India's rich temples may open gold vaults for Narendra Modi

[uparyupari]

Central Banks Are Boosting Their Gold Reserves - Bloomberg Business

Why are the central bankers of every country hoarding up on gold? Should not USD be enough? Why is BRICS Bank coming up when all can just be happy with USD?

For the Rainy day. For dooms day. The back up plan. Plan B, risk hedging.

BRICS bank is to counter the US influence in world bank and IMF. Let us not mix issues.

It is the USA which held most gold in 1970s. It was the Americans who has the most bullion of any other people in the world. The Brits had made settlement of War debt to USA with Gold. So it was the US public which was made poor. It was the artificial price of gold which made it possible for Indians to buy it back!!!

The value of USD is high because it is petrodollar. USA was backed by oil rather than gold. This and the fact that it held the Arabs by their balls is what made US rich. Yes, we need to purchase USD now, this does not mean it will be so for all perpetuity.

As I said in 1970s, one ounce of gold cost 35 dollars. It costs upwards of 1200 dollars today. So has the value of dollar held up against gold? The paper currency of US is being challenged even now when it has lost 40-50% of its international reserve function. The more nations start dealing with their own currencies and have swap deals, the more dollar loses its status as reserve currency. The dollar's relevance is only as long as oil is sold at premium.

Americans still hold the most gold in the world. IMF too hold more then 3,200 Tons of gold.

What did India buy back ? US had the USD to make its people rich. It did not have to rely on the gold.

You are saying exactly what I said, only you are drawing the wrong conclusion. USD is not "backed" by the oil. What it means is you can buy Oil ONLY using USD. No other currency can be used for Oil trade. But today 81% of Global trade finance used the USD. The Saudi Rial and the Chinese Yuan is pegged to the USD.

Before Euro happened, 95% of Global reserves were held in USD. Today it is still 61%. Euros is 32 %. That means the world continues to buy USD and Euro's making their economy stronger by default.

Gold had no place there. Like gold, USD has become the de facto global trade currency. Oil only made it de jure.

Even without Oil the world will continue to trade in USD till the loose faith in the USD. A faith that is build on the faith of the military strength.

http://www.businesstoday-eg.com/eco.../world-bank-predicts-death-for-us-dollar.html

The Silent Death Of The U.S. Dollar | Investment Research Dynamics

If the world does not give a shit, why is the world hoarding up on Gold?

Gold is still used for reserves. It is just not used for global trade. No one trades in gold or currency pegged to gold.

Our quality of life had nothing to do with gold in the temple or with public. It had everything to do with the communism/socialism practiced by the govt.

Education has not provided Americans with equal opportunity. As of today, India provides the same opportunity as US does. As of today more Indians educate out of our colleges free of debt than Americans do. This despite their long military arms.

Our quality of life has everything to do with money in circulation and its productivity which is what GDP is all about. Monitized gold increases that currency in circulation.

Hoarding gold and rejecting modern theory of Economics is the practice of communism and socialism. That is why USSR collapsed. Because it did not understand modern economic and global trade. Something the US mastered. Both USSR and USA went on a military build up spree, only the rest of the world financed the US to do so by purchasing the dollar, while Russia went bankrupt.

Russia had massive OIL banks, like India has gold. Did it help them ? It did not because Russia did not bother to control the global oil trade and make its currency the premium currency.

Let us not kid ourself by claiming that India provides the same opportunity that US provides. Most kids in India do not even have teachers in their schools. Out of every 100 kids, how many pass 10th standard ? how many pass 12th standard ?

We rank at the bottom on the PISA scale. Literally at the bottom. Still this is not relevant to the topic, except to prove we need money desperately to improve basic infrastructure and provide equal opportunity that education can bring.

Let us not talk about the elite going to US schools and living the American dream and call it the Indian dream.

