In the first week of April, when the currency distribution shortage was at its peak (though not a crisis in my judgement), Prime Minister Modi also got worried. Arun Jaitley had just taken some weeks off for his medical treatment. The PM was travelling.
Someone in the PM's staff called me and connected me directly to him. While he sounded confident and assured as always, he expressed his concern at the currency shortage. He did not want people to suffer and wanted normalcy to be restored as soon as possible.
He said to me, "Subhashji, you are Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal for me at this moment. Make sure the currency situation gets resolved immediately.
"It was assuring to see the PM place so much confidence in me. I explained the situation as it stood and assured him that the shortage of currency notes in ATMs in some states would be completely over in three to five weeks and that we would soon build surplus stocks to ensure India did not face a shortage again.
Our reorganized production programme for printing notes got underway very soon.
Much higher production was reported daily from the presses.