curious. Reminds me of when Supreme HQ and I were driving across the desert from PHX to San Diego. Stopped for lunch at a Denny's, very short of time to make it in time for paper at conf. in SD. Took the invoice to The Boss who had decided to operate the cash register. Bugger couldn't do anything right - 10 mins, 12 mins later I was still standing there, credit card and invoice in hand while the bozo wasted time. I lost patience and gave the waitress the exact amount - in cash - and left to race to SD.
Felt so bad that a week later, home in Ulan Bator, I had to dig up the address of the restaurant on the web and mail her the 20% tip. Plus paying for the postage.
Stiffing poor workers is not the way to get a clear conscience.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 01 Dec 2016 03:39

sucheta dalal says it was RBI and MOF snafus which have caused hangups.

http://www.moneylife.in/article/demonet ... 48988.html

in short, lack of anticipation of need for 500s

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 01 Dec 2016 03:40

Ulan, he does not want to pay an iota of tax. this tea stuff is a red herring.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Dec 2016 04:23

Karan M wrote:Ulan, he does not want to pay an iota of tax. this tea stuff is a red herring.

His posts have been one shameless defence of tax avoidance after another. And now he is convincing other people how paying taxes is bad.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 01 Dec 2016 05:14

Oh come on, let's not moralize each other (except 2

at HiC Fans on the USAdhaga)

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 01 Dec 2016 05:56

UB: The tip in mail act is commendable. Hats off for that level of sensitivity.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 01 Dec 2016 06:10

It is not lecture shaming and thrusting morality on someone that will compel the person to put their self interest over and above the nations'.

The tools for these compliances are vastly different. Most are vested in building eco-systems of trust, some are built on participation/feedback and ROI arguments - 90% of this has to be done through carrot. At the back end yes, strong compliance systems then have to come in play to ensure everyone pays their fair share.

If moral shaming could have done it, we would never be in this situation. It is a wasteful blue on blue attack. This game is mostly of carrots and some sticks along with smart eco-systems. What I see so far is the game of stick being advanced, even eco-systems being advanced but carrots are missing and no do not think the IDS stuff is attractive enough. The government has to stop looking at this issue only from the perspective of their tax loss and build systems that build trust and assure ROI to the population.

BM from the pure tax evasion category of folks needs a better channel of investment. The country needs higher private investment. The country needs jobs. A creative policy would tap into this investment pool and create the desired carrots to channel this for the country.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Dec 2016 06:28

Making vague prescriptions of carrots to encourage compliance is fine, but what specifically do you think the government should do which would be a good enough carrot in your opinion?

Is GST not a good enough carrot?

vina · Post by **vina** » 01 Dec 2016 06:56

shiv wrote: Data cost scares the crap out of older & less well off people. Data costs in India are insane and apart from outright crooks - Congress set the bar really high for 2G so companies are still making up for that by buggering the public - forget 3G or 4G

Rel Jio rides to the rescue! It is an all data 4G network, and best part is it is absolutely FREE as of now. I have it on the 2nd sim slot on my phone and have been using it for the past few months! But that WILL disrput the data market and I expect the Modi govt to hack at the barriers the incumbents have thrown up to their entry, nepotism allegations etc notwhitstanding. The data plans are daylight robbery. It needs competiton.

I have pretty much the fastest broadband available for home users in India (ACT) - but it was down for a week after a storm and to cope i bough a 3G dongle (about a year ago) from MTS. You pay Rs 300 for 1.5 GB which is ridiculous. ACT gives 15 GB extra for Rs 300 and today BSNL had an offer of 1 rupee per GB (provided you use 300 GB a month!) . But people are right now drinking the sweet nectar of free 4G data on Reliance Jio

Forget about that ACT Kakookse. If you have BSNL landline, check of BNSNL offers you FTTH service in your area (I guess they would). They will run the fibre directly to your home and it is indeed the most dependable and fast network in India. ACT is ridiculous. THey dont have right of way, string wires over trees (one falls, the network goes down), no power back up , so power goes down in one area, connectivity hit etc.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 01 Dec 2016 07:07

nachiket wrote:
Karan M wrote:Ulan, he does not want to pay an iota of tax. this tea stuff is a red herring.
His posts have been one shameless defence of tax avoidance after another. And now he is convincing other people how paying taxes is bad.

If the story is true it sounds more like chaiwala made an ulloo out of TKiran and also gave him a parting gift of Rs 26 in cigarette/s It reminds me of patient who look wealthy but plead an inability to pay a consultation fee in full "I have only Rs 200". I usually waive the fee and offer them money to get them home. But not all shamed - some are without shame - it just makes me remember them so if they appear again I ask them if they are ready to pay.

For a chaiwala to make that much via e-payments - those payments automatically get reported via the bank to the IT people - so the chaiwala is surely paying tax, but may be setting aside a little bit of cash earnings in black. The taxman ignores that as long as you are a taxpayer.

That aside - for a man who sells items that cost say Rs 5 to Rs 100 per item (chai/fags) to make 2.5 lakh turnover a month - he needs a daily turnover of Rs 8000 - which means a minimum of 80 customers a day paying 100 or 1600 customers paying Rs 5. Say an average of 300 customers a day. Guess how many TKirans this guy will be coming across in a day. How many corporation officials and minor govt officials will be interacting with this man. A man who makes that much is a good businessman - his morality is difficult to judge from an anecdote

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 01 Dec 2016 07:12

vina wrote: Forget about that ACT Kakookse. If you have BSNL landline, check of BNSNL offers you FTTH service in your area (I guess they would). They will run the fibre directly to your home and it is indeed the most dependable and fast network in India. ACT is ridiculous. THey dont have right of way, string wires over trees (one falls, the network goes down), no power back up , so power goes down in one area, connectivity hit etc.