Wrong conclusions. We have not cared about our people because we did not understand our people. Our people understand their immediate needs and their financial security more than the govt does. It was the govt's attempt at being caring with its socialism and confiscation of public property which caused the perpetuation of poverty in the first place.

We have not cared for our people. Period. No excuses is sufficient or necessary. You know this is true.

I am talking about govt. apathy and clueless attitude to modern economics and global trade. A govt. which did not even provide a bank account to Indians till Modi came along. What can be more telling ?

 

[Matrixx]

Only Padmanabhaswamy temple holds ,Gold worth $22 ~ Billion that should be handed over to RBI

you can buy 200 Rafale

 

[Dragon Ball]

For the Rainy day. For dooms day. The back up plan. Plan B, risk hedging.

BRICS bank is to counter the US influence in world bank and IMF. Let us not mix issues.

Nope. It is because they understand that it is the only money which has any intrinsic value universally accepted by people all over the world.

BRICS bank is to counter the US influence in world bank and IMF. Let us not mix issues.

BRICS plan is not just to counter US influence in world bank and IMF but to challenge the hegemony of dollar and possibly replace it. The US and the west by extension has been enriching itself on the back of the savings of the rest of the world due to its currency being the world reserve currency. This free loading is sought to be ended by the BRICS bank.

Americans still hold the most gold in the world. IMF too hold more then 3,200 Tons of gold.

What did India buy back ? US had the USD to make its people rich. It did not have to rely on the gold.

You are saying exactly what I said, only you are drawing the wrong conclusion. USD is not "backed" by the oil. What it means is you can buy Oil ONLY using USD. No other currency can be used for Oil trade. But today 81% of Global trade finance used the USD. The Saudi Rial and the Chinese Yuan is pegged to the USD.

Before Euro happened, 95% of Global reserves were held in USD. Today it is still 61%. Euros is 32 %. That means the world continues to buy USD and Euro's making their economy stronger by default.

Gold had no place there. Like gold, USD has become the de facto global trade currency. Oil only made it de jure.

Even without Oil the world will continue to trade in USD till the loose faith in the USD. A faith that is build on the faith of the military strength.

Nope. Americans do not hold most gold in the world. Neither does the IMF. It has long been speculated that all its gold holdings have been sold or lent out and there is hardly any gold left in US Federal Reserves. One of the reasons US has been unable to repatriate German's gold despite being repeatedly asked. Neither has IMF sent the gold it owes India back to India, exactly for the same reason.

It is India which holds most of the worlds gold.

India brought back the gold from the world market once its price dipped. That is how we now have around 40,000 tons of gold in private hands in India.

USD is backed by oil, hence it is called petrodollar. Where do you think the term comes from if not its association with oil? What is the one commodity that every country barring the oil producing nations have to, just have to, buy? Oil. This is one of the must buys for all counties which is why they have to shore up their dollar reserves so that they can purchase oil in the market. This compulsory need for the dollar is what drives the value of dollar and the world trade is in dollars, otherwise what differentiates the USD dollar from the Argentinian currency? Both deserve to be junked since they are not backed by gold.

No one has faith in the dollar because of its military strength. Rather they despise the military strength as it is allowing the US to steal the world resources and live beyond its means. Here people are compelled to trade in dollars. BRICS is an attempt to get away from this legacy.

Gold is still used for reserves. It is just not used for global trade. No one trades in gold or currency pegged to gold.

Gold is used in reserves because it is one of the reliables. It could very well go back to trading in gold. This is exactly what US feared when India refused to back out of oil deals with Iran, it was will to make the payment in gold which was acceptable to Iran. That would have defacto brought back gold to the status it should have.

Hoarding gold and rejecting modern theory of Economics is the practice of communism and socialism. That is why USSR collapsed. Because it did not understand modern economic and global trade. Something the US mastered. Both USSR and USA went on a military build up spree, only the rest of the world financed the US to do so by purchasing the dollar, while Russia went bankrupt.

