Modi Urges Indians to Buy Less Gold and Skip Foreign Trips as Iran War Strains Economy

Key Points:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged India’s 1.4 billion citizens to reduce spending on fuel, fertilizer, travel, and imported goods to conserve foreign exchange amid an economic crisis linked to the war in Iran.
• Modi emphasized patriotism as a reason for sacrifice, encouraging people to use less gasoline and diesel, buy less gold, and for farmers to switch to solar-powered water pumps instead of diesel-powered ones.
• He called on white-collar workers to work from home and use online meetings to reduce commuting costs, drawing parallels to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions as a national interest measure.
• Modi also targeted the urban middle class, advising electric vehicle owners to use their vehicles more, promote carpooling, and urged the wealthier 1% to avoid foreign holidays to help protect the Indian rupee, which has depreciated significantly.
• These recommendations came after Modi’s party secured a major state election victory, giving him political leverage to ask citizens to bear economic burdens instead of increasing subsidies or running larger deficits.