I doubt you read the link I posted. The report was from Bloomberg not Livemint. Would you now discard that too based on another tenuous link?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-04/india-sai...
> I would rather have some trust in the official RBI's figures
RBI has been unusually silent on this. As of December 10 (21 days before the final date), 80% of the demonetized currency was back into the banks [0]. So, even if you trust the RBI figures - don't keep your hopes high.
[0] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/8...