Rupee Tumbles to Record 95.33 to Dollar; I-PAC Director Released Day After Bengal Polls; India Falls Six Places to 157th Rank in RSF's Press Freedom Index
‘Goli maaro saalon ko’ apparently not criminal in New India; How India celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti while evading him; Mamdani revives complex question of Kohinoor's repatriation
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Snapshot of the day
April 30, 2026
Anirudh S.K.
Weighed down by the upward march of oil prices – Brent crude futures have hit a four-year high of $126.4 per barrel – and foreign investment outflows, but also hawkish signalling from some Federal Reserve officials, the rupee touched another all-time low on Thursday, falling to 95.33 to the dollar before closing at 94.91. This, notes Jaspreet Kalra, “has wiped out gains spurred by the [RBI’s] use of rare currency-supportive regulatory measures late last month”, and risks triggering a “negative feedback loop on foreign capital flows”. With the currency plumbing a new low, analysts anticipate that the RBI may be considering more regulatory action.
One of the measures the RBI had taken was to extend a special foreign exchange credit line through the SBI to state-owned oil refiners in order to reduce spot dollar purchases for oil imports. However these reluctant refiners have limited their use of the facility as “they expect the rupee to weaken further, which would raise their repayment burden”, Nimesh Vora and Nidhi Verma report citing sources. This too had fuelled concerns that the rupee would fall further.
The Nifty 50 and the Sensex rose 7.5% and 6.9% respectively in April, marking their best monthly run since December 2023, as the Iran ceasefire, “attractive valuations and an earnings season largely free of major negative surprises helped overpower record foreign outflows”, says Bharath Rajeswaran. Speaking of those outflows, the $20 billion that foreign investors pulled out of Indian equities in the first four months of this year – almost all of it after the US and Israel launched their war – is higher than the $18.9 billion they sold in all of last year, Rajeswaran and Pranav Kashyap report. FPI ownership in Indian equities in the March quarter also fell to a 16-year-low of 16%, while domestic investors raised their shareholding to a record 29%, according to Morgan Stanley.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the UAE and meet President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan in mid-May, reports say. The West Asia crisis, rising oil prices and, prominently, Abu Dhabi’s exit from OPEC and OPEC+ would form the background for such a trip.
Vinesh Chandel, founder and director of I-PAC, was granted bail today, one day after polling ended in West Bengal, in the Enforcement Directorate’s case against him in an alleged coal pilferage matter. The agency, which arrested him days ahead of the elections where I-PAC was managing the ruling Trinamool Congress’s campaign, did not oppose his plea for bail.
What are those people among the 27 lakh names left out of West Bengal’s voter rolls supposed to do now that the election is over? While two cases,
