Yet, unlike in oil-rich Venezuela, which too went in for a year-end demonetisation of its most popular 100 Bolivar banknotes, only to suspend the action quickly under violent public protests, Indians seem to have taken a philosophical approach to the suffering or penance, queuing up days and nights before banks and ATMs to withdraw their own cash. Despite almost daily government assurances that things are fast getting under control, cash shortage in India is unlikely to disappear too soon. The Rupee demonetisation is easily the worst currency disorder in the world monetary history since the abolition of the Gold Standard, in which currency was backed by gold, in the United States in June 1933, following the Great Depression. Such a massive currency demonetisation has never taken place anywhere in the world.

Nor did the world witness such records of political corruption and questionable political practices as it experienced in 2016. Two democratically elected heads of government — both women — got impeached, an electorally defeated president of an African country refused to step down and the new president of the world’s second largest and richest democracy, who is due to be sworn in on January 20, 2017, will carry an unfortunate stigma of polling less number of popular votes than the defeated Democrat candidate. Conservative Donald Trump may not find it easy going in the White House if he tries to implement all the key promises he made to Americans and foreign policy shifts he pressed for during the election campaign. Both Trump and the USA may witness hard times ahead at home and abroad. The EU and Japan, the two strong US allies, may be victims of US external spending cuts on their defence under NATO. China, the world’s largest exporter to the US, is worried about the possible US import cut that would result in a fresh downturn in the export-led Chinese economy.

Political corruption and integrity of people in high places further marred the state of governance around the world. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, was impeached and removed from the office by the Senate on charges of manipulating the federal budget. It ended a 13-year leftist Workers’ Party rule, during which Brazil’s economy boomed, lifting millions into the middle class and raising the country’s profile on the global stage. It also marked the capstone of a power struggle that had consumed the nation for months and toppled one of the hemisphere’s most powerful political parties. In Asia, South Korean National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Park Geun-hye over a massive corruption scandal. The country's Constitutional Court will now deliberate the impeachment motion, a process that could take up to 180 days. The public protests against the Korean president continue, despite Ms Park’s impeachment by the National Assembly on December 9th. Ms Park has been stripped of her powers. But, the protesters will not be satisfied until she is gone for good.

In Gambia, president Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after an election defeat. African leaders from all over the continent appealed to him to accept the election verdict and resign. But, Yahya Jammeh, the autocratic ruler of the West African nation for 22 years, refused to budge saying he would rule for “a billion years if Allah willed it”. In France, in an unusual move, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, sought and lost his rightwing party’s nomination to avenge his 2012 defeat by socialist Francois Hollande to reoccupy the Elysee Palace. Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde was found guilty of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds during her time as France’s finance minister, a verdict that could force her out of the job. The scandal has overshadowed her work at the fund, after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a Frenchman, resigned as managing director, when he was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York City hotel.

The year also witnessed unabated terror attacks across the world, including France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the US and West Asian countries such as Iraq, Syria, Turkey, as also South Asian nations like India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, killing and injuring thousands of people. Shockingly, Pakistan-originated terrorists managed to enter two highly guarded Indian military camps, one in Punjab and other in J&K, to launch attacks. The EU witnessed the biggest ever refugee surge from West Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and north African countries, creating massive security and financial concerns among EU members. Even the UK, the first country to break away from the EU in 2016, could not escape from accepting its responsibility to provide refuge to some of those illegal immigrants. The year-end suspected terrorist attack on Berlin’s Christmas market, killing at least a dozen innocent Christmas shoppers and injuring some 50 others, and the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, sang the dirge of the outgoing year.

Finally, there seems to be no end to the growing black money laundering as the Panama papers made an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The documents showed the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens. Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president; Iceland’s prime minister, and the father of former British Prime Minister David Cameron. The data provided rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manage the estates of the world’s rich and famous: from politicians, business barons, Fifa officials, filmstars, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes. (IPA Service)