New Delhi, September 2, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Zoho Chief Scientist and Co-founder Sridhar Vembu on Wednesday explained Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to citizens to reduce foreign travel, gold purchases and overseas weddings, saying the measures are aimed at conserving foreign exchange amid India’s continued dependence on imports.
Responding to questions over why such an appeal was being made despite India’s economy growing at 7.8 per cent, Vembu said rapid economic expansion also increases the country’s requirement for imported energy, technology and advanced industrial inputs.
“If the economy is growing at 7.8 per cent, why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc,” Vembu said in a social media post.
He explained that faster growth increases demand for foreign exchange because India still imports several critical inputs, including precision machinery, specialised materials, CPUs, GPUs and advanced software.
According to Vembu, India is growing at a healthy pace but remains dependent on imports in key areas. To manage this dependence, the country needs to increase exports and conserve foreign exchange, he said.
Drawing a comparison with East Asian economies, Vembu said countries in the region experienced periods of rapid economic growth while simultaneously working to preserve their foreign-exchange reserves and build domestic capabilities.
“Catching up in all of these areas takes time, often measured in decades. We have made a good start but we need time,” he said, adding that East Asian economies also took considerable time to narrow their technological and economic gap with the West.
Vembu said the government’s emphasis on reducing discretionary foreign travel, gold purchases and overseas weddings should be viewed in this broader economic context.
He added that the need to conserve foreign exchange could eventually diminish once India develops greater capabilities in advanced technologies and achieves energy independence through domestically developed renewable-energy technologies.
“Once we gain competence in all the advanced technologies, and achieve energy independence through renewable energy that we develop the technology for, we would no longer need to conserve foreign exchange,” he said.
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