MUMBAI: Rallying for the fourth consecutive session, gold futures contracts expiring in August, October, and December on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) topped the Rs 1 lakh/10gram mark on Tuesday. In spot markets around the country, the precious metal was trading just under that mark.
The upsurge in the yellow metal’s rate came after its price in international markets crossed the psychologically important $3,500/ounce mark early in the day.
The rally was fuelled by a combination of factors, including growing fears about a showdown between US President Donald Trump and US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, global trade uncertainties, a weakening dollar, and central banks’ purchase of gold.

“The rally in gold prices continues to be fuelled by the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to cut interest rates immediately, despite growing pressure from Trump, who has been vocal about rate cuts,” said Jateen Trivedi of LKP Securities.
“This divergence has further enhanced gold’s appeal as a safe haven, pushing prices to fresh lifetime highs in both Comex and MCX.” However, with prices at record levels, intraday volatility is likely to persist, Trivedi cautioned.
According to Satish Dondapati of Kotak Mahindra MF, another reason for the recent rise in gold prices is the weakening US dollar and escalating global trade concerns.
Since globally gold is priced in dollars, a weak greenback means investors in other major currencies could buy the yellow metal cheaper.
Given gold’s haven character, global uncertainties-economic and geopolitical-help prices move north.
So far in 2025, the price of the yellow metal in the international market is up nearly 32%, while in the Indian market, the rise has been slightly lower, at 30%.
This is because of the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar this year.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the keynote address on ‘Laying the foundations for a developed India ‘ViksitBharat by 2047’, at the Hoover Institution in California, U.S., on April 22, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday (April 22, 2025) said India plans to increase the share of the manufacturing sector from 12% to 23% over the next two decades, aiming to create jobs and drive economic growth.

India is focussing on 14 identified sunrise sectors like semiconductors, renewable energy components, medical devices, batteries and labour intensive industries, including leather and textile, to enhance the share of manufacturing in GDP, she said while speaking at Hoover Institution at Stanford University California.

For India, she said, “scaling up manufacturing is essential to absorb a youthful workforce, reduce import dependencies and build competitive global supply chains”.

Observing that the world is undergoing a complete reset with regard to manufacturing in the view of industrial revolution 4.0, she said, India, too, is witnessing changes.

“In India’s GDP, the service sector’s contribution is about 64% and if that is one side, at the lower end, the gig economy’s growth is rapid. In fact, if 7.1 million people are in the gig economy today, as of 2021-22 data, we expect that to go to 230 million by 2030. That’s not manufacturing,” she said.

“So the service sector disproportionately contributes both to the GDP and to employment… but that’s not to say manufacturing should be left aside. We have been hoping to increase the contribution of manufacturing from 12% to about 22-23%,” she said, replying to a question as to what share of jobs the manufacturing sector will account for in the next decade, or by 2047.

The government has identified 14 sunrise sectors – semiconductors, renewable energy components, medical devices, hydrogen mission, batteries and so on in order to strengthen manufacturing and introduced the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote them.

PLI is being offered to sectors that also have greater employment potential like electronic goods and similarly labour intensive sectors like textile and leather.

Highlighting the importance of manufacturing sector, she said, it binds societies and lends cohesion to communities by providing employment opportunities and financial strength to communities.

For long-term growth, she said, manufacturing emerges as a key engine for transformation.

“Manufacturing has historically been a cornerstone of the economic transformation of nations from 19th century Britain to 21st century East Asia. It creates a forward and backward linkages, catalyses skilling and pushes demand for infrastructure and governance reforms,” she said.

On the recent tariff-related actions by the Trump administration in the U.S. and its impact on India, Ms. Sitharaman said when there is stability in government, consistency in policy, a predictability in tax regime, investments and growth can be planned and executed to a large extent.