Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining? With The Rupee On A Nose-Dive, Remittances To India Hit A Record High 

Approximately $76 billion will flow into India in 2018 as part of remittances by 20 million Indians working abroad, according to estimates released by US-based insurance software provider Ebix Inc, as reported by Mint. This represents a 10 per cent increase over last year. 

India received $69 billion from approximately 20 million Indians working abroad in 2017, and according to World Bank, it retained the top slot in the list of countries receiving remittances from their diaspora. This was higher than World’s estimates at $65 billion. Perhaps it would not be surprising if India surpasses the numbers released by Ebix even in 2018.

The contribution of India’s diaspora to bridging India’s burgeoning Current Account Deficit (CAD) cannot be overstated. If not for them, India’s CAD would hover around 5 per cent of the GDP, instead of the current levels of 2 per cent, according to Capital Economics.

Rupee, which has been Asia’s worst performing currency this year, depreciated to record low levels on Oct 11 and one had to pay Rs. 74.4825 for every dollar bought on Oct. 11. However, due to the efforts of RBI, the rupee has recovered since.

Also, as RBI data notes, inflation has reduced to healthy levels of 3.7% in August 2018. Some amount of inflation, known as creeping inflation, is necessary to boost economy growth. India’s real interest rates (interest gained after deducting inflation rate) are much higher now than they were when the Modi government took over.

PM Modi has, time and again, emphasised the important role played by the diaspora in India's development and have asked them to invest money and expertise in India.