On Friday morning, people in Kerala were shocked to read a first-page report on newspapers like Malayama Manorama and Mathrubhumi, which declared in the headline, “Goodbye notes; now digital currency”. The ‘report’ claimed that “the Reserve Bank of India has announced that from February 1, all cash transactions in the country will be made entirely through digital currency, completely stopping use of paper currency notes to combat black money.”
Malayalam Media is filled with news that govt is banning “currency” from Feb 1 and only digital currency will be allowed pic.twitter.com/8gnXhXHJki
— Mac (@pattaazhy) January 24, 2025
It stated that India is following the example of countries like China and Sweden, which have already switched to digital currency only system. It said, “Digital cash transactions are the completion of the ‘Digital India’ project launched by the central government three decades ago.” The news report quoted the Prime Minister as saying that cash transactions will be completely converted to digital currency by withdrawing notes in phases without causing any inconvenience to the public.
The report added that the opportunity to exchange paper currency will be available until February 15. Apart from Manorama and Mathrubhumi, the ‘report’ appeared in several other newspapers in Kerala.
While the report created panic among the readers, the fact is, there is obviously no such announcement by the RBI. And, the ‘report’ published by Malayalam newspapers is not a news report, it is actually an advertisement designed to look like a news report.

The advertisement is for an event titled ‘The Summit of Future 2025’ organized by JAIN (Deemed-to-be University) in Kochi. As per the website of the institution, it will be a 7-day event from 25 January to 1February with the aim to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2025.
In line with the theme of the summit, the advertisement actually featured what a news report may look like in the year 2050. The newspapers added that it is an advertisement, but it was not noticed by many readers.

Not just ordinary readers, even journalist Arun Kumar of Reporter TV, in his review of morning newspapers, was fooled by the ad, and included it in his program today.