Gold standard currency

KG Lohokare, MLA of Poona, has published a draft Bill to amend the present laws relating to Indian currency. He proposes to introduce it in the next session of the Legislative Assembly; it seeks to establish a gold standard currency in India. The question of currency reform in India has been discussed threadbare and the necessity of establishing a gold standard has been fully recognised, such differences of opinion as do exist, being confined only to the time and manner of effecting this change. Numerous complaints have been made against the present gold exchange standard, especially by Indian merchants and bankers, and they have pointed out how the fluctuations of exchange seriously injure the commercial and economic prospects of India. But the Government of India has been extremely conservative and has resisted the much-desired reform on various grounds. Lohokare’s Bill is the first of its kind; in the statement of objects and reasons, he explains the necessity for it. He points out how the introduction of a gold standard currency and free coinage of gold have been again and again urged since the Flower Committee made its recommendation in 1898, and various economists and other experts have expressed their opinion against the present conditions. His Bill lays down the gold standard as the basis of Indian currency with the free coinage of gold, which is to be the only legal tender, silver coins being only a limited legal lender.