India's forex reserves problem, Rajasthan maternal deaths, and SIR concerns

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]In this episode, we talk about cases of maternal deaths reported in Rajasthan's Kota where women developed postpartum complications after undergoing C-sections and later passed away. We also talk about the BJP governments in West Bengal and Bihar saying that those deleted from electoral roles under the special intensive revision will not be able to avail government schemes in their states. But we begin today by talking about why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been urging people to reduce their consumption of petroleum products.

[00:00:35]Hi, I am Niharikandanda and you are listening to three things the Indian Express news show.

[00:00:45]Twice now, first from a stage in Hyderabad and then in Vodra, the prime minister has asked people to reduce their fuel consumption. For instance, he suggested that government and private officers should allow work from home just as they did during the pandemic.

[00:01:06]Work from home.

[00:01:18]He urged citizens to use public transport, increase the use of electric vehicles and carpool.

[00:01:38]He also asked farmers to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and urged people to cut down on their use of cooking oil.

[00:01:55]Now, of course, this appeal comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Iran, which has disrupted global oil supplies for over 3 months now. But the reason the prime minister said all this was not because there might be a shortage of fuel for consumers in the near future. But it is because the government is worried about India's forex or foreign exchange reserves which have sharply depleted since the war began. So to understand the importance of foreign exchange reserves and how our fuel consumption is linked to them, my colleague Shashank Bhagel speaks to the Indian Express's Udit Mishra. Udit you know on the face of it some people might say that these are not unreasonable things to ask you know it's just an appeal it is coming at a time when there is a crisis going on fuel supplies have been disrupted globally but tell us how did you see this appeal by the prime minister that you know we should consume less fuel work from home >> yeah so I mean my first reaction was that you know this will have obviously a massive impact on India's growth and beyond just the hard numbers this would also mean a lot of troubles for everyday troubles for Indians because it's not as if as a country we are a rich country we are a large economy but we are a poor country and which means that um it's not as if you know to imagine a scenario it's not as if people are having rich olive oil salads that they can cut back on 10% many Indians Indians or bulk of Indians I put even hazard that don't actually have enough money for edible oil in their diet. So there is very little they can cut back. So perhaps this is more for those who are the habs of this country and that they can reduce a bit of that expenditure. The second thing that immediately came to my mind was that fact that this is too short.

[00:03:52]This is a measure which can only work in a very very short term. This is not a sustainable solution. You know, one day you can forget money in your pocket and you can sort of trick yourself into saying that I will do fasting today. But if there is no money in your wallet, then that becomes a problem. And with India's forex, something like that is the actual problem.

[00:04:14]>> Right? And all these appeals are coming from a place where the prime minister wants India's foreign exchange reserves to remain strong. Now, for those who may not know what foreign exchange reserves are, could you explain that? Because while people who closely track the economy are very familiar with the term, for the average person, you know, it still remains somewhat of a mystery. So, let's for a moment forget about Forex altogether. Let's look at how countries trade and actually people in those countries, companies in those countries trade amongst each other. They take products from the rest of the world. We import them and the rest of the world buys our products. Those are our exports. And when we are doing these transactions, we take our rupees and then buy dollars and then through those dollars, we buy our imports. The other way around, they come with their dollars. They buy our rupees and take our products. Now in normal situation these trades would mean that the relative value of the two currencies imagine there are only two currencies dollar and and rupee they will fluctuate depending on whose products are demanded more right so if the rest of the world wants to buy more products from us in wants to invest more in us and we don't want to actually buy so much of their products then rupee will become stronger than dollar or relatively stronger than dollar and its exchange rate will go up, right? So, and the other way around also if we are importing more and you know we are not getting any investments then rupee will decline in value related to dollar. Now, where do forex come in? No, what is this forex like? I mean this is a straight trade. Forex comes in to a picture where over a period of time if India keeps getting more dollars than what we spend on the rest of the world then those extra dollars accumulate normally that would mean India's rupee becomes stronger right but the RBI doesn't necessarily want the rupee to become so strong so suddenly so it takes like you take away cream it takes some of those dollars with itself you know or many of those dollars with itself and they create a foreign currency reserve for us. They are our some kind of a saving that we make which helps us during that phase when we do not have enough dollars in our account you know we don't have enough dollars to buy other goods you know during a crisis. So that becomes the forex part and you mentioned that the RBI does not want the rupee to become too strong. Um, now that might sound counterintuitive because we're constantly talking about how the rupee weakening is a bad thing. So why would you not want the rupee to strengthen too much? But as we've discussed in previous episodes, you do not want the rupee to become so strong that Indian goods become expensive internationally because then a lot of Indian exporters get impacted. Many Indian goods for example textiles are bought at a certain price point and these are highly competitive markets.

