Trading God’s Gift for Cash Is Modi Plan to Wean India Off Gold
Customers pack a gold store during the festival of Dhanteras in Mumbai. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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The prospect of his gold offering to the Hindu deity Lord Venkateswara being melted down to help India shrink its trade deficit strikes Balbir Singh Uppal as sacrilegious. To some bankers, it’s just tone deaf.
“The gold is considered to be god’s property, and no one else has a right over it,” said Uppal, 60, founder of rice and wheat miller Lakshmi Energy & Foods Ltd.