Wahi Dhanush Wohi Baan

"Manushya kadi balwaan nahi, Samaya sub se balwaan
Kaabe Arjuna lutiyo, Wahi dhanush wahi baan"

Men (people or nations) are not forever dominant. A time will come when neither the unbreakable Gandiva, nor the inexhaustible quiver and their owner, the invincible warrior Arjuna, will be triumphant. and he will have to bear the ignominy of being robbed by a common outlaw.

India had to bear the shame of having the RBI ship planeloads of its gold reserves to London to get emergency IMF loans in 1991, when India was virtually bankrupt because of the economic policies followed by first Jawahar and then his daughter Indira. It was after this debacle that India seriously started opening up its economy and although the process is not yet complete, look where it has brought us.

India recently purchased 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF at a record average price of $1045 per ounce, spending USD 6.7 billions of its forex reserves and thus sending gold to its highest ever price recorded in open markets. India has also become the first asian giant to express its loss of faith in the USD by officially and openly diversifying from its USD assets.

Prior to this purchase, the RBI ranked at 14th place among official government holders of gold bullion with a total of less than 360 tonnes as of September 2009, which put its reserves of gold relative to other assets at less than 4%. After the latest addition, the RBI now has 6% share of gold to other reserves and a total tonnage of gold at 560 tonnes. It's ranking now as a government holder of gold has moved from 14th place to 12th place (Source: World Gold Council).

It is estimated that the Indian population now privately holds a total of over 15,000 tonnes of gold, which is an amount 27 times that held by the Reserve Bank of India.