[00:07:25]Countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh are all competing in the same space. So if Indian goods suddenly become more expensive, buyers looking for these products will simply turn to other countries.

[00:07:38]>> Yeah. I mean see too high an exchange rate, too strong a rupee versus the dollar will hurt our exports. But you know we are only focusing in common parliament only about trade you know of goods. What happens is there are broadly two accounts as it were. One is the current account which has trade in goods and services and broadly the story has been that we've had a current account deficit which means that we import more goods and services than we export. So we have a deficit as it were.

[00:08:12]>> Right? Indians are demanding more dollars than people are demanding the rupee.

[00:08:17]>> Exactly. So we have a deficit there and then we have something called a capital account which is who's investing more in the other countries right or whether other countries are investing more in us and typically there India has always had a current account surplus which is more dollars are coming into the country than money rupee going out and there is you know more demand for rupee in that sense.

[00:08:40]>> Yes. people abroad investing in India more than Indians investing in other countries. This used to be the broader story, but this has changed. And in all of this talk about not eating this or not using that, we are forgetting the central problem that has led to this crisis. Over the last 2 years, 3 years, we found that our capital account surplus which used to be so high that it used to paper over our deficit on the current account, that surplus, current capital account surplus has turned into deficit. Right? Why? because the rest of the world is not investing in India and in fact in many cases Indians are investing outside you know so net FDI net foreign direct investment instead of being a high number for us that everybody's coming and making new factories here is often negative which means Indians are going outside and making factories in other countries you know at a net level so the problem for India is that capital flows have weakened our current account how much we import and export that hasn't totally gone out of whack that is not the issue here the problem is the capital thing and the capital thing is related to how the rest of the world thinks of Indian economy in terms of prospects and those prospects are getting worse and this is again something that is not talked about right now we've come to this issue through a very different route right but the heart of the problem is not how much oil we are using in our food right Now the problem is the capital flows have deserted us and there are two ways to sort of look at the forex issue. One is to save forex the other is to earn forex. You know all of this discussion that we are right now focusing on what the prime minister has also talked about is to say let's cut consumption let's cut the use of forex you know let's not spend more forex but there is nothing in the plan that the prime minister has talked about which talks about how can we earn more forex because there is only so much you can do by cutting things. So when it comes to forex what you're saying is that we had been maintaining a sort of balance where yes we had a trade deficit but that was being offset by a surplus on the investment side but now we are seeing deficits on both fronts and so what the prime minister is essentially trying to do is reduce the deficit on the trade side so that India's foreign exchange reserves are not depleted as sharply and as you pointed out in this broader plan to reduce the deficit there does not seem to be a strategy to return to a position where India is once again seeing a surplus in capital flows or investments.

[00:11:30]But you know we began this conversation with you mentioning that the government is asking people to spend less and this is being asked of people who in many cases already have very little to spend.

