New Delhi, June 15 -- When India's currency comes under pressure, the key question is whether policy buys time or space for complacency. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent measures to attract dollars and steady the rupee should be judged in that spirit.

This is a crisis playbook, not a panic button. It is calibrated, not chaotic. But it is still only a playbook for the next few months, and not an external-sector strategy.

RBI's package has many moving parts. Banks are being encouraged to mobilize three-to-five-year foreign currency non-resident deposits, with RBI absorbing the hedging cost. Public-sector firms have been nudged to raise foreign loans with concessional swap support. Foreign investors in government securities have be...