Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday once again appealed to Indians not to travel abroad and refrain from buying gold.“Avoid organising destination weddings in foreign countries,” said Modi in a video posted from Kyrgyzstan. The prime minister is in the country for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.The multilateral forum comprises India, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran, and five nations from the Eurasian region.Modi had called for austerity in May as well, to withstand the economic headwinds created by the war in West Asia.He had urged the public to avoid non-essential foreign travel and destination weddings abroad for a year, saying that conserving foreign exchange reserves was “an act of patriotism”.The prime minister had also advised Indians to avoid non-essential gold purchases to reduce pressure on foreign exchange outflows.He repeated the appeal on Tuesday while congratulating the public on India’s gross domestic product in the April-June quarter growing at 7.8%. This surpassed the 7% forecast by the Reserve Bank of India for the quarter.Modi said that India was “progressing rapidly” despite global uncertainty, wars and disruptions in supply chains.— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 1, 2026