[00:11:42]So talk about the kind of impact this could have. Let's say people follow what the prime minister is saying. They cut down on fuel consumption, work from home when they can, avoid traveling abroad too much, and farmers reduce their fertilizer usage. Talk about the kind of impact these measures could actually have and the extent to which they could realistically help solve the forex problem. So yes on a very short notice you might you might think that if everybody is supposed today stop buying any gold let's take an extreme case to get the clarity on that that if you stop buying any gold you stop going to office and your you know fuel usage is reduced you just go for oil-free food let's do the exact you know fertilizers are reduced to 50%. It will all basically mean that yes in the absolute short term it would show as a relief on the forex side because you will not be importing anymore right but it will come at the cost of switching off the car engine basically reducing your growth right you can save oil but if to save oil you sort of reduce the overall demand in the economy then you are basically pulling back the growth process right and which means the story doesn't end there the Point is if you're slowing down as an economy the original problem that people are not investing in India because they do not think that this is a great prospect will get aggravated. None of the businesses inside India who have not been investing as much as the government wants them to invest nor the global investors will look at India favorably necessarily by saying that it is living within its means of forex. They are looking for profit. They're looking for a bustling economy and we are not doing that. We are sort of saying that let's just not eat on a particular day and see where it goes. Now at one level this exposes the weakness in the economy and instead of finding then the solution to address that weakness we are only sort of finding a very stop gap solution.

[00:13:51]It's like saying let's not have a haircut for the next year. Now at the end of the year you will still get a haircut and you will look perfect at the end of the year but for that full year your barber will not be able to survive.

[00:14:05]And so if we have to solve this forex problem, are there answers to this really long-term solutions like ensuring you have skilled workers that you invest in health and education, you ensure that there is ease of doing business, things like that, long-term policy-led solutions. So I would say that you know listeners have to focus on this thing.

[00:14:29]On the 1st of February when the budget was getting presented and not much was done in the budget the notion was India is in a goldilocks moment everything was just right with Indian economy right everybody believes that the policy makers also believe that and since everything was so perfect nothing much had to be done and then by the end of the month we had reached a point because the war started where after 2 months delay the prime minister has to say don't eat enough oil or reduce the fert izer usage by half. The prime minister is doing that now because earlier there were elections otherwise he could have announced this early in March because it would have been plain to everybody. In fact most governments China kept had a clue that you know these crisis can happen and keep saving enough fuel have strategic reserves. India doesn't seem to have done much on that count. Did we prepare ourselves in the leadup to the war or even after the war? Very first thing to say that let's look at this as a crisis. We have waited and turned it into a sudden crisis when actually this problem has been brewing for a while.

[00:15:35]For 2 years we've had this forex problem and the rupee has been losing until unless we accept right that we need to address that issue. This government has been in power for 12 years. So there's no der of time now that they can claim that we don't know how to sort of focus on manufacturing. My point is that it looks like a sudden crisis but it is not. It would be a gross mistake to think that February 1st everything was Goldilocks and then within a month everything was like so stark that we can't even have proper oil in our food.

[00:16:13]And next we turn our attention to Rajasthan where earlier this month two cases of maternal deaths were reported at the new medical college hospital in Kota. The women reportedly developed postpartum complications following their C-section procedures and later passed away. This was followed by similar cases being reported at JK loan hospital in Kota where women developed critical conditions including kidney related complications and liver failure after undergoing childbirth. Both these hospitals are now under the scanner of the Rajasthan Health Department. To understand more about these cases, the ongoing probe and the condition of the affected families, we speak to the Indian Expresses Parul Kulsht who reports on Rajasthan for the paper.