No I changed from BSNL to ACT and have never looked back. I think both you and I have probably had internet in India for the last 18-20 years and have both acquired some experience of who offers good service at attractive rates AND great service in our respective areas. I am happy with what I have.

Incidentally - I just had my BSNL landline disconnected - the line/number was 40 years old. But I do use BSNL mobile.

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 01 Dec 2016 07:28

TKiran: well told story even if you are making it up or convincing someone to do wrong

UB: I hope they include tips in costs always. Why put it on the customer and put the waiter on their mercy.

Do the tips paid using cards etc. go to the relevant waiter(-ess)? Based on id of the waiter?

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 01 Dec 2016 07:42

Yayavar wrote:TKiran: well told story even if you are making it up or convincing someone to do wrong

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 01 Dec 2016 07:59

Tkiran garu respected you a lot for the insight you brought but do not like this act of yours. It is hard to pay taxes but when there is a man trying to do something that has not been done for the past 70 years of our existence as a republic we should support him rather than being selfish, anyways, meeru peddavaru mee ishtam

i was talking to my tax consultant today and heard that few politicians in india have been in touch with NRIs here to convert BM to WM

Modus operandi

Let us say i bought a home for 2cr(using remittances from US) in the recent past(last 2-3 years) and paid 60L in black, the politician offered to pay that 60L in india in old notes now and i could keep 20L in new notes and give him 40L back in new notes post exchange. Refused to be part of it

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 01 Dec 2016 08:04

As I mentioned multiple times:
Govt's new challenge: Hoarding of new currency notes

The Narendra Modi government is struggling not only with the challenge of putting sufficient currency notes into circulation to meet the payday demand during December 1-7, but also of people hoarding the new notes.

According to Finance ministry sources, the government is considering withdrawal of all exemptions on the use of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, so that new notes are pushed into circulation.

Sources say there has been a steady improvement in the supply of currency notes and that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has planned for the payday rush and banks have made arrangements.

According to sources, RBI’s focus has now shifted to printing the new Rs 500 currency notes to make them available in large numbers. Sources add that of the total Rs 100 currency notes in circulation, RBI had kept 50% of these in reserves to tide over the payday demand. The entire process of printing a high-value currency note, including its security features, takes 21 days before it leaves the mints for circulation.

Senior officials asserted putting money in ample quantities to meet the demand till December 7 would not be a problem.

However, hoarding of new currency notes has arisen as a bigger challenge. To resolve this, some in the government have even suggested that exemptions on old currency notes to be used in petrol pumps, to pay civic taxes and public utility bills should be stopped forthwith. This proposal is under consideration, as it could make people start using new notes.

Delhi HC dismisses petition against Rs 2.5 lakh withdrawal cap for weddings

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking relaxation of the Rs 2.5 lakh withdrawal limit set for weddings after the government's recent currency demonetisation drive.

Apart from seeking the relaxation, the petition filed by Birender Sangwan had also challenged the requirements put in place by the Centre for such withdrawals, including the necessity of providing detailed lists of whom such money was to be paid and declarations of such individuals not possessing their own bank accounts.

"Liberty must be given for marriages so that one can pay as per customs. How can somebody give such an undertaking? As per the guidelines, even the priest who performs a marriage has to give an undertaking of not having a bank account," the plea had said.

The government had opposed the petition by stating that adequate relaxations were already in place to address the inconveniences of citizens, but certain restrictions were required to prevent misuse and achieve the objectives of the scheme.

"If we will not put these conditions, anybody can get a marriage card printed and go to the bank to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh," Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, told the court in earlier hearings.

Though the bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal had on November 28, reserved its decision on the issue, it commented that the Centre seemed to have provided sufficient allowances for withdrawals wherever necessary.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 01 Dec 2016 08:12

Any new numbers on tota deposits, JDY deposits etc? The garib kalyan yojana numbers also need watching.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 01 Dec 2016 08:19

RBI's last press release was: Withdrawal of Legal Tender status of banknotes of ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000: Activity at Banks during November 10-27, 2016
New press releases will be listed here:
RBI Press Releases
Just look for references to 500/1000 notes. Based on the last 2 updates, they seem to be maintaining an approximately weekly update on deposits.

ManSingh · Post by **ManSingh** » 01 Dec 2016 08:40

vina wrote:
shiv wrote: Data cost scares the crap out of older & less well off people. Data costs in India are insane and apart from outright crooks - Congress set the bar really high for 2G so companies are still making up for that by buggering the public - forget 3G or 4G
Rel Jio rides to the rescue! It is an all data 4G network, and best part is it is absolutely FREE as of now. I have it on the 2nd sim slot on my phone and have been using it for the past few months! But that WILL disrput the data market and I expect the Modi govt to hack at the barriers the incumbents have thrown up to their entry, nepotism allegations etc notwhitstanding. The data plans are daylight robbery. It needs competiton.

OT. Just adding to the noise.

1) Telecom's have to meet a certain ARPU ( average revenue per user ) to be profitable. This was $8 in India for 2G networks in 2010'ish ( the last figure that I knew ). This was when India was mainly 2G.

So if you get voice call cheap as in India, then data will be expensive to recover the costs.

2) Movement from 1G->2G->2.5G->3G->3.9G ( LTE fit's here ), only meant that the data portion of the telecom network was changed. Moving to 4G and beyond means replacing the entire core network that has been in place since ever for voice calls will move to the same infrastructure as used for data. This is disruptive and a big barrier for telecom companies and so one should not expect data plans to come cheaper any time soon.

3) I don't know how Jio gives it free despite the massive investment. It means someone is burning through a lot of cash.

Btw, in us, 2GB costs USD 35. So data plans in India aren't that terribly expensive but this is an individual's own perspective.