India's love affair with gold

It's so small, it comes in credit card sized packaging. At $60 a gram, it takes months to earn one.

Pitts: Talking about gold makes you smile. You were so serious inside. But you talk about gold, you smile.

Beela Babu (translation): I earn this gold through my own hard work. That makes me happy.

Ajay Mitra: India has close to 400 million population that is classified as the poorest of the poor.

Ajay Mitra's employer - the World Gold Council - is funded by a group of mining companies to promote the sale of gold. He created the program to help India's poor, not to mention the gold industry.

Pitts: How would you characterize the role that India plays in the price of gold?

Mitra: The demand for gold out of India is fundamental for the health of the industry. If India sneezes, the gold industry will catch cold.

Pitts: People in the West can think what they want. The folks in London can set prices as much as they want. What happens in India is what determines what happens with gold.

Mitra: Right.

For now, much of India's demand for gold can be found in high-end stores like Anmol, owned by Ishu Datwani.

Ishu Datwani: This is the lower end of the spectrum. This starts--

Pitts: Lower end?

Datwani: --at about $500. This is a chain from Italy. Yes.

Pitts: You wouldn't wear that to a wedding.

Datwani: You wouldn't wear that to a wedding, no. You wouldn't. You wouldn't be caught dead with it in a wedding. This is about $30,000.

Pitts: $30,000?

Datwani: $30,000 yes.

Pitts: And people are coming in and buying that?

Datwani: Yes.

With India a rising economic powerhouse, the number of rich and middle class families now outnumber the poor. Indian households save an estimated 30 percent of their income, compared to about five percent for American households. The combination of rising incomes and savings prowess will enable Indians to buy more gold.

Pitts: How can you be both frugal and conservative, but yet be willing to spend thousands of dollars on gold?

Datwani: Because in your mind, that is a saving. That is going toward your saving account. You're not-- you know, a lot of people, when they come and buy gold, they don't think they're spending money. It's not an expense. It's an investment.

Pitts: That sounds like a jeweler's dream to have customers think they're not spending money.

Datwani: They do. They do. I'm not-- those are not my words.

Agarwal: In India, it's the jewelry that needs to do the talking. You know?

Chauhan: Nothing else matters.

Agarwal: ... because if you're not all decked up in your jewelry, you're just not sending the right message to the world.

Pitts: Yeah, 'cause all--

Chauhan: It has to be loud and clear.

Pitts: Loud and clear.

Chauhan: Yes. "There's gold on me." That's about it. It has-- it can't be understated. You have gold, flaunt it, show it.

Agarwal: Wear it.

Chauhan: Wear it.

• « Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

[englishchuck]

It bothers me why the people in the media keep saying Indians got gold from Europeans. Didn't Europeans/Muslim invaders come into India for Gold? Hello...remember Columbus? What was he searching for? Why? Not to trade spices.

Someone needs to teach history to these ignorant people. I won't be surprised if the next generation will say that Columbus was looking for India to buy cinnamon and cilantro powder for this evening dinners.

[MI2AZ]

I also can't believe Mr. Pitt's comment about the rich and middle class outnumbering the poor. I was in India last month and visited New Delhi, Agra and rural areas in Utter Pradesh. The poverty I saw was the most devastating I have ever seen and it was in all of the areas we visited. On my FB page are photos we took of the types of "housing" so many people are living in: no running water, no toilets, no electricity, no heat, no cooling, no WALLS, not enough clothing, certainly not available healthcare. So many children taking care of smaller children. So many mothers begging for food for their infants. India may be a developing nation but it has no conscience about how it treats its people. Absolutley horrid living conditons for the majority!

[dhakyash]

Uttar Pradesh is a predominantly poor area, if you go there you will see the poor-lots of poor. Agra and New Delhi have their problems too. but unlike what you say india is taking care of its people. poverty has gone from 98% to 27%. middle class has skyrocketed from 2% to 30% of the population and will reach 50% by 2025. running water, electricity and other amenities are available to many people in the country now and are only increasing in number. many indians are also moving back to india as a result of the economic boom. what you need to do is go to many parts of india, to get a real glimpse of the country-instead of just three.

[cattiej]

The people who have the GOLD are probably the ones who's companies are making the 85-95% of our Rx Medications that our Doctors percribe. Pitts comment made me disgusted that he said the rich outnumber the poor of India..this is a LIE...there are millions of poor people in India who have no running water, no toilets, very little food, poor sanitation and greedy politicans who take take take and give nothing in return. The rich people from India are sending poorly made steel, medicines and clothing to America...our own politicans including President Obama have done nothing to stop it. I was disgusted when President Obama had a special white tie dinner for the head of India..I don't remember his name but India are sending products by the thousands into our country...another selling of America...I would like to know how many of these companies are giving millions of dollars to political candidates of politicans who are already in office in Washington, D.C. It is scary to know that people and other countries are controling our elections and our government..President Eisenhower warned us about the Industrial Complex and the Military Complex taking over our country is we weren't careful...well, we the citizens have been asleep at the wheel and this what is happening...it really advanced with the Supreme Court approving the Super PAC...this will spell trouble and is devestitating for our country...it may be the ruin of our country as we know it....God Bless America because our politicans sure won't and haven't...they talk the talk but they don't walk the walk...they are greedy, lying people. I also agree that we should stop all foreign aid to India..Time for protests against our country sending ANY country aide, especailly when we have to borrow the money to loan to another country from China and India....

