According to sub geniuses

[Cricfan]

[Chirag]

Japan doesn't use a decimal system for its currency.

[Gopal]

Tum lawde log India ko Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal se hi compare karte raho. Wahan China pichhe se marke chala gaya.

[Rajesh]

What are you even on about?

You took the effort to get an AI to generate the image, but you can't write two sentences in your post?

[Chandan]

I can't get any clear meaning from your image, but if you're trying to argue that currency depreciation isn't bad, remember that India is a net importer. With rising oil prices, a weaker rupee makes a barrel of crude absurdly expensive, and we can't sustain that for long.

Edit - Since you mentioned Japan, recent data shows they posted an export surplus of about $500 million in March. A weaker currency does help net exporters like Japan.

[Shobha]

For export-heavy economies it makes sense to devalue their currencies. India is a consumption-driven, net-importing economy, so our rupee needs to stay strong otherwise consumption suffers and GDP slows. OP, don't rage-bait. Basic economics, padh le bhai.

Long explanation:

We have 1.4 billion people. By default, whether we like it or not, these 1.4 billion consume daily – rice, wheat, petrol, diesel, sugar, veggies, meat, etc. Countries with a population boom tend to be consumption-heavy, which economists call a demographic dividend: a huge young population can boost growth dramatically. But the dividend only helps if it's turned into production and long-term wealth.

Take Norway (pop 5 million) – they built a sovereign wealth fund worth about $2 trillion, investing in securities to ensure high living standards and retirement benefits. India, on the other hand, scrapped many social security schemes and has a sovereign wealth fund of just $5 billion.

The worry is that we consume a lot without creating long-term assets to support the same population that makes India the fastest-growing economy. Our GDP-to-debt ratio has ballooned to 81%, a red flag because future generations will have to shoulder that debt when the demographic dividend runs out. The US can handle a 120% ratio thanks to petro-dollar dominance, but our currency is weak and not used in international trade.

Eventually the population will age, and the younger generation will have to bear elder-care costs. Most millennials and Gen-Z have no solid retirement plan – EPF and other schemes are a joke and won't even last five years post-retirement. To make it worse, our finance minister taxes long-term capital gains, discouraging long-term thinking. That's why India's gross household savings fell to a multi-year low of 18.1% of GDP in FY24 (down from 32.2% in FY15), driven by rising liabilities and consumption.

In short, households have little money, the government lacks a sizable sovereign wealth fund, and we haven't shifted from a consumption-based to a manufacturing-driven economy. Manufacturing has stagnated at 15-18% of GDP for the past decade, whereas other nations with similar population booms reached about 25%.

I'm not spreading doom, just sharing a macro view of India's trajectory. A lot can be fixed, but first people need to realise things aren't great. Many still believe India is doing exceptionally well, ignoring that our growth is more despite the government than because of it. That's unsustainable – the same population that drives growth will soon become a liability when it ages, and no one seems to care.

[Keerthi]

Comparing other countries while our own is in trouble!

[Vaishali]

The exchange rate alone means nothing. 1 dollar is 9500 paisa - just a conversion figure. The real issue is that the rupee is rapidly losing value against the dollar.

[Ritu]

1 USD = 9500 Indian paisa. That denomination is the point, genius, not that the Indian or Bangladeshi currency is stronger than the Japanese yen.

[Manisha]

[Khushi]

The Indian rupee is hugely overvalued given how our economy works. It should be around 150-200 per dollar. If the government were brave, they'd let the rupee devalue more, even if it draws backlash.