Russia had massive OIL banks, like India has gold. Did it help them ? It did not because Russia did not bother to control the global oil trade and make its currency the premium currency.

Let us not kid ourself by claiming that India provides the same opportunity that US provides. Most kids in India do not even have teachers in their schools. Out of every 100 kids, how many pass 10th standard ? how many pass 12th standard ?

We rank at the bottom on the PISA scale. Literally at the bottom. Still this is not relevant to the topic, except to prove we need money desperately to improve basic infrastructure and provide equal opportunity that education can bring.

Let us not talk about the elite going to US schools and living the American dream and call it the Indian dream.

USSR did not have gold. In fact it was famous for stating it did not believe in gold. It was not haording gold which resulted in the collapse of USSR. Do not bring in bogeyman arguments. It was USA which by your own admission had the gold. In fact it was USA which started out by confiscating its citizens gold. It was the same policies which India pursued which resulted in Indian govt having just 60 tons of gold as its reserves when it had to bail itself out of bankrupty in 1991. Were it not for the smuggled gold caught by the customs, India would still have a paltry amount of 60 tons as its gold reserves.

The world did not finance military build up willingly. Do not make facetious arguments. I have already pointed why global trade got denominated in dollars. It was just US' ruthlessness and foresight perhaps that it figured out how to leverage the discovery of oil under the Arab sands for its own economic salvation.

Russia cannot control the global trade in oil because its is not the only country with oil. It is the OPEC which got there first and hence they determine the oil trade. Russian can only be a secondary player.

Let us not kid ourself by claiming that India provides the same opportunity that US provides. Most kids in India do not even have teachers in their schools. Out of every 100 kids, how many pass 10th standard ? how many pass 12th standard ?

We rank at the bottom on the PISA scale. Literally at the bottom. Still this is not relevant to the topic, except to prove we need money desperately to improve basic infrastructure and provide equal opportunity that education can bring.

Let us not talk about the elite going to US schools and living the American dream and call it the Indian dream.

India provides the same opportunity and perhaps ever better. Only 25% of American kids make it to college and even there they do mainly humanity courses which leaves them practically unemployable. So what opportunity is the US providing for 75% of its youngsters? A lifetime of indebtedness on college loans or a lifetime of working at Taco Bell?

You are too hooked up on the movie version of US to realize its massive underbelly.

We have not cared for our people. Period. No excuses is sufficient or necessary. You know this is true.

I am talking about govt. apathy and clueless attitude to modern economics and global trade. A govt. which did not even provide a bank account to Indians till Modi came along. What can be more telling ?

You got that right. We have not cared for our people because of govt apathy and cluelessness. Modern economics is in a meltdown. So please. Bank accounts are not modern economics. It is old school economics.

you can buy 200 Rafale

22 billion is only the monetary value without looking at its numismatic value. If one takes that into account then it could well be worth over a 100 billion dollars.

 

[mooppan]

As a Keralite Hindu we cant give a sure confirmation .
But materials in that temple has archeological value .So they cant melt it .But it can used as reserve.

Aiyyo bendaaye..Already we Kerala Muslims and Christians are potrayed as cruel,evil and smugglers by the right wingers..Tomorrow if any sanghi says the Modi is using this gold for funding Mosques and Churches ...We can't bear it anymore....Better put inside the temple as it is...

 

[KIND]

Temple gold are for Hindu gods and Hindu's in a broad sense. Will not give a single dust of that to serve other communities than only Hindus. If we give we need all our looted and destroyed temples back.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Modi should do something about this.This should not happen!

 

[ashok mourya]

India's rich temples may open gold vaults for Narendra Modi

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai devoted to the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesha bristles with close circuit cameras and is guarded by 65 security officers.

It is one of India's richest temples, having amassed 158 kg of gold offerings, worth some $67 million, and its heavily guarded vaults are strictly off limits.

India is the world's biggest consumer of gold and its ancient temples have collected billions of dollars in jewellery, bars and coins over the centuries - all hidden securely in vaults, some ancient and some modern.

