Why central banks across the world are buying more gold for reserves

Till 2008, they were paring gold reserves. Today they see it playing a new role in changing financial systems; share of the metal in RBI's total forex reserves rose to 5.9% in November 2018

Gold is playing a new role in the changing international financial environment. Central banks the world over see the global financial system moving from being unipolar, or dollar dependent, to multipolar, with gold serving as a better component of foreign exchange reserves as a hedge against the greenback. Many, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are aggressively adding gold to their currency reserves. As a matter of fact, this shift from unipolar to multi polar was attempted by the Euro zone a decade ago, and by China later. 

The share of the precious metal in RBI’s total forex reserves