Why PM Modi asks citizens not to buy gold, travel abroad? Sridhar Vembu explains

New Delhi: Zoho’s Chief Scientist and Co‑founder Sridhar Vembu on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to curb foreign travel, gold purchases and weddings aims to conserve foreign exchange necessary due to import dependence during India's rapid growth phase. 

Sridhar Vembu drew parallels with East Asian economies that combined fast GDP expansion with deliberate foreign‑exchange conservation, adding that India is also on the same path.

Vembu said in a social media post, “If economy is growing at 7.8 per cent why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc”.

He argued that even as India’s economy grows, faster expansion increases demand for imported energy and advanced technology inputs.

"In fact, the faster the economy grows, the greater the need for both energy and technology inputs," he said, adding that increasing the need for foreign exchange to pay for precision machines, materials, CPUs, GPUs and advanced software.

Vembu said that India’s economy “is growing at a good rate but we still have an import dependence,” in critical areas to balance which the country has to export more.

“Catching up in all of these areas takes time, often measured in decades. We have made a good start but we need time. Look at how long it took East Asia to catch up with the West. Their economies were growing rapidly even as they worked hard to conserve foreign exchange,” Vembu said.

Zoho co-founder said that the government aims to achieve this through addressing unnecessary foreign travel and gold purchases.

“Once we gain competence in all the advanced technologies, and achieve energy independence through renewable energy that we develop the technology for, we would no longer need to conserve foreign exchange,” he added.