India's Golden Moment
October 31, 2022
India's golden moment
This refers to your editorial "Going for gold "(The Hindu Business Line, October 31). The SEBI initiative can become a historic step in the country's gold management history, second only to the government decision to explore the possibility of reviving Kolar mines and the unsaid proposal to explore the potential of yet to be mainstreamed and accounted domestic gold stock estimated at 24,000 tons.
The present global gold scenario gives India a once in a lifetime opportunity to quickly redeploy a part of the country's idle domestic gold stock for productive use. Illustratively, if one-fifth of the estimated 24,000 tonnes of the stock can be mainstreamed and accounted, over a period of next five years, import of gold will come down substantially.
Impact will be two-way. One, as those who invest their gold will earn at least 2 percent per annum on their gold investment and there will be foreign exchange savings to the extent gold imports come down. There will be other long term benefits also for the nation's economy.
All these will become more feasible and socially acceptable, once a gold hubb of international reputation develops around Kolar gold fields with state of the art facilities for gold management "from mines to market". Standardization, mainstreaming and accounting, as also creating awareness among the people of India about gold as a productive investment option, besides "store of value", will improve the chances of India's faster economic growth during the current decade. The present SEBI initiative, integrating various backward and forward linkages is a step in the right direction.
M G Warrier
Mumbai
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