Demonetisation is the act of divesting a currency unit of its status as legal tender, and in some cases replacing it with new currency units. On 8 November 2016 the Indian Government took the bold step of instantly stripping the 500 and 1,000-Rupee currency notes (which constituted over 86 per cent of the currency in circulation) of their of their value as circulating currency. This report provides an initial assessment of the consequences of this measure for Indian society; it also identifies some of the key longer-term issues, and provides recommendations for further investigation. The full text of the Indian Prime Minister’s public announcement is reprinted as an Appendix.