gold and silver
Between 2011 and 2025, India imported gold worth $609 billion. At today’s prices, this holding is worth $1.9 trillion. This means that gold has left no stone unturned in making investors earn in the last one and a half decade. For generations, Indian policy makers have viewed gold imports as a loss of foreign exchange and an old habit of saving. Now what used to seem like a burden has now actually become the biggest means of creating household wealth in the history of independent India. Let us try to explain this to you also in figures.
Gold worth 1.9 trillion dollars
Between 2011 and 2025, India imported about 12,670 tonnes of gold, worth about $609 billion. At the current spot price of $4,677 per ounce (as of April 4, 2026), that gold is now worth approximately $1.905 trillion. This increase of 1.3 trillion dollars is more than the entire foreign exchange reserves of India. No other asset class, government scheme or financial product has created so much wealth for Indian families during this period. Data shows that between 2011 and 2025, there has not been a single year when the value of holdings has not at least doubled.
How much return was given in which year?
- The price of gold imported for $35 billion in 2015 is now $157 billion. This means that a profit of 350 percent has been made.
- Gold purchased for $32 billion in 2018 has increased more than four times to $142 billion.
- Even in the pandemic year 2020, when India imported 430 tonnes of gold worth $22 billion, its value at today’s prices is $65 billion.
household balance sheet
According to World Gold Council estimates, Indian households have 25,000 to 34,600 tonnes of gold. At today’s prices, this equates to holdings of between $3.8 trillion and $5.2 trillion—almost equal to India’s entire GDP.
This is not “idle capital”. For millions of people, especially in rural India, gold serves as a mortgage, inheritance and emergency reserve all at the same time. No bank deposit has yet matched this combination of liquidity, portability and trust for the communities who depend on them most.
Boom in 2025, stability in 2026
The performance of gold in 2025 was tremendous. This metal touched its all-time high 53 times and gave an annual return of 67 percent in US dollar terms. For Indian investors, rupee weakness further boosted profits, taking domestic returns to 73 per cent. Gold remained at the forefront as the best performing asset class.
In 2026, gold is becoming stable. After hitting all-time highs 53 times in a year, a pause around $4,677 isn’t a drop—it’s the market’s way of understanding a generational re-pricing.
The fundamentals that drove gold to $5,594 in January remain in place, including rising fiscal deficit, continued central bank purchases, and pressure on real yields. History has shown that stability following bullish years is a good investment opportunity for long-term investors. The current situation also seems to be no different.
investment discipline
Despite the tremendous performance of gold, most planners recommend investing only 5 percent to 10 percent of it in the portfolio. This upper limit reflects the discipline of building a portfolio, rather than doubting the merits of gold. Unlike equity or debt, gold does not generate any cash flows. Overinvesting can skew the portfolio towards assets that do not generate any income.
An investment of 5% to 10% fulfills the role of gold in which it reduces market fluctuations and provides security in times of crisis. At the same time, it also remains invested in income-yielding assets that grow over time.
locker risk
The real question is not whether one should buy gold or not—but how to buy it the right way. There are risks in keeping gold in a bank locker, which people do not understand properly. According to RBI rules, the bank’s liability for the things kept in the locker cannot be more than 100 times the annual rent of the locker.
If the annual rent for a locker is Rs 5,000, then the maximum liability of the bank will be Rs 5 lakh. But the price of just 100 grams of gold—which is roughly equivalent to an ancestral wedding jewelery set—is around Rs 15 lakh today.
This creates a huge gap in security for locker owners. In theory, insurance could fill this gap, but the number of insured people is still low, and annual premiums of 0.5 percent to 1 percent significantly reduce profits.
Way to GIFT City
Until recently, Indian investors had limited access to internationally traded, hard-currency gold instruments. Regulatory changes made by the International Financial Services Centers Authority (IFSCA) have now opened up new avenues for NRIs and individuals resident in India to access professionally managed, physical gold-backed funds at GIFT City.
For investors who want to invest in gold without the hassle of owning physical gold—and who prefer the returns they get in hard-currency—this is a huge change. Such structures allow investors to access gold held in IIDI-insured and IFSCA regulated vaults within GIFT City. These vaults are completely independent from western custodian networks.
