Modi Urges Indians to Work From Home and Cut Foreign Travel as Iran War Deepens Energy Crisis

India’s energy squeeze has moved out of the oil markets and into homes, weddings and workplaces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged citizens to work from home, limit foreign travel and hold off on buying gold, as the Iran war keeps pushing fuel prices higher.

Speaking after months of disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, Modi appealed for public restraint. He asked Indians to conserve foreign exchange by using less fuel and fertiliser, travelling abroad less and buying less gold. India imports about 90 per cent of its oil and around half of its gas, which leaves the country badly exposed to global energy shocks.

The appeal is one of the clearest signs yet that the Iran conflict is not only a military and diplomatic crisis. It has become an economic shock now shaping daily life across Asia.

Modi’s call to work from home echoes the Covid years, but the reason this time is fuel conservation. He urged people to cut unnecessary travel, use public transport and carpool where they can.

The pressure starts in global oil markets. The International Energy Agency reported that world oil supply fell sharply in March, after attacks on energy infrastructure and restrictions on tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and called it the largest disruption in history.

For India, higher oil prices mean more dollars leaving the country, more pressure on the rupee and rising inflation risk. That is why the message has shifted from government policy alone to public behaviour.

Gold sits deep in Indian weddings, family savings and festive life. In a crisis it also turns into a foreign-exchange problem, because India imports large quantities and pays for them in foreign currency.

India has no current plan to raise import duties on gold and silver, even after Modi encouraged citizens to avoid buying gold for a year because of the economic hit from the Iran conflict.

That distinction matters. The government is not forcing people to stop buying gold through higher duties. It is signalling that private spending choices can affect national reserves during an oil shock.

India is not alone. Countries across Asia are hunting for fuel from other sources as Gulf supplies grow less reliable.

Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have been seeking Russian oil, while other Asian economies look to Africa, Latin America and the United States.

Japan, heavily reliant on Middle Eastern oil, has reportedly turned to more expensive US supplies. Pakistan and Sri Lanka are especially exposed, because fuel imports, subsidies and weak currencies leave them little room to absorb higher prices.

For Indian families in Australia, none of this is distant. It can move airfares, remittances, gold purchases, wedding budgets and the cost of goods travelling between India and Australia.

The Indian diaspora is now a major part of Australia’s economic relationship with India. DFAT’s report on Australia’s Indian diaspora calls the community one of Australia’s fastest-growing large diaspora groups, and notes that India has become one of Australia’s most significant strategic and economic partners.

So economic stress in India can flow into Australian households, travel businesses, education providers and community networks. Families planning weddings in India, parents travelling between the two countries, and small businesses tied to Indian trade could all feel it if oil prices stay high.

Modi’s appeal is unusual because it reaches into culturally sensitive ground, weddings, gold, foreign travel and the daily commute. In India these are not minor lifestyle choices. They are bound up with family status, aspiration and mobility.