RISING pressure on India’s external sector with forex reserves plummeting by $38 billion in just two months since the onset of the West Asia conflict, and crude oil prices continuing to hover over $100 a barrel, have started to worry policy makers. Behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for austerity measures by citizens are substantial foreign exchange outflows linked to higher gold imports and spending on overseas travel under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). While the gold import bill has almost doubled to $72 billion in 2025-26 in two years, outflow under LRS for foreign travel accounted for $15 billion or 57 per cent of the total $26.34 billion LRS in the first 11 months of 2025-26. The fall in reserves to $691 billion has also been driven by sustained capital outflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) amid heightened global uncertainty. FII outflows in January-May period were Rs 1.97 lakh crore as foreign investors continued their sell-off in the stock markets.…