Why Has PM Modi Requested Citizens to Avoid Buying Gold and Foreign Travel? | News18 | N18S

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Moving On Amit The Escalating West Asia Conflict Prime Minister Modi Has Appealed Citizens To Conserve Fuel And Help [Music] Reduce Pressure On India's Foreign Exchange Reserves. Take a Look at the Prime Minister [Music] Seven Requests That He Made Earlier. He says prioritize work from home whenever possible and avoid buying gold for one year. Reduce petrol and diesel consumption and use metro [music] and public transport instead. He also mentioned that Indians should strive to cut down the use [music] of cooking oil.

[00:00:29]Reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers and move towards natural farming. End use few foreign branded products adopt swadeshi. This of course goes with the larger vision of more self-reliance. But also he has asked citizens to [music] reconsider or to avoid any foreign travel for one year. So, four out of these seven requests that the Prime Minister has made is [music] actually focusing on easing the burden on foreign exchange. So, why this focus on foreign exchange? First up, India imports nearly 85% of its crude oil needs, affecting the dollar outflow from the country. In fact, oil and gold together form one of the biggest drains on India's foreign exchange [music] reserves. Rising imports widen the current account deficit adding pressure on the rupee as [Music] well and for its reserves are seen as financial shock absorbers help in paying for imports [Music] stabilizing the rupee and they also service external debt. Now a weaker rupee makes imports even more expensive creating a vicious cycle of inflation and higher forex outflows and there for the Prime Minister has been asking [music] for these demands now there is remember also past experience during the 1991 balance of payments crisis or the 2013 taper tantrum [music] external vulnerabilities hit the Indian economy hard the government clearly is wanting to avoid such a situation. Now here is a table for you to consider how [music] much forex can really be saved if Indians were to pay heed to the request that has [music] come in from the Prime Minister. So these are broadly the five categories that he has mentioned. If there are anywhere from five to 10% [music] of savings because of the Prime Minister's appeal, then overall India could help save 45.8 [music] billion of foreign reserves just by curtailing some of the things that the Prime Minister has talked about.