A few years ago a treasure of gold worth an estimated $20 billion was discovered in secret subterranean vaults in the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Kerala state.


Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to get his hands on this temple gold, estimated at about 3,000 tonnes, more than two thirds of the gold held in the US bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, to help tackle India's chronic trade imbalance. Modi's government is planning to launch a scheme in May that would encourage temples to deposit their gold with banks in return for interest payments.

The government would melt the gold and loan it to jewellers to meet an insatiable appetite for gold and reduce economically-crippling gold imports, which accounted for 28 percent of India's trade deficit in the year ending March 2013.

India's annual gold imports of 800 to 1,000 tonnes could be cut by a quarter if temples decided to participate in the scheme, say government and industry sources.

"We would be happy to deposit our gold to nationalized banks if the policy is beneficial, safe and earns good interest," said Narendra Murari Rane, chairman of the trust for the Siddhivinayak temple, portions of which are gold-plated.

But some Hindu devotees are not happy with the idea that their offerings could be melted down.
A Mumbai-based gold merchant, who said he and his father had donated around 200 kg of gold to Siddhivinayak and other temples over the years, said it would be a sin for the temples to earn interest on the gold offered to the gods.

"I make donations to God; not to any temple trust," the 52-year-old merchant said.

Modi would also like to convince Indians to open their family vaults, which hold an estimated 17,000 tonnes of gold in jewellery and other heirlooms.

But it will be much harder to convince Indian families, who sometimes have little faith in financial institutions, to break tradition and hand over gold passed down the generations.

India's love affair with gold spans centuries is rooted in the Hindu religion. One of the biggest annual buying seasons is the Diwali festival around October to November. Gold marriage dowries are widespread and with 70 percent of the population rural, gold is financial security.

INTEREST RATE KEY

Key to Modi's plan will be the interest rates offered for gold deposits.

A similar gold monetization plan launched in 1999 proved ineffective, in part because the interest rates offered on gold deposits were regarded by temple officials as too low.

Under that scheme India's top lender the State Bank of India offers 0.75 percent to 1 percent and only 15 tonnes of gold has been deposited so far.

Temple officials at Siddhivinayak and Shri Saibaba Sansthan in Shirdi, both in the western state of Maharashtra, say they expect interest rates in the new scheme to be much higher and so would consider participating.

The government plans to reveal rate details when it launches the new scheme. Siddhivinayak's Rane said he expected at least 5 percent interest on gold deposits.

Rajendra Jadhav, executive officer of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan temple trust, said rates will also be key to his temple's decision. He declined to say how much gold the temple, dedicated to a 19th century saint, had in its vaults.

A successful gold monetization programme could go a long way in helping India reduce its trade imbalance.

India raised the import duty on gold, the country's biggest non-essential import, and imposed other restrictions in 2013 after the current account deficit hit a record $190 billion.

If India can cut imports, that would pressure gold prices that fell to a four-month low last month before recovering. Lower gold prices will help India cut its import bill.However, a successful scheme could also expose the government to potential risks, if gold prices were to take off and depositors decided to withdraw at the same time.

"There is going to be a lock-in period under the new gold monetizing scheme," said Sudheesh Nambiath, an analyst at precious metals consultancy GFMS. "Banks will have to replenish the stocks with imports later (if temples withdraw gold)."

India's rich temples may open gold vaults for Narendra Modi - The Times of India

1000 year gold ornaments are not ordinary gold excavated from mines, they are precious with there antique, historical value.I mean they are 1000 times worth than ordinary gold.Not to forget that they are jewels of god.

 

[uparyupari]

Nope. It is because they understand that it is the only money which has any intrinsic value universally accepted by people all over the world.

That is illogical since they are also building reserves of various foreign currency. Gold is only ONE such reserve. Not the ONLY reserve.

