Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has responded to self-styled all-in-all expert political commentator Sumanth Raman’s question on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is urging Indians to reduce spending on foreign travel, gold and overseas weddings despite India recording 7.8% economic growth.
Raman had questioned what he assumed was a disconnect between strong GDP growth and the government’s calls for restraint, while also pointing to the performance of the stock market.
“If economy is growing at 7.8% why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc.? And why is the share market almost static or down? Any economists explain???” Raman posted.
If economy is growing at 7.8% why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc.? And why is the share market almost static or down? Any economists explain???
— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) September 1, 2026
Responding to Raman, Vembu explained that rapid economic growth can coexist with the need to conserve foreign exchange, citing the experience of several East Asian economies.
“If economy is growing at 7.8% why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc,” Vembu began, before explaining the economic reasoning behind such measures.
He pointed to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and later China, saying these countries went through periods of rapid GDP growth while simultaneously needing to conserve foreign exchange.
Vembu identified three key reasons for this situation.
First, he said India continues to depend heavily on imports for both energy and technology.
“Our economy is growing at a good rate but we still have an import dependence, in both energy and in technology. In fact, the faster the economy grows, the greater the need for both energy and technology inputs,” he said.
Second, Vembu said India needs to increase exports to offset its import dependence. However, even export-oriented industries require imported technological inputs.
“To balance that import dependence, we have to export more and our exports are surging. However, even our exports need advanced technological inputs — precision machines, materials, CPUs, GPUs, advanced software etc — that we need to import today,” he said.
According to Vembu, reducing this dependence on imported technology will take time.
“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.
He pointed to the development trajectories of East Asian economies, arguing that countries such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China experienced rapid growth while simultaneously working to conserve foreign exchange.
“Look at how long it took East Asia to catch up with the West. Their economies were growing rapidly even as they worked hard to conserve foreign exchange,” Vembu said.
“That is exactly what our government is trying to do,” he added.
Vembu said India’s need to conserve foreign exchange could eventually decline as the country builds greater technological capabilities and reduces its dependence on imported energy.
“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.
Drawing an analogy with a rapidly expanding company, Vembu said a growing business may still need to conserve capital in order to invest in future expansion.
“The situation is similar to a fast growing company that needs capital to grow. So it has to conserve capital to invest in growth. Our nation needs to conserve foreign exchange likewise,” he said.
“If economy is growing at 7.8% why is the PM asking us not to travel abroad, not to buy gold, not to have foreign weddings etc”
Let me explain: East Asian nations (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and later China) all went through a phase of rapid GDP growth combined with the need to… https://t.co/1HdLAUDaej
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) September 2, 2026
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