[00:16:58]Parlu can you first tell us about these maternal deaths that have recently been reported in Kota and what exactly happened in these cases? So on 4th May there were a lot of deliveries that had happened in Kota new medical government college and hospital. All of them were cesarians and uh the women later on after some time some of them were operated on four and then some of them were operated on May 5 and uh just after the few hours of the operation and some women even after like just immediately after the operation they stopped passing urine and which impacted their body a lot and they started complaining of anxiousness and chest pain and they were not able to breathe their body started swelling up and during that time on 5th in In the morning there's one woman named Py she passed away. On seventh morning there's another woman named Ji she passed away and the reason were all same that uh they were not able to pass urine and there were kidney failures and liver damage due to that >> and we understand that there are still some women in the hospital battling similar complications including a woman who is 5 months pregnant. So the thing is uh yes after the initial death of two women there were two other women who died due to this kidney failure problem and there was another woman who had not gone for operation she was pregnant 5 months she was uh being treated for a weak uterus layer. So she was given some stitches uh because she was five months pregnant and she was giving some stitches in her uterus to keep the body like you know secure and during that stitches the later of the women told me that when she went back home she stopped passing urine and then she started complaining of pain and like her body starts swelling up and all. So they went back to the hospital they gave her some treatment she was not able to pass urine. So they told the family to take her to a different hospital, some private hospital because they cannot treat the patient in Kota right now as there are similar patients who are going through exact same problem. So they immediately just you know to shove off their liability and their responsibility. They immediately called the ambulance and asked them to take her to a private hospital. 2 days back I had a word with the family and she had miscarried the baby and uh she was on diialysis for last 3 days and she was not able to pass urine and still the condition is the same. Doctors are still figuring out what is the reason and uh as per the recent report today which I received there was one woman who was able to pass urine and her condition became stable after diialysis and there is another woman named Raini her condition also became stable. I met her as well on May 8 when I went to Kota. So her condition has also become stable and she was taken back by the relatives to her home. Now two more women are still in critical condition. two more women who were in JK alone hospital not in the government hospital Kota they were in another JK alone hospital a government uh entity in Kota they are also in ICU and their condition is still serious right now and parole the hospitals in question the new medical college hospital in Kota and JK loan hospital what do we know about their day-to-day functioning and the kind of healthcare infrastructure and patient load they are dealing with >> so this kota medical hospital this new medical hospital. It's a very very big hospital in Rajasthan. It's actually second after the SMS hospital in Japur.

[00:20:20]So patients from at least around five districts of Kardi region. The region where Kota is which includes districts like Kota, Bar, Jalavar and Bundi. These patients from four five districts come to Kota for any problem. And there are patients from MP and Uttar Pradesh who also come to Kota for treatment because it is also one of the biggest hospitals in Rajasthan after SMS. I think around 5,000 patients in OPD are coming daily.

[00:20:47]So you can imagine the like you know extent of like the patients and the doctors that they have right now around 250 deliveries are happening every month in this hospital which includes cesarian and normal delivery. So it is a very big hospital and people have a lot of trust in that hospital and majority of these women who are you know suffering. They all are from lower middle-ass families.

[00:21:09]Some of the husbands are like you know auto drivers. One's husband is a mechanic or a laborer. So they come from very lowerass families. So for them this hospital was the only hope to get a good treatment in affordable rates. So that was a like the trust that was broken after this incident in Kota. Now Parl when it comes to child birth C-sections are standard procedures and yet we are seeing a situation like this unfold.

[00:21:37]Have the hospital authorities said anything about these deaths and have any actions been taken in response? So they have suspended a few doctors and nursing staff from Kota Medical College and also from the JKron Hospital. The day this was found out that these medicines 23 samples that were used during operations, medicines and you know medical devices that were used during the operation of women these all medicines have now been barred in the entire state till the time any investigation report is submitted by the state government and uh they are saying that you know we will take action and there is a special team from Jaipur SMS hospital that has gone to Kota. There's a special team from as Delhi that will be arriving in Kota as was announced by Om Builder the MP from Kota. So government is doing whatever it can from their part but yes there has not been a clear indication or you know any form of suggestion that has been given by the government about the reason of this that happened till now >> right and we understand that one of the families staged a sit in protest demanding answers from the authorities.

[00:22:41]tell us more about that and how are the families coping with these deaths. So the families were devastated because there was this one woman her husband I met she was just 20 years old. It was her first child a boy child and she passed away. Her husband is a normal daily vegetable laborer and he was crying so much when I went to meet him.

[00:23:01]There's another woman that was also her first child pile the first lady she passed away. Then this second woman who died was Joti. I think she had one or two daughters and she passed away. I mean the families have broken down like they had nothing to do. They don't know what to do now and you know there are children they don't have any mother anymore. They've lost their loved ones and the family members are very scared and they're very angry at the authorities because they don't know what is happening why the government is doing. They are making all the assurances and promises but they have no idea what is happening and why it is happening. So that you know this closure that the families are not able to get that is what is that is eating them alive and I met a lot of you know the family members and they are like you know whatever happens the people who lost their women they said that whatever happens now we are ready to took to streets and we are ready to fight with the government if they will not release the reason why this is happening. So yeah, they are devastated right now >> and given the severity of the situation, the health department of the state stepped in, right? What do we know about their investigation?

