New Delhi, June 3 -- Recently, Indians were asked to reduce energy usage through measures like work-from-home, car pooling, etc. Of course, this was consequent to the West Asia war and its disruption of crude oil and petroleum product supplies. But in addition, we were asked to cut back on foreign travel and gold purchases, among other expenses.

This went beyond the present conflict to pressure on the Indian rupee's exchange rate. Earlier this year, some measures were taken to restrict the type of foreign-currency transactions that could be undertaken by Indian banks and corporations.

The message seems to be that we should reduce outflows of foreign currency to help keep the rupee's exchange rate at a reasonable level.

I have even seen...