New Delhi, September 2: Sridhar Vembu, the Chief Scientist and co-founder of Zoho, stated on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent foreign trip and his appeal to refrain from buying gold and unnecessary spending aim to conserve essential foreign currency during India’s rapid growth phase.
Vembu compared India’s economic trajectory to that of East Asian economies, noting that India is on a similar path, where GDP expansion is accompanied by prudent foreign currency conservation.
In a social media post, he questioned, “If the economy is growing at a rate of 7.8 percent, why is the Prime Minister asking us not to travel abroad, buy gold, or hold weddings overseas?” He argued that as India’s economy grows, the demand for imported energy and advanced technology inputs also increases.
He emphasized, “The faster the economy grows, the greater the need for both energy and technology.” The requirement for foreign currency to pay for precision machinery, materials, CPUs, GPUs, and advanced software is also rising.
Vembu pointed out that while India’s economy is “growing at a good rate,” the country still relies heavily on imports in critical sectors, which must be balanced by increasing exports.
He remarked, “It takes time to achieve parity in all these areas, 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 while they worked hard to conserve foreign currency.”
The co-founder of Zoho indicated that the government aims to achieve this by restricting unnecessary foreign travel and gold purchases.
He concluded, “Once we achieve efficiency in all advanced technologies and gain energy independence through renewable energy, for which we develop technology, we will no longer need to conserve foreign currency.”
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