Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked citizens on Sunday to cut fuel use, postpone non‑essential foreign travel, avoid buying gold for a year, and resume work‑from‑home to save foreign exchange.
- Following Monday’s appeal‑driven jitters and a fresh oil spike, the rupee slid past 95 per dollar, stocks fell more than 1 percent, and the 10‑year bond yield edged up to about 7.03 percent.
- After a ministerial review on Monday, the government said there is no shortage of petroleum products, citing about 60 days of crude and natural gas and 45 days of LPG, with foreign reserves near $703 billion.
- The same briefing disclosed that state oil marketers are absorbing losses of roughly ₹1,000 crore a day to hold retail fuel prices, with first‑quarter under‑recoveries near ₹2 lakh crore.
- Brokerages such as JM Financial say the guidance may precede calibrated steps if the West Asia conflict persists, including phased fuel price hikes, higher gold import duty, or temporary limits on overseas remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, as India’s import bill remains dominated by crude and gold.