BRICS plan is not just to counter US influence in world bank and IMF but to challenge the hegemony of dollar and possibly replace it. The US and the west by extension has been enriching itself on the back of the savings of the rest of the world due to its currency being the world reserve currency. This free loading is sought to be ended by the BRICS bank.

BRICS may or may not challenge the USD. That is pure speculation. China holds 1 Trillion USD as reserves The Yuan is pegged to the USD. You think they are going to let the USD die ? Not unless they want to do financial suicide.

Don't see things you WANT to see. See things for what they are.

Nope. Americans do not hold most gold in the world. Neither does the IMF. It has long been speculated that all its gold holdings have been sold or lent out and there is hardly any gold left in US Federal Reserves. One of the reasons US has been unable to repatriate German's gold despite being repeatedly asked. Neither has IMF sent the gold it owes India back to India, exactly for the same reason.

That is still Speculation. Needs no response.

It is India which holds most of the worlds gold.

India brought back the gold from the world market once its price dipped. That is how we now have around 40,000 tons of gold in private hands in India.

Let us get our facts right.

US Federal reserve is 8100 Tons of Gold which is 74.70 % of their Forex Reserve.

Official Indian Federal Reserve is 614.80 Tons which is 8.10 % of our Foreign reserve.

So who is risk hedging better ?

World Gold Council’s (WGC) has estimated Indian Household gold reserve at 20,000 Tons. Upper end of the estimate being 24,000 Tons.

However India produces 2.8 Tons of gold every year.

China produces 320 Tons of gold every year. US produces 223 Tons of gold every year.

China consumes 1,500 Tons of gold every year. As compared to 950 Tons Indians consume every year.

Non govt. gold holding by Chinese is going to be as much as India's, it not greater.

USD is backed by oil, hence it is called petrodollar. Where do you think the term comes from if not its association with oil? What is the one commodity that every country barring the oil producing nations have to, just have to, buy? Oil. This is one of the must buys for all counties which is why they have to shore up their dollar reserves so that they can purchase oil in the market. This compulsory need for the dollar is what drives the value of dollar and the world trade is in dollars, otherwise what differentiates the USD dollar from the Argentinian currency? Both deserve to be junked since they are not backed by gold.

That is what I said. However the USD continues to remain the preferred currency of trade despite of your protests. You need to think why.

That will give you the answer. No amount of explanation from me will suffice.

No one has faith in the dollar because of its military strength. Rather they despise the military strength as it is allowing the US to steal the world resources and live beyond its means. Here people are compelled to trade in dollars. BRICS is an attempt to get away from this legacy.

US military strength is the ONLY reason for faith in the US dollar. People despising it has no relevance. People will continue to despise it and continue to buy it.

Gold is used in reserves because it is one of the reliables. It could very well go back to trading in gold. This is exactly what US feared when India refused to back out of oil deals with Iran, it was will to make the payment in gold which was acceptable to Iran. That would have defacto brought back gold to the status it should have.

That is speculation. US has never allowed nations to buy oil other than USD. You can dream all you want, reality is harsher and different.

USSR did not have gold. In fact it was famous for stating it did not believe in gold. It was not haording gold which resulted in the collapse of USSR. Do not bring in bogeyman arguments. It was USA which by your own admission had the gold. In fact it was USA which started out by confiscating its citizens gold. It was the same policies which India pursued which resulted in Indian govt having just 60 tons of gold as its reserves when it had to bail itself out of bankrupty in 1991. Were it not for the smuggled gold caught by the customs, India would still have a paltry amount of 60 tons as its gold reserves.

I am talking about USSR not taking steps to ensure purchase of oil in Rouble and you are the one talking about gold and making the bogey argument.

The world did not finance military build up willingly. Do not make facetious arguments. I have already pointed why global trade got denominated in dollars. It was just US' ruthlessness and foresight perhaps that it figured out how to leverage the discovery of oil under the Arab sands for its own economic salvation.

