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PM Modi's Work From Home advisory: The prime minister acknowledged the spike in fuel prices due to the Iran-United States war in West Asia and asserted that India must save foreign exchange ‘by any means’.
PM Modi called for work from home, postponement of gold purchases and foreign travel, among other measures, to strengthen the economy amid West Asia conflict.(PMO)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged Indians to strengthen the economy by using fuel judiciously and opting to Working From Home (WFH) whenever possible to conserve it. The prime minister's suggestions came as the West Asia remains on edge due to Iran and the United States keep exchanging proposals to end the war but not agreeing to anything.
As part of the peace negotiations, Iran on Sunday, May 10, proposed to transfer some of its enriched uranium stockpile to another country, but rejected the idea of dismantling its nuclear facilities – suggestions US President Donald Trump rejected, triggering oil prices to go as high as $3 a barrel.
Why did PM Modi urge Work From Home?
Addressing a gathering in Hyderabad organised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the prime minister acknowledged the spike in fuel prices due to the Iran-United States war in West Asia and asserted that India must save foreign exchange “by any means”.
Note: Foreign exchange is conversion of one country’s currency into another. Conversion allows individuals and businesses to carry out cross-border transactions. For example: When you travel abroad, you exchange the INR for US dollars (USD) or any other currency at the prevailing exchange rate on a given day.
PM Modi also called for postponement of gold purchases and non-urgent foreign travel, among other measures, to strengthen the economy.
He suggested using metro rail services in cities, carpooling, increased use of electric vehicles (EVs), utilising railway services for parcel movement, and working from home for a year, stressing the need to save foreign exchange due to the crisis in West Asia.
He said, “We must make efforts to use only as much as is needed to save foreign currency and reduce the adverse effects of war crises.”
Stressing the need to save fuel, PM Modi said, “We got into work-from-home, virtual meetings, video conferencing, and many other methods during Covid-19. We got habituated to them. The need of the hour is to resume those methods. During a global crisis keeping the country above all else, we have to take resolutions.”
The prime minster also called for reducing the consumption of edible oil, lowering the use of chemical fertilisers, promoting natural farming and using Swadeshi products to save foreign exchange to help make the country self-reliant.
How Congress reacted
The Congress attacked PM Narendra Modi over his remarks urging citizens to use petroleum products judiciously, saying the PM is clueless about ensuring India's energy security even after three months into the US-Iran war.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “3 months into the Iran-US war and PM Modi is still clueless about ensuring India's energy security. It is shameless, reckless and downright immoral that the PM is pushing the common citizen into inconvenience, instead of building contingencies to ensure our economy is unaffected by this global crisis.”
“When elections and petty politics are the sole priority of the PM, the end result is an impending economic catastrophe,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
English (US) ·