The notion that the Indian government considers its citizens’ gold “idle” and would like to get its hands on personal holdings of the metal, as well as bullion held in temples, has been circulating in the media for several years now. What’s interesting about today’s article, is that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has introduced concrete plans to make it happen.

Bloomberg reports:

There’s about 20,000 metric tons of gold stashed away in India’s temples and households — more than four times the amount that’s held in Fort Knox in Kentucky — and Narendra Modi wants to get his hands on it.

India’s prime minister on Thursday unveiled three state-backed plans to try to tap the stockpiles of the precious metal to trim physical demand and reduce imports by providing people with alternative avenues for investment. At an event in New Delhi, Modi announced the formal start of a gold-deposit plan, a sovereign-bond program linked to the metal’s price and introduction of locally minted coins, some bearing the face of Mahatma Gandhi.

Also known as the “please trade in your gold for paper promises and government tokens” plan.

“The expectations from the schemes in the short term must be tempered as it will take time to build the infrastructure and products and for customer acceptance to grow,” said P.R. Somasundaram, managing director at the World Gold Council in India. “We should see this announcement and launch as a strong indication of an intention to put gold at the heart of the financial system and make it work for the Indian economy.”

Yes it will take a while to properly propagandize the population, and if that fails, there’s always coercion or violence.

Meanwhile, I remain confused as to why it would be advantageous to place a barbarous, pet rock relic, owned merely for tradition at the “heart of the financial system.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…