[00:24:08]>> The investigation has begun. They are still investigating. The drug controller from Jaipur has went and got 24 samples out of which 20 are medicine samples and 34 are the medical equipment that were used and they're still testing it and finding out the reason behind it. There are doctor's team from Jaipur that has gone and making their report. So investigation of lot of things are happening but till now they have not released any report. The woman who died I think she was the third or second woman who died Joti her family agreed for the postmortem and the postmortem report is still not been revealed by the kota authorities and the risen authorities. So their investigation is going on but they have not released any form of information till now >> and parul you mentioned that people are beginning to lose their trust in medical professionals. So when incidents like these take place, what does it say about the state of healthcare facilities available to people? Yes, actually it's a very tragic incident that had happened like so many women were you know fell sick and so many of them died. So after this right now whatever getting the information from ground the gyneic ward is absolutely empty people are not coming to the medical hospital even if they were doing 2400 surgeries a month and uh you know normal deliveries in the kota hospital. So the people have stopped coming there. They are not taking any serious cases in the medical hospital. People are shaken up. But the problem I believe is that people do not have that much resources to go to a private hospital. So I think despite the fact whatever is happening people will keep coming back. They will keep going back to the hospital after some time even if not now. So because the tragedy is such an you know the state of affairs in India. So I think people will keep coming back but the trust in the government is gone at least for now. But I think they have no other option than keep coming to government hospital because they cannot afford a lot of them. People who are coming to the hospitals cannot afford a you know a private entity.

[00:26:05]And in the end we talk about the BJP governments in West Bengal and Bihar saying that those who have been deleted from the electoral roles under the special intensive revision will not be able to avail government schemes in their states. The Indian Expresses Ravi Bhachara reported that the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal held its first cabinet meeting on Monday followed by a press conference where Chief Minister Shivindu Adikari said that all social schemes of the previous governments in the state would continue while central programs that the Thrammul Congress regime had blocked would now be available and that no deceased person, illegal infiltrator or non-Indian individual will be allowed to avail these benefits which are meant for citizens of the Eight. Clarifying what Adikari said, Bengal Minister for Food and Supplies Ashoka said that those whose cases are under consideration before tribunals in West Bengal and the people who have applied under the CA or the Citizenship Amendment Act will continue to receive the same till their matter is decided. Kanya said that he had already held a meeting with his department officials to conduct a drive to check Russian cards to weed out those deleted under the SI. And when it comes to Bihar, CM Samraj Chri told the Indian Expresses Santo Singh that people whose names have been deleted from the Bihar electoral role will not be entitled to any government benefits including the Russian and other welfare schemes. He also added that bank pass books of those deleted would also be cancelled in due course of time. Now matters related to citizenship including deprivation of citizenship are governed by the citizenship act 1955 and it is the union home ministry that has the part to declare somebody a foreigner or revoke citizenship. During the supreme court hearings where it was debated that if sir is a test of citizenship or not. The election commission of India had made it clear that even though it did not have the power to determine citizenship, its right to verify citizenship status flows from article 326 of the constitution which says Indian citizens above the age of 18 years can be registered as electors. In fact, in the counteridate filed in the court in July last year, the ECI had underlined this point while adding quote under the SI exercise, the citizenship of an individual will not terminate on account of the fact that he or she is held to be ineligible for registration in the electoral roles.

[00:28:30]Before the SI process began, Bengal had 7.66 cr voters. After the SIR process, there were 58.20 20 lakh deletions initially which rose to around 91 lakh after adjudication of local discrepancy cases while Bihar saw around 68 lakh deletions.

[00:28:50]You were listening to three things by the Indian Express. Today's episode was edited and mixed by Sur Pawar and produced by Shashank Parav and Ni Niharika. If you like the show then do subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You can also recommend the show to someone you think will like it.

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