After election victories in West Bengal and Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has moved from electoral politics to economic mobilisation. When the Middle East conflict is driving crude oil up and keeping it above $100, his new fight is to save the rupee, and thus lighten inflation and fiscal pressures. India imports more than 80% of oil. His speech in Hyderabad on Sunday was effectively a wartime economic advisory aimed at reducing India’s import bill and protecting foreign exchange reserves at a moment when the country faces its sharpest external shock since the Covid years.