, Columnist
How India’s Dollar Bond Made Too Many Enemies
Modi’s finance secretary took the fall for uniting opponents of foreign-currency debt, but the rupee will benefit in the long term.
Local spice? India may turn to a masala bond.
Photographer: NurPhoto/Getty Images
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An abrupt reshuffle at the top of India’s finance bureaucracy makes it unlikely that the country’s inaugural issue of a controversial sovereign bond overseas will happen now. It’s just as well.
Borrowing in a foreign currency, possibly dollars, would have set back New Delhi’s attempt to drum up more global interest in rupee debt. An unexpected meeting of minds formed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s core Hindu nationalist supporters and his more internationalist critics to put the bond’s future in question.