Dipankar Jakharia
Guwahati
I can understand the buzz. The outrage on social media. And by the time I sit down to write this column, petrol and diesel prices have already gone up. Food prices are rising too. The rupee has weakened against the dollar. The real economic impact of the war in the Middle East is finally being felt. But we are not alone in this. Almost every country dependent on crude oil from the Middle East is cutting consumption and struggling with rising costs.
A friend from Thailand recently told me that fuel rationing has been in place there for months, and petrol and diesel prices have skyrocketed. In India, we did not feel the shock immediately after the war because oil marketing companies usually maintain a pricing buffer for such situations. But if experts are to be believed, this pressure may continue until November. Yes, November. Even if the guns fall silent tomorrow and normalcy returns, the aftershocks on supply chains, shipping, insurance, and energy pricing will continue for months. Oil companies cannot keep absorbing the burden forever.
What we must understand is that we live in an interconnected world. We may have our own borders and currencies, but no economy is immune to disruptions beyond its boundaries or shifts in another country’s currency. Economists have often pointed out that we tend to tie our national pride too closely to the rupee-dollar exchange rate. But think about it for a moment — if inflation in India is high while inflation in the United States remains low, can the relative value of our currencies realistically stay unchanged?
To stabilise the rupee, governments often have to spend heavily from foreign exchange reserves, most of which are held in dollars. At the same time, a weaker rupee is not entirely bad news. It makes our exports more competitive globally. In fact, some countries, including our largest neighbour, have used currency weakness strategically for decades to boost exports.
Now let me come to the point I really wanted to discuss today — our fascination with gold.
When you buy gold, where do you think it comes from? Like crude oil, most of it is imported. India does not produce enough gold to meet domestic demand. In fact, most of the easily accessible gold in the world has already been mined. What remains underground is often too expensive to extract at current prices. The cost of mining exceeds the reward.
Yet in India, gold buying is almost a ritual. Weddings, birthdays, Annaprashan ceremonies — every family occasion seems incomplete without it. But have you noticed how almost every jeweller today offers exchange schemes? Instead of paying entirely in cash, you can exchange old or broken jewellery for new designs. Perhaps it is time we start thinking differently.
Look around your home. You will probably find old gold jewellery lying idle in lockers for years. I understand that jewellery carries emotional value. “This was gifted by my husband on our anniversary,” or “This was what my mother gave me at my wedding.” But ask yourself — why has gold traditionally been preferred as a gift over something like a television or a washing machine? Because gold preserves value over time. It can be exchanged, liquidated, or reused during times of need.
So if you must buy gold for an occasion — a wedding, an Annaprashan, or any family celebration — perhaps this is the right time to exchange old jewellery and redesign it into something new, instead of spending fresh cash.
And remember this: if you are too sentimental to part with your jewellery today, someday your children or grandchildren probably will. They will exchange it, redesign it, or use it according to their own tastes and needs. Gold has always functioned like a parallel currency in Indian households. The sooner we understand that, the more financially practical our decisions can become.