Willingness or not, the intent is irrelevant. Their willingness or lack of it is the facetious argument. I deal with reality, not intent.

Russia cannot control the global trade in oil because its is not the only country with oil. It is the OPEC which got there first and hence they determine the oil trade. Russian can only be a secondary player.

US beat Russia to it, plain and simple. Saudi Rial is pegged to the USD, not to the Rubble. US has base in Middle east, not Russia.

India provides the same opportunity and perhaps ever better. Only 25% of American kids make it to college and even there they do mainly humanity courses which leaves them practically unemployable. So what opportunity is the US providing for 75% of its youngsters? A lifetime of indebtedness on college loans or a lifetime of working at Taco Bell?

Ya, there are 300 million Indians are living the Indian dream of working as coolies. Working in brick factors, in constructions and in NREGA and sending their children to Hyderabad to make bangles and fire crackers. What a wonderful life full of opportunities, surely the will be the next bill gates ....... do you even hear yourself ?

You are too hooked up on the movie version of US to realize its massive underbelly.

Personal attack ?

You got that right. We have not cared for our people because of govt apathy and cluelessness. Modern economics is in a meltdown. So please. Bank accounts are not modern economics. It is old school economics.

Buying gold instead of putting that money in a Bank or FD or Mutual Funds is very old school economics. Opening bank accounts is the first step into integrating them into the modern financial world and economic inclusion.

 

[SrNair]

if that gold is taken out from that vault then consider it gone. we won't get it back.

Indian Army still protect that Nizams gold ,for what?
Only thing that we can see here is the its invaluable archeolgical value .Institutions like Archeolgical S

Aiyyo bendaaye..Already we Kerala Muslims and Christians are potrayed as cruel,evil and smugglers by the right wingers..Tomorrow if any sanghi says the Modi is using this gold for funding Mosques and Churches ...We can't bear it anymore....Better put inside the temple as it is...

You have some point
But tons of gold are ended up in our temples in India from devotees everyyear .Ordinary gold gifted to temples .Most of it dont have any accounts and will sinked by corrupt priests and officials.

But RBI can increase or decrease the value of our currency .If we add that gold in to RBI account .I dont know more about it.Reserve means keep this archeolgical value without any slight damage .

 

[East or West India Best]

Nationalize all mandirs and take their gold. Laxmi doesn't don't need them more than a starving chamar.

 

[KIND]

Nationalize all mandirs and take their gold. Laxmi doesn't don't need them more than a starving chamar.

If you can then try.

 

[Dragon Ball]

That is illogical since they are also building reserves of various foreign currency. Gold is only ONE such reserve. Not the ONLY reserve.

Gold is only one such reserve because Gold will be manipulated and beaten down considering all the gold mines are virtually under the control of West. So extra caution.

BRICS may or may not challenge the USD. That is pure speculation. China holds 1 Trillion USD as reserves The Yuan is pegged to the USD. You think they are going to let the USD die ? Not unless they want to do financial suicide.

Don't see things you WANT to see. See things for what they are.

You think China wants to perpetually feed the US off its hard work? While it squeezes its own people in its sweat factories and pollutes it environment to make a slim profit, US has it easy living off credit which it need never pay back. Do you think Chinese find that a desirable position to be in? Nothing will happen all of a sudden but the ganging up of BRICS is not all that altruistic as far as Dollar is concerned.

That is still Speculation. Needs no response.

It is backed by plenty of evidence.

Let us get our facts right.

US Federal reserve is 8100 Tons of Gold which is 74.70 % of their Forex Reserve.

Official Indian Federal Reserve is 614.80 Tons which is 8.10 % of our Foreign reserve.

So who is risk hedging better ?

US does not need to have a federal reserve. It can print dollars at will which is what it has been doing since 2008. It does not even need to print nowadays since electronic money. That 8100 gold is simply not there.

World Gold Council’s (WGC) has estimated Indian Household gold reserve at 20,000 Tons. Upper end of the estimate being 24,000 Tons.

