Why the Indian Rupee is Falling (And Why It Won’t Stop Anytime Soon) Saurabh x Nandita

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Explore investment offerings from the house of Marcellus: https://marcellus.in/help?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=ProfitingFromFadingState&utm_id=Video&utm_product=TLAsk any Indian saver about the rupee, and they will likely shrug off its steady 4% annual decline as nothing to lose sleep over. But this calm, near-continuous depreciation—from ₹18 to the dollar in 1991 to ₹96 today—was never an accident, and the structural foundations holding it up are starting to give way.In this episode, Saurabh Mukherjea and Nandita Rajhansa unpack the specific reasons why the historical stability of the Indian Rupee is under unprecedented threat. Saurabh breaks down the three eroding pillars of the rupee's defense: a hollowed-out self-funding state, a dangerously misleading headline foreign exchange reserve, and an increasingly pressured RBI. He also highlights the massive "silver lining" for Indian manufacturing and explains how investors can strategically protect and grow their wealth in a structurally softer currency environment.---------------------------------------------------------------💡Key Takeaways⮞ The Illusion of the $680 Billion War Chest: While India boasts massive headline FX reserves, stripping away illiquid assets like gold and SDRs, alongside a record $110 billion net short forward book, leaves only about $440 billion in genuinely usable foreign exchange.⮞ A Squeezed State & Reluctant Private Sector: The self-funding pillar of the Indian economy is weakening. The government struggles to tax mobile capital, and private corporates prefer handing cash back to shareholders over borrowing and building at home, which erodes growth-driven tax revenue.⮞ The RBI Under Strain: The central bank's recent defensive moves—including leaning heavily against the ₹100/USD mark and underwriting commercial banks' currency risks to raise foreign deposits—suggest a central bank increasingly cornered by a one-way currency slide.⮞ The AI Threat to IT Exports: IT and software make up roughly 75% of India's services exp