India, May 25 -- Indian investors are trained to measure wealth in rupees. Salaries arrive in rupees. Portfolio values appear in rupees. Mutual fund statements, bank balances, property prices, insurance covers, and retirement targets are usually presented in rupees. This makes the rupee feel like the natural language of wealth.

Yet modern financial lives are no longer purely domestic. Education, healthcare, travel, technology, imported goods, luxury consumption, and global investment opportunities are increasingly influenced by international prices. The dollar sits quietly behind many of these costs.

The question is not whether Indian investors should abandon the rupee. They cannot, and they should not. The sharper question is whether t...