Sachin Tendulkar
Gold prices are continuously increasing in India, and now the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar is also making people aware about this. In a new advertisement of Tata Group’s jewelery company Tanishq, Sachin is seen telling people to buy new jewelery instead of old gold, so that the country’s economy can be strengthened. Sachin says, India imports almost all its gold from abroad. If we exchange our old gold, there will be no need to import gold. This will make the country stronger. This message is not only for cricket fans, but also for gold buyers and economists.
Why is Sachin’s words right?
India imports a large amount of gold every year, due to which the country’s trade deficit increases. That means the country has to spend more foreign currency in buying gold than the amount it receives from exports. Due to this the rupee weakens and imported goods become expensive.
India and gold relationship
In India, gold is not just a jewel, it is both a sentiment and an investment. According to the World Gold Council, in 2024, China bought 857 tonnes of gold and India bought 803 tonnes of gold. That means half of the world’s gold consumption is in just two countries. India and China. Not only this, according to Morgan Stanley, by June 2025, Indian families have about 34,600 tonnes of gold, whose value is about $3.8 trillion (about Rs 320 lakh crore), which is about 89% of India’s GDP.
Changes in savings and investments
Earlier people used to buy gold to avoid inflation. Raghuram Rajan, when he was the RBI Governor (about 10 years ago), had also advised people that buying more gold was a loss-making deal for the country. Now the situation has changed, inflation has come down from about 10% (2012) to now around 2.6%. People are now investing in share market and mutual funds instead of gold. The share of shares and mutual funds in the financial savings of households has reached 15.2% in 2024-25. Which is almost double than before.
investment in physical assets
Investment in houses and vehicles has increased. In 2011-12, 45.9% of total savings were invested in things like house and car, which came down to 36.9% in 2020-21. But in 2022-23 it again increased to 43.8%. Investment in gold and silver jewelery is now only 0.7-0.8% of the total savings. Then why did Tanishq choose Sachin? Even though people are buying less gold, gold prices are at a record high. In April 2025, the price of gold had crossed Rs 1 lakh per 10 grams.
Now it is moving towards Rs 1.3 lakh i.e. 50% more than last year. Purchasing new gold has become difficult due to rising prices, hence the idea of exchanging old gold for new jewelery has become a profitable deal for jewellers.
Increased interest in gold ETF and silver
Instead of buying gold directly, investors are now investing money in gold ETFs (exchange traded funds). There was investment of ₹8,363 crore in gold ETFs in September 2025 — which is 7 times more than last year. Even some mutual fund houses have now stopped taking new investments because the demand is very high. According to Varun Gupta, CEO of Groww Mutual Fund, due to shortage of silver, its prices in India are 512% higher than the international market.