As the world was fixated with the U.S. presidential election on November 8, Indians were busy getting their priorities right as the day wound down, with many scrambling to get hold of the now-precious small change, while others rushed to offload high-value currency holdings that were set to turn worthless in a matter of few hours. In a surprise move that night, the Indian government declared 500- and 1,000-rupee currency notes invalid from that midnight as part of a crackdown on cash hoards of unaccounted income or 'black-money' and fake notes, which it claimed were being used to fund illegal activities such as drug trafficking and terrorism.