Work From Home advisory: Why PM Modi urged Indians to stay indoors amid West Asia crisis
PM Modi's Work From Home advisory: The prime minister acknowledged the spike in fuel prices due to the Iran-United States war in West Asia and asserted that India must save foreign exchange ‘by any means’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged Indians to strengthen the economy by using fuel judiciously and opting for Working From Home (WFH) whenever possible. The prime minister's suggestions came as West Asia remains on edge due to Iran and the United States continuing to exchange proposals to end the war, but not agreeing to anything.
As part of the peace negotiations, Iran on Sunday, 10 May, proposed to transfer some of its enriched uranium stockpile to another country, but rejected the idea of dismantling its nuclear facilities. However, US President Donald Trump rejected these suggestions, triggering oil prices to go as high as $105 a barrel.
Why did PM Modi urge Work From Home?
Addressing a gathering in Hyderabad organised by the BJP, Modi acknowledged the spike in fuel prices due to the Iran-United States war in West Asia and asserted that India must save foreign exchange “by any means”.
Quick answers to key questions
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to work from home to conserve foreign exchange and strengthen the economy amidst the West Asia crisis. This measure, previously adopted during COVID-19, helps reduce fuel consumption and mitigate the adverse effects of global conflicts on India's economy.
Working from home, along with other measures like judicious fuel use and reduced foreign travel, helps India save foreign currency. By reducing daily commutes and associated fuel consumption, it also contributes to decreased traffic congestion and environmental protection, while ensuring business continuity.
India's tech sector, represented by NASSCOM and unions like NITES, already operates on hybrid models and has demonstrated the effectiveness of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic. They support the appeal for work from home as a practical and sustainable measure for fuel conservation and national interest.
The West Asia crisis, particularly the Iran-US conflict, leads to surging crude oil prices. This directly impacts India, a major oil importer, by increasing its import bill and potentially widening the current account deficit, thus weakening the rupee.
Besides work from home, PM Modi urged citizens to use fuel judiciously, postpone gold purchases, limit non-urgent foreign travel, use public transport like metro rail, carpool, and promote electric vehicles. He also called for reducing edible oil consumption and promoting natural farming.
Note: Foreign exchange is the conversion of one country’s currency into another. Conversion allows individuals and businesses to carry out cross-border transactions. For example, when you travel abroad, you exchange the INR for US dollars (USD) or another currency at the prevailing exchange rate on that day.
Modi also called for postponing gold purchases and non-urgent foreign travel, among other measures, to strengthen the economy.
He suggested using metro rail services in cities, carpooling, increased use of electric vehicles (EVs), utilising railway services for parcel movement, and working from home for a year, stressing the need to save foreign exchange due to the crisis in West Asia.
He said, “We must make efforts to use only as much as is needed to save foreign currency and reduce the adverse effects of war crises.”
Stressing the need to save fuel, Modi said, “We got into work-from-home, virtual meetings, video conferencing, and many other methods during Covid-19. We got habituated to them. The need of the hour is to resume those methods. During a global crisis, keeping the country above all else, we have to take resolutions.”
He also called for reducing the consumption of edible oil, lowering the use of chemical fertilisers, promoting natural farming and using Swadeshi products to save foreign exchange to help make the country self-reliant.
How Congress reacted
The Congress attacked Modi over his remarks urging citizens to use petroleum products judiciously, saying the PM is clueless about ensuring India's energy security even after three months into the US-Iran war.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “3 months into the Iran-US war and PM Modi is still clueless about ensuring India's energy security. It is shameless, reckless and downright immoral that the PM is pushing the common citizen into inconvenience, instead of building contingencies to ensure our economy is unaffected by this global crisis.”
“When elections and petty politics are the sole priority of the PM, the end result is an impending economic catastrophe,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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