Shun foreign holidays, avoid buying gold: PM Narendra Modi renews appeal

PM cites India's 7.8 per cent June-quarter GDP growth to renew his Swadeshi pitch, urging citizens to embrace self-reliance and sustain economic momentum

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged Indians to become more self-reliant, and embrace swadeshi, including by avoiding foreign holidays, unnecessary gold purchases and overseas weddings. He said this a day after meeting the leaders of Russia and Iran in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek, as conflicts involving both countries continue to threaten India’s energy security, maritime trade and foreign-exchange reserves. 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the US that the PM’s appeal to discourage unnecessary forex spending comes as India faces external challenges as a large importer of crude oil and fertilisers. 

Modi’s renewed appeal came in a video message, in which he congratulated Indians on the economy’s better-than-expected 7.8 per cent growth in the June quarter despite global turmoil, geopolitical conflicts and supply-chain disruptions. “We must maintain this momentum. We must keep moving forward, and for that, becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat is essential,” he said.

 

He had made a similar appeal for austerity at a public event in Hyderabad on May 10, when India was facing energy-supply constraints and pressure on its foreign-exchange reserves because of the conflict in West Asia. 

Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin and  Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday on the margins of the Shanghai

Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Both Russia and Iran are enmeshed in military conflicts that have disrupted maritime

trade routes, affected India’s energy security and raised concerns over the safety of Indian seafarers. 

 

At his meeting with Putin, Modi urged the Russian leader to move from “endless war to the end of war” and called for an immediate end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He told Pezeshkian that India backed peace and dialogue in West Asia.

However, New Delhi’s assessment is that neither the Russia-Ukraine conflict, now in its fourth year, nor the conflict in West Asia is likely to end anytime soon. Prolonged disruptions could continue to put pressure on India’s energy and fertiliser supplies as well as its foreign-exchange reserves.

 

Addressing SCO leaders in Bishkek a couple of hours after his video message, the Prime Minister said the crisis in West Asia had demonstrated that a conflict in one region does not remain confined to that region. “Its impact is felt across the world, affecting energy security, maritime trade, and supply chains,” Modi said, adding that countries of the Global South bear the greatest brunt of such disruptions. “Therefore, India has consistently called for all tensions and conflicts to be resolved not on the battlefield, but through dialogue and diplomacy,” he said.

 

Modi also said India supports all efforts that connect markets, facilitate trade and open up new avenues for development.

 

Separately, speaking to news agency IANS on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Track meeting in North Carolina, Sitharaman underscored that the country faces external challenges because it is a large importer of crude and fertilisers, and “that is why in between we also thought of (discouraging) foreign exchange being spent on unnecessary travel. Nobody wants to stop any travel…”

 

“The challenges are there and we will work as a government to position India in an advantageous way,” the finance minister added.

 

Sitharaman said robust economic growth and foreign-exchange reserves of more than $700 billion show that Indians are working hard and taking the economy forward despite external challenges that “seem to be not dying down.”

 

She also pointed to the foreign currency non-resident bank -- or FCNR (B) -- deposits banks obtained under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) concessional swap window as a confidence-building measure. The FCNR(B) swap scheme ended on Monday.

 

“The number that we have reached well ahead of time shows the confidence that people have on Indian banking system and also the Indian economy itself,” she said.

 

Sitharaman said the strong first-quarter growth print would further strengthen the outlook for FY27. “If the first quarter started off like this, we will be able to sustain similar numbers in the coming quarters as well.”

 

Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, said the government’s appeal was in line with efforts by the government and the RBI to build foreign-exchange reserves. “The government and the RBI are doing a lot to ensure the forex reserve increases. The Prime Minister is appealing to people to continue with austerity, something he spoke of when the war broke out,” Sabnavis said, adding, “This is in the background of the success of FCNR(B). The Prime Minister possibly thinks we should not squander everything by spending on gold and foreign travel.”

 

India’s gold imports rose 32.4 per cent to $15.2 billion during the April-July period this year. The travel account in India’s latest balance-of-payments data showed a net outflow of $3.4 billion during the June quarter of FY27, compared with $3.9 billion during the preceding March quarter of FY26.

 

In Tuesday’s message, Modi said the June-quarter growth rate of 7.8 per cent underscored surging economic confidence. “I want to congratulate the people of the country for 7.8 per cent GDP growth. It has been possible due to their collective resolve and efforts. India has achieved this milestone despite conflicts, wars and instability and economic uncertainty everywhere,” he said.

 

He said the world had remained unstable since the Covid pandemic in 2020, but India had continued to progress. “We have to maintain the speed of our growth. We have to grow. And for that we must become self-reliant. The youth's dreams need our hard work to be realised. Let's not be lacking in efforts,” he said.

 

Modi said his government’s policies were good and its intention clear, and that this was why the country was reaching new heights of progress.

 

According to data released by the National Statistical Office, India’s economy grew 7.8 per cent in the first quarter of FY27, compared with 8.6 per cent in the preceding March quarter. India remained one of the fastest-growing major economies despite external headwinds.

 

Alluding to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ campaign, Modi attacked those spreading “jhooth ki goonj,” or echoes of lies, saying the latest gross domestic product growth rate had torn through the narrative of “pessimism” about the Indian economy.

 

He said Swadeshi and self-reliance would help build a developed India for the country’s youth in the 100th year of Independence in 2047.

 

 On Monday, Modi described the growth number as a “herculean feat.” He also took a dig at those questioning the state of the Indian economy, saying “doomsayers were doomed and India bloomed yet again.”

 

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh termed the latest GDP numbers released by the government as “statistical gymnastics,” which were achieved “by changing the methodology repeatedly.”