However India produces 2.8 Tons of gold every year.

China produces 320 Tons of gold every year. US produces 223 Tons of gold every year.

China consumes 1,500 Tons of gold every year. As compared to 950 Tons Indians consume every year.

Non govt. gold holding by Chinese is going to be as much as India's, it not greater.

World Gold Council's estimate of gold was 20,000 tons 6 years ago at a very modest conservative estimate. That was even before Padmanabhaswamy Temple gold came to light. Since then year on year India has added more than a thousand ton every year taking into account smuggled gold and gold brought in by gulf returnees. The gold calculated by WGC was only based on the last 30-40 year's imports. Now someone has to believe Indians did not hold any gold at all before this period to believe these estimates.

Chinese were forbidden to hold gold until about a decade ago and most of their investment was in silver. So all the gold accumulation that has happened in China is only in these past decade, so the amount of Gold the Chinese hold is far below what the Indians have.

That is what I said. However the USD continues to remain the preferred currency of trade despite of your protests. You need to think why.

That will give you the answer. No amount of explanation from me will suffice.

Yes, that is why more and more countries are trying to move away from USD by engaging in currency swap deals.

US military strength is the ONLY reason for faith in the US dollar. People despising it has no relevance. People will continue to despise it and continue to buy it.

Explained already.

I am talking about USSR not taking steps to ensure purchase of oil in Rouble and you are the one talking about gold and making the bogey argument.

No, you said USSR collapsed because it was hoarding gold and not economically savvy and trading. USSR was an atheist country and the Arabs were fighting communists then. There was no way USSR could have ensured purchase of oil in Rouble.

Willingness or not, the intent is irrelevant. Their willingness or lack of it is the facetious argument. I deal with reality, not intent.

I am talking about reality too.

US beat Russia to it, plain and simple. Saudi Rial is pegged to the USD, not to the Rubble. US has base in Middle east, not Russia.

Explained already. Communists anyway did not have any business sense anymore than they had any gold sense.

Ya, there are 300 million Indians are living the Indian dream of working as coolies. Working in brick factors, in constructions and in NREGA and sending their children to Hyderabad to make bangles and fire crackers. What a wonderful life full of opportunities, surely the will be the next bill gates ....... do you even hear yourself ?

I see the 800 million who are not working as coolies or working in brick factories or constructions or in NREGA or sending their children to Hyderabad to make bangles and fire crackers. As far as I can say 800 million is a far greater number than 300 million. Just last year a diamond merchant in Gujarat gave his employees cars and house as Diwali bonuses. He was just 4th pass. Likewise, the entire hosiery business in Coimbatore is run by people who are 8th class pass and they own industries worth billions. Opportunities are not the sole proprietorship of people who go to school and learn to become paper pushers.

Personal attack

Wo, what was personal about that. This glossy view of US is held by many many Indians.

Buying gold instead of putting that money in a Bank or FD or Mutual Funds is very old school economics. Opening bank accounts is the first step into integrating them into the modern financial world and economic inclusion.

Buying gold is very old school economics and it has held them at good stead. Just a couple of months ago I saw @SpArK post a chart which should the wealth holdings of Indian households. Majority Indian households do a lot better than people else where in the world in terms of wealth.

 

[mooppan]

You have some point
But tons of gold are ended up in our temples in India from devotees everyyear .Ordinary gold gifted to temples .Most of it dont have any accounts and will sinked by corrupt priests and officials.

But RBI can increase or decrease the value of our currency .If we add that gold in to RBI account .I dont know more about it.Reserve means keep this archeolgical value without any slight damage .

But should be very careful when dealing with our politicians,even if he is our P.M..
Moreover most of those had centuries old..so we can't calculate its value..
Better put up an archaeological museum under a Hindu trust(not under government) and the money generated from it should be used for the renovation and development of Hindu temples,helping poor Hindus etc...