The Age Of Stars

FX regime · 1 September 1975

Rupee moves from sterling peg to a basket peg

Ended the formal sterling link

ReportedOfficial record. Source: RBI

London gold / US gold · 6 January 1975

US Treasury gold auction (the prompt's "1974 gold auction")

2 mn oz offered; bids covered less than half; stop-out USD 153/oz against a London morning fix of USD 173/oz. A second sale on 1975-06-30 brought the total to 1.25 mn oz sold at USD 153–185/oz.

Not an Indian auction. I found no Indian government or RBI gold auction in 1974.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: TIME archive; U.S. Mint history; IMF F&D vol. 15 no. 1 (1978) "Gold market developments, 1975-77"

Political risk · 12 June 1975

Allahabad High Court voids Indira Gandhi's 1971 election (Raj Narain case)

Led directly to the Emergency.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: Allahabad HC judgment

Labour, prices, press · 25 June 1975

National Emergency declared (Art. 352, internal disturbance), lifted 1977-03-21

Strikes banned; price controls and anti-hoarding drives. Inflation fell sharply in 1975-76 after a good monsoon and monetary tightening.

Macro figures belong in the MACRO slice.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: Emergency proclamation; Frankel 2005

Official gold / London gold market · 31 August 1975

IMF Interim Committee gold agreement

Agreed to abolish the official gold price and dispose of 50 mn oz of IMF gold: 25 mn oz restituted to members pro rata to quota and 25 mn oz auctioned for the Trust Fund. Ratified in Jamaica 1976-01.

This is the only documented "1975 link" between the IMF and the gold market. It fed the 1976-80 auctions and the Trust Fund, not the oil facility. India, as a member, was due restituted gold pro rata to its quota. India's tonnage was not found.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: IMF "Gold in the IMF" factsheet; IMF History 1972-78 ch. 34

INR · 24 September 1975

Rupee moved from a sterling peg to an undisclosed basket peg

Weights not published. Sterling kept as the intervention currency.

Band and weights were at RBI discretion.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: MoSPI Statistical Year Book ch. 40; Wikipedia "Exchange rate history of the Indian rupee"

Emergency economic policy: Twenty-Point Programme

Announced 1975-07-01: land ceilings, debt moratoria for rural poor, price controls, action against smugglers…

Announced 1975-07-01: land ceilings, debt moratoria for rural poor, price controls, action against smugglers and tax evaders. A voluntary disclosure scheme for black income was launched in 1975. Import policy for industrial inputs was eased somewhat in 1975-77, and industry benefited from the ban on strikes. Scholars disagree whether this was a liberalising turn; recorded as neutral.

ReportedPeer-reviewed. Source: GoI 20-Point Programme text; Frankel (2005)

Rupee delinked from sterling; basket peg

From 1975-09-24/25 the rupee was set against an undisclosed basket of major trading partners' currencies

Sterling remained the intervention currency, so London continued to be the RBI's operating market. See FLASHPOINT.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: MoSPI Statistical Year Book ch. 40 "Exchange"; Wikipedia "Exchange rate history of the Indian rupee"

multiple (demolitions, forced sterilisation, detention, misuse of office)

Emergency-era abuses (Shah Commission)

Mostly abuse of power rather than money scams. Monetary items, including the Kuo oil deal, are spread across the reports and have not been extracted.

ReportedPress. Source: Wikipedia "Shah Commission"