Gang of friends.

On 29 October, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revealed "it had shipped 102 tonnes of gold from the Bank of England's vaults in London to secure locations in India." "Since September 2022, RBI has quietly brought back 214 tonnes of gold, driven by the need to safeguard holdings amid growing geopolitical uncertainties." Of the 855 tonnes of gold reserves, 510.5 tonnes are now stored in India. ET. At least, this will save a lot of foreign exchange. It costs 50 pounds per year to store 1 kg gold bar in London. Gold Investments. The US has a habit of imposing sanctions on nations, which is supported by its friends. "Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed 16,500 sanctions on Russia." "Foreign currency reserves worth $350bn - about half its total reserves - were frozen." BBC. Russia is not the only nation to have its funds plundered by this gang of rapacious countries. Iran has lost $100 to $120 billion worth of assets (wikipedia) and land-locked Afghanistan (google.co.in) has lost a total of at least $9 billion (wikipedia). The BRICS nations discussed a parallel system, called BRICS Pay, to bypass the dollar and the SWIFT cross-border payment system, at their summit at Kazan in Russia during 22-24 October. wikipedia. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls it the "BRICS Bridge", and "Controversially, it may borrow concepts from a different project called mBridge, part-run by a bastion of the Western-led order, the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS)." The Economist. "Project mBridge continues its development and has reached a minimum viable product (MVP) stage, while broadening its international reach. The project aims to explore a multi-central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform shared among participating central banks and commercial banks." BIS. In July 2023, "The RBI has permitted 20 banks operating in the country to open 92 Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SVRAs) of partner banks from 22 countries as part of efforts to promote bilateral trade in local currencies, the government said." ET. We don't know how successful it has been. Probably, not at all. Because, "If the underlying flows of capital and trade between two countries are unbalanced, which they usually are, they will have to accumulate assets or liabilities in each other's currencies, which may be unappealing." The other problem is that the economies of BRICS nations are small, except for China with a nominal GDP of $18 trillion (worldometer), whereas the nominal GDP of the US was $27 trillion in 2023 (World Bank) and that of the Euro area was $15.5 trillion in 2023 (World Bank), giving a combined GDP power of about $43 trillion. If the US and the Euro countries, along with the other members of the gang of plundering nations, refuse to trade with BRICS Pay, it will soon collapse. However, India has no quarrel with the US. "India is a strategic partner with whom it engages in a full and frank dialogue the United States said" in July 2024. NDTV. So why are we so anxious to find an alternative to the US dollar? Last month, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said "everything is on the table", hinting "at the possibility of imposing sanctions against India following a diplomatic fallout over the killing of pro-Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar." Surely, we are not scared of Canada with a nominal GDP of just $2.2 trillion (worldometer) and a defence force consisting of just 68,000 active personnel (wikipedia)? Canada has friends. Can India count on China? Happy Diwali to everyone in the world.