[erpicferl]

do they take off their gold just before they defecate in an open pit?

[commentingforyou]

With regards to the idea of worshiping GOLD, it is a great fallacy to believe it has intrinsic value since IT DOES NOT! What has true value is CLEAN AIR, A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, HARMONY AMONGST PEOPLE, NUTRIENT RICH SOIL, NUTRITIOUS FOOD, AND SO ON. The true measure of a GREAT NATION is not how much GOLD it has, but how HOW HAPPY ITS CITIZENS ARE LIVING. Are its CITIZENS living a HIGH QUALITY life? How about a KARMA INDEX DEAR PEOPLE and to those other GOLD WORSHIPING FIENDS? If there was a WORLD WAR NUCLEAR holocaust could you EAT your GOLD? No! I didn't think so. There is nothing redeeming about showing off how much material wealth you have. It earns no Karma points. What we should do is work for those Karma points. We'd have a much more harmonious society indeed, instead of the one up-man-ship system, which is so hardwired in our worldwide society. Why is there so much debt? Think about it. For APPEARANCES. At what cost has this come? We are still quite primitive. Dear worshiping GOLD FIENDS please EAT YOUR GOLD!! And work for your KARMA POINTS! You'll need them when you recycle back to earth to pay your karmic debt!

[commentingforyou]

With regards to the idea of worshiping GOLD, it is a great fallacy to believe it has intrinsic value since IT DOES NOT! What has true value is CLEAN AIR, A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, HARMONY AMONGST PEOPLE, NUTRIENT RICH SOIL, NUTRITIOUS FOOD, AND SO ON. The true measure of a GREAT NATION is not how much GOLD it has, but how HOW HAPPY ITS CITIZENS ARE LIVING. Are its CITIZENS living a HIGH QUALITY life? How about a KARMA INDEX DEAR PEOPLE and to those other GOLD WORSHIPING FIENDS? If there was a WORLD WAR NUCLEAR holocaust could you EAT your GOLD? No! I didn't think so. There is nothing redeeming about showing off how much material wealth you have. It earns no Karma points. What we should do is work for those Karma points. We'd have a much more harmonious society indeed, instead of the one up-man-ship system, which is so hardwired in our worldwide society. Why is there so much debt? Think about it. For APPEARANCES. At what cost has this come? We are still quite primitive. Dear worshiping GOLD FIENDS please EAT YOUR GOLD!! And work for your KARMA POINTS! You'll need them when you recycle back to earth to pay your karmic debt!

[EditorIR]

I coudln't believe my ears when Byron Pitt said, "With India a rising economic powerhouse, the number of rich and middle class families now outnumber the poor." This is a blatant lie. The majority of India's 1.2 billion people are poor, starving, living in city slums or rural village huts, without proper sanitation, even toilets, or clean water. I wonder how many more people like EasTNgal bought Mr. Pitt's lie about rich and middle class Indian families outnumbering the poor?

[dhakyash]

india is an economic powerhouse. it's economy is 3rd biggest in ppp terms and 9th biggest in gdp terms. by 2050 it could potentially have the biggest economy on earth, just like it did for most of human history. majority of people are poor but that's the case in any developing country. and majority of people aren't starving, if they were how could india support 1.2 billion population and counting? one of india's biggest problems in fact is fighting obsesity as 250 million indians are now overweight. most people live in villages-not slums. proper sanitation is arriving in india's 5 yr plan, where the govt is investing 500 billion in infrastructure-which is a lot of money.

[EditorIR]

I coudln't believe my ears when Byron Pitt said, "With India a rising economic powerhouse, the number of rich and middle class families now outnumber the poor." This is a blatant lie. The majority of India's 1.2 billion people are poor, starving, living in city slums or rural village huts, without proper sanitation, even toilets, or clean water. I wonder how many more people like EasTNgal bought Mr. Pitt's lie about rich and middle class Indian families outnumbering the poor?

[EastTNgal]

How do the people in India protect all their gold? Do they have security protecting them at these lavish weddings? Perhaps their legal punishment is so severe, the no one dares to steal! I will NOT send aid to the poor in India because that country has enough rich people to help their own poor, they just won't. And I'll encourage my congressmen & senators to stop all foreign aid to India. The USA is much poorer.