Other than having a panic attack, what could we do?Īs it turned out, the journalists were much more prepared for this currency crisis than Charlotte and I had anticipated-most of them had at least some legal rupees, credit cards, apps that enabled them to pay with their phones, and/or ride-sharing apps like Uber that obviated the need for transport cash. dollars if I didn’t have local currency, but that was not the case in India. dollars for meals, but how could they pay without rupees? On my trips to sub-Saharan Africa, I’d often use U.S. For the seminar, we had planned site visits, including an overnight trip to Pune, a four-hour train ride away, and while the tickets had been purchased in advance, how would we pay for taxis? We were planning to give the journalists per diems in U.S. 14, and not only did we not have any local currency, we didn’t know if the journalists would have any either. How were we going to hold a weeklong seminar for 15 journalists from Nepal, Bangladesh, and throughout India, who were arriving the next day? The seminar was critical because we were launching our new Women’s Edition-Asia program, marking the first time we had divided our global Women’s Edition program into separate regions to extend its reach to more journalists. Worse, we were told, because they ran out of cash even faster than the banks. We could try going to a bank but the lines at the banks were so long, we had a slim-to-none chance of getting any valid rupees there.

12, the hotel staff informed us that they could not exchange our U.S. When I arrived in Mumbai with my PRB colleague Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs on the night of Nov. But it didn’t sink in, because I was still trying to comprehend the astounding results of our own election. presidential election and just a few days before I was to leave for Mumbai, I read a news story about the Indian government invalidating the country’s 500- and 1,000-rupee notes (worth about $7 and $15, respectively) in an attack on corruption. Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.Policy and Advocacy Communications Training.Management of Complex Technical Programs.Distilling Research for Non-Technical Audiences.Adaptive Learning and Knowledge Management.Family Planning, Maternal and Reproductive Health.

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